Yes like Rangers fans wouldn't laugh at their rivals misfortunes.

Poor response Jagz, think about it. Lets stamp out sectarianism but anti englishness is fine, I gave up wanting England to get beat years ago. I was one who could not contemplate a repeat of 1966, but now, why not?

Scotland team to face Czech Republic: McGregor, Hutton, Caldwell, Berra, Bardsley, Naismith, Fletcher, Adam, Brown, Morrison, Miller.
Saturday 3rd Sept 2011.
Need to watch this wan!

Halftime score.
Scotland 1 Czech Republic 0.
Czechs missed two golden opportunities, and should have got a penalty.
Scotland have more possession on the ball but didnt look dangerous until right on halftime Kenny Miller put Scotland one up!
Its going to be very tough to maintain the lead in the second half, I think.

Scotland 2 Czech Republic 2.
Oh well, the Czechs deserved their draw.
Dont know why Levien subbed Bardsley and brought on young Danny Wilson?
Too many tip tap mistakes, the overall quality is not there in the Scotland team, wonder who the next Scotland coach will be? LoL
McGregor 6.5
Hutton 6
Caldwell 6
Berra 6.5
Bardsley 6.5
Adam 6.5
Naismith 6
Fletcher 6.5
Brown 6
Morrison 6
Miller 6.5

Surprised you never mentioned the obvious fact that the referee had a nightmare.

Thinking about a few of things about this game, more or less needing a win why do coaches play with the one man up front, in this case Levien playing Miller up front alone, mystery to me, and I would give Miller MOTM for his goal and assist.
Fletcher did well not having played for a longtime, but he along with others at the end of the game didnae clear their lines which led to the fake penalty.
Also the first goal by the Czechs I blame Brown and Naismith for screwing around tip tapping and losing the ball.
Brown at times did ok, but overall never a fitba player, Naismith he was off, did not go into tackles and was not good o verall.
Hutton now theres a joke, he has little equilibrium, falls a lot, McLeish of Aston Villa blew that signing,
Thought Berra looked no bad.

Morning all. Overall Ithought they were better than us and dont think we could have any complaints about the result. Although after our second goal i thought we would have held out. Cheers

Levein is a tumshie. How can you gain an essential win with one man up front ? I suppose he´ll play Spain with nobody in attack, as if it will make any difference. I think I will give my local a miss that night.

I thought the ref was a disgrace. He made numerous mistakes throughout the game, including the three penalty decisions. I noticed that Fletcher went to speak to him afterwards and he simply ignored the Scotland captain. Total arrogance from a guy who knew he'd had a howler. Pat Nevin was on the BBC highlights show later and he was absolutely raging about this guy's performance, and he's normally a very balanced interviewee. Kenny Miller played brilliantly as did Berra and Fletcher, but defensively we were poor. We should have held on to the ball in the last few minutes and took it down to their corner flag instead of punting the ball anywhere. Hard to take, but it seems we're done yet again.

I agree that the ref was a disgrace and I am sure he knows it now if he reads any of the newspaper reports about his work that afternoon.

Lithuania tonight.... and I am not so sure that we will get all three points with some of our best players missing.... but I really hope we do!!

I find it difficult to feel any enthusiasm for the national team these days, don't suppose it's helped by looking at photo's of the Scotland playing squad and not recognising some of them.

Nevertheless, I wish them well and (following the comments from the Lithuanian player) a victory one dive to nil will do fine

I agree Ash, hardly a well kent face among them, but i wish them good luck anyway. As an ex submariner i am sure Vladimir Romanov will have them well taught about diving. Just hope the refs better than saturdays one.

Well, I nearly got a prediction right. 1-0 will do, not much chance of qualifying but it helps with the co-efficient. That and Celtic's magnificent 6-0 aggregate victory in the last round of the UEFA cup

Well done Scotland.... a dreary game to watch but the three points were the important thing. I think two wins in our next two games might just see us through!!

First class goal, well done Scotland!

Impressed with the passing of the team, able to find teamate even under pressure.
Big improvement since the last time I saw them about a year ago.

Levein may have uncovered a couple of new young Scotland stars at first glance.....

U21`s Won 5-1, let`s hope the senior team can emulate them.

Spain have done us a big favour by beating the Czech Republic in Prague last night. It's up to Craig Levein's team to take advantage this evening. A win against Liechtenstein would see us leap-frog the Czechs into second place.
Dare we hope that we can pull it off without any slip-ups?

Lets hope we go for it Mathieson at least play a striker. Cheers.

Och guys, this is Scotland we are talking about. If everytthng goes to plan, we win tonight ten one of two things happen on Tuesday. We are drawing with Spain after 88 minutes and lose a goal or we beat Spain but the Czechs win by one more goal. it's the Scotland way

I will keep my fingers crossed for something remarkable to happen though

Czechs will win by one more goal, in the 90+5 minute, ash - but we'll go down fighting with a 1-0 win against Spain

Morning all. Hope im wrong but it looks set up for another gallant failure. Cheers

I see in the papers that Spain intend to rest their big stars for the game, in that case I think it is only right that Scotland do the same

Also impressed with passing game and ability to find a man.

Best Scotland team, playing style , kept their shape, I have seen for many a long year.

The team last night, DID appear to have a bit of width & depth for a change - and if it hadn't of been some good/fortunate positioning of their keeper, the result would have been much more emphatic.

It WOULD be nice to see us qualify for another tournament.
Getting really tired of England c***ing it up every couple of years.

C'mon Spain - roll over for us, on Tuesday night!

Davy, we are one point ahead of the Czechs, so we would reach the playoffs with your scenario. However i think Spain will beat us even if they field a weakened side as their squad players will be better than any of our first team and they will be trying to make a good impression with their boss.
Our only hope is that Lithuania can beat the Czechs, it is this game our hope's will hinge on.

would you like to give me a scoreline for the lithuania v czech game?
I fancy that to be good odds

0-3

I agree with Ash that the Czechs will win, maybe not by 0-3 but they have something to play for and Lithuania don't, hope i'm wrong though. But let's be honest if we hadn't dropped the two points at home to the Czechs we wouldn't have had to depend on someone else doing us a favour, same old story i guess.

Its no fair!

Spain wullnae gies the ba' !!!!!

LOL Suggestion from TV pundit ' weve just got to come out in the 2nd half and GO for it!'

Prepare fur a RIGHT 'gubbin.

1/2 time Spain 2 - 0 Scotland

Will somebody tell me why we continue to persevere with this 'wan up front
business, frae the kick aff??

In a game we HAD to win, it took us until we went 3-0 down, before we realised it was necessary to get the ball off our opponents. Result? We did actually compete for it, and avoid humiliation, in the last quarter.

(Well done ash - you forecast the Lithuania game - czechs to win by three!)

It was undoubtedly a bit of a lesson for our young team. However, if Leveine can keep them together then maybe they will be a stronger unit for the next qualifying campaign. Here's hoping.

I will be waiting for all the comments on here about our nation. I for one being an expat have to say this game has passed us by. It is not any managers fault how a team plays, u have to have talent and we dont. Tell me 1 just 1 world class player in Britain today. Gone are Baxter Jinky all the other English Irish and Welsh players gone. If there is any they have not been found yet. Last one i can think of is Giggs. A sorry state we are in. I recall back when Brazil won a couple of world cups they said the only player we had in Scotland that could make there team was Sammy Cox. We have learned nothing since. Even now some. Can only just get by beating towns not cities.

Matty, Scotland will never be a good side, unless they ditch this formation adopted by Walter Smith At Rangers.
One man up front is absolutely ridiculous.
Look at other teams in this competition and see for yourself how they attack.
Sorry Scotland, not good enough, you have proved that in this section against teams that you should have hammered, especially at Home.

Spain are a great side, no question, but why did we sit back quite so much? I think we gave them far too much respect and allowed them far too much time on the ball. Goodwillie wasted a great chance to square the ball for a tap in that would have brought the score to 3-2, and who knows what would have happened after that? We did not look like a side who went there with the express purpose of winning the game with one striker up front and we got what we deserved.
Not good enough Mr. Levein.

Pausing briefly to remove all the knives from Mr Leveine's back.....

.... (and I am no great admirer of him as a person but) I think he deserves a bit more time before we put the collective boot into him. We were playing the joint World & European Champions after all and the real damage was done in the earlier games when he was introducing new faces, evaluating them and formulating a formation.
I'll judge Leveine on how he and his squad perform in the qualifying rounds for the World Cup in Brazil next time around. I wish him well.

Have to agree with Mathieson, i have seen a big improvement in the team recently and even before yesterdays result we were out already.
We have a history of shooting ourselves in the foot and then blaming everybody but ourselves.
If we had beaten Spain I dont think we would have qualified anyway as we needed the other team to lose or draw.

The big difference between the top nations and Scotland is that they normally dont leave it to the last group game but have qualified long before that

Scotland are ten years behind when it comes to football.
Goodwillie all the hype will he or will he not go to Rangers.
The man was not so good a player with Dundee United, goes to Blackburn, scored ONE GOAL, been subbed a few times, yet he gets a game for Scotland.
Rangers much be thankfull they never signed this dud.
Absolutely pathetic.
Hutton is over the hill along with a few other incompetent players.
Sorry but Scotland's tactics reek of Smith's boring packing the defence.
You have to score goals to win games, and Scotland are lacking way behind in world football.
Spain fielded an under strengh side last night.
So where is Scotland now in the World Rankings?
Last time was 51, after last night expect it to go further down the pile.
Even Australia come in at 19.

Much has been said about the system Scotland play but they can only play the system that players are capable of. The "one up" game now is nothing like the "target man" system of the Brian Clough era, and it is played by almost every professional team on the planet. Playing two, or more up front, will not guarantee more goals. In fact it is more likely that good teams will exploit the extra space you have given them.

The whole point of the system is to condense play in as small an area as possible from back to front. If you watch last nights game again you will see that the Spanish moved forward and backwards as a unit with little more that 30 or 40 metres between the front and back players. This only works if you have players who are comfortable on the ball, have good ball skills, vision, mobility and , not least, talent. The Spanish (like Barca) play little balls, pass and move, to break down defences. They keep possession until an opportunity presents itself. When they lose the ball they all move back to close down space and deny the opposition room to play. The much maligned 1-4-6 system the Scots used against the Czechs was an attempt to get players of average ability to play the system.

Professional club teams can buy players to fit into their way of playing but Scotland will have to make do with what we have got. I think we have an improving squad of players but we do need a bit of consistency within the playing group for that to continue. Roll on the World Cup qualifiers

Excellent summation of the situation, Ashfield.

Post #291 ashfield verygood post.
I dont remember the countries that have very small populations, most of us know who they are when they play bigger country teams, having said that very rarely will they get historical results, some do since fitba began but as I said very rarely.
My point here is the opportunity of small countries having real good consistant teams in history are slim to none.
In this time in history there appears to be some improvement overall all in fitba regarding wee teams and it could be although I aint sure, like Scotland wee teams get players to play for them through grandparents etc. simply because their population just isnt big enough to produce talent that ashfield is referring too.
Also bigger countries have the historical ties to countries they in history conquered and ethnic groups immigrating there, England, France, Holland, and others, giving them additional opportunities to gather quality talent over and above their larger population.
As ashfield mentions big money talent etc. has that great influence in teams quality as a team on the park.
Scotland did no bad at times in the Spain game, but goodness bloody gracious the talent displayed by Spain and the percentage of posssesion, was almost like a training session for them.
Levein I think has done fairley well with what he has had to work with, including players from lower leagues.
Scotland would improve if they played fitba at a better weather time in the year, I sure dont know how this could be achieved or worked out, the winter conditions are not conducive to comfortable developement of fitba period, enjoyment, comfort, control, teamwork, overall skill on the ball.
We all can remember our past at times, and some of us playing in games we remember, one game I will always remember but not in great detail, it was a Juvenile Scottish cup game against a Stirling team, we played on one of the fields in Mountblow Dalmuir, well the week before the park was soggy wet and muddy, then the week after we played the Scottish cup game and the park had frozen over, well it was like playing on corrigated iron, the ball bounced all over the place, virtually impossible to control the baw.

The Republic of Ireland Population? 4,239,848 have been seeded for Thursday's Euro 2012 play-off draw, Uefa has announced. To face one of the following

Bosnia-Hercegovina 3,843,126
Estonia 1,340,122
Montenegro 625,266

One of them WILL go through to the knockout competition.

Talking about small countries - what about Holland? Pop 6,065,459
World Cup Runners up - twice - one third place

SCOTLAND? 5,222,100

So much for the population excuse!

Quite right, wee man - but you´ve missed 10 million Netherlanders .

The big difference imo between class teams and scottish teams is the first touch. Invariably a class player will kill the ball stone dead or get it into the position he wants this gives him an extra second to think of his next move. With most Scottish players the ball bounces half a yard away and their next move is getting it back under control. Whether our clubs dont put enough emphasis on ball work i dont know but this aspect of our game could certainly be improved. Cheers.

I think looking at just population is too simple, if that was the measure the China would be the top team in the world.

There has been a steady decline in the number of youngsters taking an interest in football in Scotland. My take on why (sorry, I think we have discussed this before) would be the decline in schools football, teachers are reluctant to take on the additional unpaid duties (and why should they) and the days of "jannies" taking the school team are long gone. I've said this before, my school had 3 teams at under 15 level playing regular games against other schools. If you went to any of the puplic football parks on a saturday morning or afternoon there was game on every pitch, not any more. There are too many other competing activities for kids not to mention the cost of accessing the facilities, strips and travelling. If you look at the number of teams competing at amateur level there has also been a decline, some of the best leagues had up to 7 devisions, now it's more likely to be 2 or 3. My goodness, when was the last time you saw kids playing a bounce game of football in the local park?

I understand the SFA are trying to promote football at ground level but there has been such a societal change in Scotland that I fear it will be many generations before that will bear fruit.

Your bang on, ash.

Or another way of looking it - is take a look at the sporting infrastructure (especially with regard to Footie), in Spain, Germany & the Netherlands

(well spotted bilbo, btw I did miss a '1' from Hollands population!).

Spain realised, only 10-15 years ago, to copy their pedigree neighbours, (as did France), and look where their investment got them.

Its the old story - you only get out, what your prepared to put in.

Beats me where those clubs get most of the revenue, as their countries are facing economic disaster.
High unemployment, yet the stadiums are packed to the rafters.