Scotland v Liechtenstein & Spain

[CaleyD]

The club passed on the attached PDF file which they thought may be of interest to some people.

Lots of stats, facts and info that might generate some interesting discussion.

Vauxhall Media Bulletin - Scotland vs Liechtenstein and Spain.pdf

[Yngwie]

Hadn't realised that Mario Frick has scored more international goals (16) than Kenny Miller or any other current Scottish player. In fact he's scored more than the entire Scotland team added together. Edit to add - thought he was injured but he's in the starting line-up.

Teams that have failed to beat Liechtenstein in recent years include Portugal, Latvia, Finland and Lithunia (twice in this campaign).

I'd expect us to win this one 2-0 before failing gloriously at the final hurdle.

Edited October 8, 2011 by Yngwie
Corrction

[Ten4]

pretty awful show - but still got a chance- all hopes rest on Lithuania now for sure !

[Yngwie]

Aye, can't see us getting anything from Spain. They are the best international team I have seen in my lifetime. From what I saw of their game in Prague it was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters.

[TopSix]

Saturday night was like playing Elgin. Tuesday will be like playing Barca.

[ilpadrino]

Aye, can't see us getting anything from Spain. They are the best international team I have seen in my lifetime. From what I saw of their game in Prague it was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters.

More handballs than Georgios Samaras?

[Renegade]

Was anyone else impressed by the Liechtenstein number 9 (Beck?)? Thought he looked a good player.

[Scotty]

the math is simple now, even if the task is not .... we need to beat the Spaniards !

Czechs now 0-2 up in Lithuania courtesy of a 2nd minute penalty converted by Kadlec and a 16th minute Rezek goal.

[Scotty]

2-0 in both games now .... unless us or the Lithuanians score 3 its all over !

[starchief]

It might seem as though we fell at the last hurdle but we didn't. Scotland was out if the Czechs won. Spain in Spain was never going to work. Although it was the wrong tactic, I can't even blame Levein for the 4-6-0 in Prague. After Burley, we were a shadow of the side we could be. We now have a young team that can battle. That's a big step up. It's still a big, but not impossible, ask for the world cup. With Burley, we had no chance. Now, no-one can expect an easy game. And, with the players ages, we're just going to improve all the time.

[Scotty]

It might seem as though we fell at the last hurdle but we didn't. Scotland was out if the Czechs won. Spain in Spain was never going to work.

Tall order though it would of been, even miraculous against the best footballing side in the world, we were a point ahead of the Czechs going into this fixture so we did - technically - fall at the final hurdle .... however, I do agree that qualification was not lost tonight, it was lost in Kaunas, in Prague and courtesy of Mr Blom at Hampden Park last month.

I didnt have the benefit of seeing tonight's game but more recently, I do believe we are improving and getting at least some passion back .....

[Alex MacLeod]

World Cup qualifying to look forward to now in the company of Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Macedonia and Wales.

[+DoofersDad]

I think Levein is doing a decent job and this is going to be a very interesting group. Croatia are not as good as they were and Wales are getting better. As a result there is no standout team in the group nor are there any whipping boys. All teams are perfectly capable of taking points off all the other teams and unless one team really comes good then it could go down to the wire with 3 or 4 sides in contention. IMHO this is as good an opportunity for Scotland to qualify for the World Cup as they've had for many years.

Without the distraction of the European Championships there is an opportunity to get a group of players together and work with them to get a real focus. Whilst Scotland are never going to be anywhere near as good as Spain they will have learnt some real lessons from their 2 matches against the World Champions. First is that they have nothing to fear from anybody. Second is that up against good sides you've got to get at them and disrupt their rythmn. Scotland had good spells in both matches and worried them when they got the opportunity to press. But to me, the most important is that they need to understand each other more. The Spaniards almost instinctively knew where their team mates were in their slick passing movements and that can only be acheived with a good understanding of what the team is trying to do collectively and individually. By contrast Scotland were always looking to see where players were to pass to and therefore would dwell too long on the ball and either get caught or end up playing a hurried ball or a pass which was easy to read.

There will no doubt be all sorts of debate in the next couple of years about who the best players are, but to me the key thing is for Levein to decide soon who should be in the squad and then stick with them and mould them into a team. He's fashioned decent sides from ordinary players at club level and If he can do that at international level then I see no reason why Scotland can't earn a trip to Brazil.

[davie]

Just back from Alicante, had a much required kip and thought I'd post. Quite a brilliant game. Spain were simply unbelievable and it was a real pleasure to watch Xavi, Silva etc. There's no way Scotland could have done any more (well, maybe Goodwillie could have squared the ball instead of lashing it just after the penalty) but it was fantastic. Spaniards were great fans too so a quality footie experience.

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

I cant believe the over-reaction to a thumping from Spain , you'd have thought we'd won ! Timid display IMHO . I reckon we'll be lucky to avoid bottom spot in our World Cup qualifying group .

[lukemackay]

I cant believe the over-reaction to a thumping from Spain , you'd have thought we'd won ! Timid display IMHO . I reckon we'll be lucky to avoid bottom spot in our World Cup qualifying group .

realy?? could you be anymore negative??

big deal we lost to spain we also managed to come from 2 -0 down against them at hampden yes we lost but so many countries have struggled to score one against spain never mind 2.

we have been cheated out of this euro campaign by incompetetince from a certain dutchsman, when we look back at this campaign thats whats cost us we missed out by 2 points we should have got 3 points against the czechs at hampdeninstead of 1

croatia, serbia, belgium, montenegro, and wales if we dont get 12 points from montenegro and wales that would be disapointing belgium could prove a tough test but is winnable as are croatia and belgium i dont see any reason why we cant go to brazil

[Yngwie]

Perhaps our only hope against Spain was for them to have called up Golobart.

[dead_ball_specialist]

Leveins cry of progress bears little hard evidence, Stephen Halliday

PROGRESS, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is development towards an improved or more advanced condition. According to Craig Levein, it is what Scotland have achieved under his guidance during the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.

But this morning, Scotland find themselves in a place which looks and feels depressingly familiar. Third place in Group I, with just three wins from the eight matches played, can hardly be regarded as firm evidence of the kind of improvement and advancement suggested by the manager.

George Burley also oversaw three victories from eight games during the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign as Scotland limped to a third place finish in their group behind Netherlands and Norway. In trailing behind Spain and the Czech Republic this time around, albeit with a point more than two years ago, Levein can scarcely be said to have done significantly better than his predecessor.

Like Burley, he went into the last match of the campaign hoping for an unlikely victory against the top seeded nation in the group to salvage a place in the play-offs. Last nights 3-1 defeat in Spain was no less surprising and no more deserving of criticism than the 1-0 Hampden loss suffered against the Dutch.

Scotland were predictably outclassed by the world champions who have dissected the defences of far better teams in the manner they did with David Silvas superbly struck double and David Villas equally deadly finish.

But although it took until the finale of Group I for Czech Republic to confirm their presence in tomorrows play-off draw in Krakow at Scotlands expense, the most telling damage was sustained at the outset. In dropping five points from their first three games, Scotland were left playing a game of catch-up which was always likely to prove beyond them.

Leveins assertion that he didnt know the players at his disposal well enough, or what system to deploy them in, during those opening assignments is more than a little bewildering. One of his staunchest defenders in the media even offered the curious view recently that had the SFA dispensed with Burleys services sooner, rather than allowing him to oversee the friendly defeats against Japan and Wales in autumn 2009, then Levein would have been better able to lay the foundations for a successful Euro 2012 campaign.

But Levein, appointed on 23 December 2009, had more than eight months to prepare for the task ahead. Notwithstanding his own decision to play just two friendly matches in that time, the 1-0 defeat of the Czechs at Hampden in March 2010 and the somewhat shambolic 3-0 defeat in Sweden five months later, it is difficult to credit he was so uncertain of his squads capabilities when Group I got underway.

It was not, after all, as if he radically reshaped the pool of players used by Burley in the previous qualification campaign. Seven of Leveins starting line-up in Alicante last night were all regulars under his predecessor Allan McGregor, Alan Hutton, Gary Caldwell, Christophe Berra, Darren Fletcher, James Morrison and Steven Naismith. But for injury, two more of Burleys mainstays, Scott Brown and Kenny Miller, would also have been named by Levein against Spain.

The qualities of all of those players, their strengths and weaknesses, have surely been apparent to anyone involved in coaching or management at the higher echelons of Scottish football for several years now.

It is why Leveins lack of boldness at the start of the Group I journey constitutes such a lingering stain on his tenure. The insipid 0-0 draw against Lithuania in Kaunas was the first evidence of the lack of conviction which underpinned his almost universally derided decision to deploy the cringeworthy 4-6-0 formation in Prague the following month.

The powerful sense that the 1-0 defeat against a demonstrably mediocre Czech side would haunt the Scots has proved correct. Levein, who remains defiant in his belief the tactics used in Prague were justifiable, will instead point to last months 2-2 draw at home to the Czechs as the pivotal stage of the campaign.

Jan Rezeks double for Michal Bileks side in their 4-1 win against Lithuania in Kaunas last night would only stoke the sense of injustice burning within Levein who felt the striker should have been serving a suspension for his act of simulation which earned the penalty at Hampden which denied Scotland victory.

Dutch referee Kevin Blom, who also refused Scotland a stoppage time spot-kick in similar circumstances when Christophe Berra tumbled theatrically at the other end, is another convenient scapegoat which it comes to apportioning blame for failure to progress to next summers finals in Poland and Ukraine.

When the action kicks off in Warsaw on 8 June, Scotland will be on the outside looking in for a seventh successive major finals. While many Tartan Army foot soldiers will still be cursing Rezek and Blom, there is an equally sizeable contingent who consider Levein just as culpable for the national teams latest disappointment.

The trio of wins yielded from his first campaign were all achieved by a single goal margin. Two of them were against tiny Liechtenstein, the first in excruciating fashion at Hampden with a 97th minute winner; the other at home to a low-grade Lithuania.

Ahead of a 2014 World Cup qualifying group which sees Scotland pitted against Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Macedonia and Wales, Leveins definition of progress, which he described as enormous improvement last night, is not easy to share.

Source

Edited October 16, 2011 by dead_ball_specialist

[Sorted]

Enjoyed my trip to Alicante.

Beautiful football, beautiful women, fantastic bars and the best support there is.

Pity that those in charge of our game don't seem to have a clue.......................

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

I cant believe the over-reaction to a thumping from Spain , you'd have thought we'd won ! Timid display IMHO . I reckon we'll be lucky to avoid bottom spot in our World Cup qualifying group .

realy?? could you be anymore negative??

big deal we lost to spain we also managed to come from 2 -0 down against them at hampden yes we lost but so many countries have struggled to score one against spain never mind 2.

we have been cheated out of this euro campaign by incompetetince from a certain dutchsman, when we look back at this campaign thats whats cost us we missed out by 2 points we should have got 3 points against the czechs at hampdeninstead of 1

croatia, serbia, belgium, montenegro, and wales if we dont get 12 points from montenegro and wales that would be disapointing belgium could prove a tough test but is winnable as are croatia and belgium i dont see any reason why we cant go to brazil

You think we'll get 12 points from Montenegro and Wales ? What planet are you living on ?

[lukemackay]

I cant believe the over-reaction to a thumping from Spain , you'd have thought we'd won ! Timid display IMHO . I reckon we'll be lucky to avoid bottom spot in our World Cup qualifying group .

realy?? could you be anymore negative??

big deal we lost to spain we also managed to come from 2 -0 down against them at hampden yes we lost but so many countries have struggled to score one against spain never mind 2.

we have been cheated out of this euro campaign by incompetetince from a certain dutchsman, when we look back at this campaign thats whats cost us we missed out by 2 points we should have got 3 points against the czechs at hampdeninstead of 1

croatia, serbia, belgium, montenegro, and wales if we dont get 12 points from montenegro and wales that would be disapointing belgium could prove a tough test but is winnable as are croatia and belgium i dont see any reason why we cant go to brazil

You think we'll get 12 points from Montenegro and Wales ? What planet are you living on ?

Why couldn't we?? Wales have bale, bellamy and Ramsey bur apart from that their team is average

Montenegro Arnt great either yeh they got 2 points from England but Arnt better than us why couldn't we get 12 points from Wales and montenegro?

Their is no reason why we can't get through to the world cup

[Yngwie]

Would this be a good time to point out that Montenegro aren't even in our group?

[ICTPaisley]

Would this be a good time to point out that Montenegro aren't even in our group?

Yeah i was going to point that out too but just thought i'd leave it. Macedonia are thankfully a bit easier than Montenegro but i still think away they can be quite tricky.

[lukemackay]

Would this be a good time to point out that Montenegro aren't even in our group?

Yeah i was going to point that out too but just thought i'd leave it. Macedonia are thankfully a bit easier than Montenegro but i still think away they can be quite tricky.

montenegro, macedonia they were all the same country at one point or another

tricky but winable as every game in this group will be

Edited October 17, 2011 by lukemackay

[Sorted]

At the present time under the great sage Levein even in a group containing Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Faroes and Jersey I doubt whether every game would be 'winable'.

I hear Levein now - "St Helier is 'a difficult place to go to' (technically not true as Fly Be go direct to Jersey from Inverness!) and 'there is no such thing as an easy game in international football these days' (also untrue as shown by the results of those that can play football)" "Whatever team I play it will be about what we can do not the opposition (I sense a 4-6-0 coming....)"