Welcome back to my Championship Manager 99/00 challenge with the Scotland national team. Last time round, I began to rebuild the team after our failure to qualify for Euro 2000 – and now it’s time to find out if that work has reaped its rewards.
I’m subtitling this article “2001: A Scotland Odyssey”. I don’t like to exaggerate, but if today’s story sees the Tartan Army successfully qualify for the 2002 World Cup, it would surely rival even Arthur C Clarke’s greatest epic fiction.
More likely, though, is that it’ll end in the sort of British ultra-violence you’d expect from another classic Stanley Kubrick film.
FEBRUARY 2001
Normal service resumed in the Scottish Premier League early in 2001, with Motherwell’s inevitable dip in form allowing Celtic to hit the top. Rangers were way off the pace and replaced manager Dick Advocaat with some other Dutchman named Ruud Gullit.
Manchester United thrashed Corinthians 6-0 to retain the Club World Championship. They were also holding off Liverpool and Arsenal at the top of the Premiership, though this season’s title race was set to be more competitive than the last.
United were also adjusting to life without superstar David Beckham, who moved to Milan (much to Posh’s delight) after joining Internazionale for £16million. Sir Alex Ferguson duly forked out £9.5million for his replacement – Celtic’s Darren Anderton. Obviously.
Meanwhile, Scotland began the year having won two out of three World Cup qualifiers (a strike rate that would impress Meat Loaf). We hadn’t yet played group leaders Spain, though, so our matches against La Furia Roja – and April’s home meeting with Denmark – would be crucial in determining our fate.
Before facing the big two, we played host to a pointless Cyprus side. I’m not just deriding them because they lost their first three games; I mean there is literally no point in them being here! Even their star striker Mihalis Konstantinou – the CM01/02 cult icon – is useless on this version of the game!
Anyway… I’d better reveal my squad now before I fall even deeper into hubris:
GOALKEEPERS: Robert Douglas, Jon Gould, Neil Sullivan
DEFENDERS: Russell Anderson, Matt Elliott, Colin Hendry, Dominic Matteo, Brian McAllister, Jackie McNamara, Gary Naysmith, David Weir
MIDFIELDERS: Craig Burley, Colin Cameron, John Collins, Barry Ferguson, Stephen Glass, David Hopkin, Willie Howie, Don Hutchison, Allan Johnston, Paul Lambert, Phil O’Donnell
FORWARDS: Marc Anthony, Mark Burchill, Billy Dodds, Lee McCulloch
There was no Tom Boyd, as the 35-year-old defender had lost his regular starting place at Celtic. Neil McCann was also out, having torn his groin muscle in Rangers’ 2-0 win over Livingston. McCann’s misfortune meant a recall for rival O’Donnell, who – as you can see – had been in unbelievable form for Sheffield Wednesday.
Unbelievably poor form, that was. Admittedly, we had a serious lack of depth in this department. Put it this way: Scotland’s best left-wingers were Stephen Glass (averaging 6.11 for Newcastle), John Robertson (retired since 1986), and Henry McLeish (First Minister).
Oh yeah, and Allan Johnston. To be honest, I keep forgetting about Allan, even though he’s starting ahead of Jérôme Rothen on the left for Liverpool.
After some disappointing results with the flat 4-4-2, I’d now adopted its narrow diamond variant as my go-to system. If you know me, you’ll know that I love a diamond.
SCOTLAND 5-0 CYPRUS (2002 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 4)
How about that! 18-year-old Howie announced himself on the international stage with a 17th-minute howitzer. His midfield colleague Ferguson got a second goal just 11 minutes later.
Howie also set up an early second-half finish for Burchill, who then doubled his tally in the 76th minute. Ferguson matched the youngster’s brace two minutes from time to complete a five-star rout – from 20 shots on target. If Nicos Panayiotou hadn’t produced several blinding saves in the Cypriot goal, we honestly could’ve reached double figures.
Though we were now Group 8’s top scorers (with 11 goals from 4 games), we remained 3rd. Leaders Spain had beaten Macedonia 3-2 to stay three points clear, while Denmark saw off Malta by the same score to remain above us on head-to-head.
MARCH 2001
Our next destination was Barcelona… but not the Nou Camp. Instead, we headed off to the Olímpico de Montjuïc – Espanyol’s home ground – for arguably our most difficult fixture in the group.
Even without the suspended Luis Enrique and Joseba Etxeberria, or the injured Raúl, Spain’s team was still a fearsome one. If you were José Antonio Camacho, and you could field a strikeforce of Fernando Morientes and Kiko against an ageing Colin Hendry, you’d probably fancy your chances too.
Initially, I only made one change to my squad, with Blackburn defender Christian Dailly returning to the fold in place of the injured McAllister. However, we would also lose McCulloch and O’Donnell in the build-up, which meant call-ups for two new faces.
Before he became a Conservative politician, Prime Minister and Travelodge advert puppet, David Cameron was a prolific lower-league goalscorer. After netting 24 goals for English Division 1 side Reading, the 25-year-old former serviceman was called up to the Tartan Army for the first time. (Just don’t tell anybody that Dave was actually born in Wales.)
Opportunity also knocked for Dundee United’s tireless left-winger Tony Smith. Aged 27, Smith had enjoyed a mid-career surge with the mid-table Terrors.
As ever, the Under-21s did battle a day before the seniors. Aberdeen keeper Ryan Esson was outstanding as our young Scots kept a clean sheet against a Spanish side which had Iker Casillas in goal, Carles Puyol at right-back, and Mikel Arteta in midfield. I’m not sure why I mentioned those three specifically, ‘cos I doubt they’ll ever amount to much…
SPAIN 0-1 SCOTLAND (2002 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 5)
Marc Anthony, on the other hand, is surely destined for world stardom! Having survived a barrage of first-half attacks from the Spanish armada, we looked to hit them on the break in the second half. Anthony hit the woodwork in the 48th minute, but the Motherwell striker went one better 20 minutes later, taking on Lambert’s chipped pass before powering it home.
La Furia Roja tried almost everything to get back in the game, but not even substitute Diego Tristán could find a way through a stubborn Scots defence. Our midfield general Fergie had also made quite the impression in Spain, as you can see:
Having pulled off the best result of my tartan tenure, we had blown Group 8 wide open, with the top three all on 12 points apiece. New leaders Denmark’s visit to Hampden Park in April had just become even more significant.
APRIL 2001
By the time the Danes came to town, the defence which had superbly shut out Spain had been decimated. McNamara and Weir were both suspended, left-back Matteo had strained his groin, and Celtic’s holding midfielder Lambert had pulled his in the Old Firm derby.
Despite his advancing years, I didn’t hesitate in bringing Tommy Boyd back, neither did I in recalling McAllister (Brian, that is, not Gary). Aberdeen left-back Derek Whyte came back in from the cold, as did – for the first time in three years – Blackburn anchor man Billy McKinlay.
In midfield, Johnston’s dodgy knee was good news for his ex-Sunderland colleague Alex Rae. McCann’s return to fitness allowed me to discard Glass, while a shoulder injury sidelined Collins on the eve of the Denmark game. Up front, ‘Call Me Dave’ Cameron stepped down for a fit-again McCulloch.
SCOTLAND 0-1 DENMARK (2002 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 6)
Yep… it was one of those games. Denmark put their noses ahead in the ninth minute, when Peter Møller outjumped old man Hendry to head Miklos Molnar’s free-kick into the net.
After that, the Nordic warriors dug their heels in and defended with all the might you’d expect from a team with Thomas Gravesen in it. Our strikers also came up against a world-class goalkeeper in… erm, Morten Hyldgaard. Who’s second-choice at Coventry.
Meanwhile, Spain were ruthless against Malta, with Zaragoza striker Juanele netting four times in a 7-1 rout. That left us three points adrift of the top two. Any further mistakes would surely be fatal.
JUNE 2001
Motherwell’s fairytale never came to pass. Though Anthony won the SPL’s Golden Boot with 25 goals, Billy Davies’ side saw their title charge disintegrate as they limped home in 5th. Celtic retained the championship with four games to spare (even after John Barnes legged it to Tottenham), with Rangers finishing 16 points behind in 2nd.
Manchester United secured a third straight Premiership title with some comfort, though runners-up Arsenal beat them to the FA Cup on penalties. Bryan Robson got his boyhood club Newcastle relegated, and Chelsea were lucky to avoid a similar fate.
Barcelona kept the Champions League trophy in Spanish hands, beating Ajax 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Rome. The UEFA Cup went to Monaco, thanks to Manel’s extra-time winner against 10-man Porto.
Oh… and Fiorentina won their first Serie A scudetto since 1969, with Juventus missing out on Europe after finishing 9th. I like this alternate universe.
Before our players went off on their summer holidays, we had a potentially tricky game in Skopje against 4th-placed Macedonia to concern ourselves with.
Sadly, Howie was out with a neck strain, and Anderson with a groin strain. I asked four other players from the previous squad – Dailly, Dodds, Elliott and Whyte – to step aside. Johnston, Lambert, McNamara and Weir were recalled, and they would be joined by a couple of younger players who’d enjoyed excellent seasons.
After bagging 21 goals for mid-table St Johnstone, 22-year-old John Paul McBride was rewarded with his first senior international call-up. Also making the squad was 25-year-old Hearts captain Kevin James – a 2ft beast of a centre-back who’d just been named in the SPL’s Team of the Year. Could these new boys make an immediate impression?
MACEDONIA 0-4 SCOTLAND (2002 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 7)
Erm… kind of. To be honest, we were awful in the first half. Macedonia’s Under-21s had held our youngsters to a goalless draw, and for a long time, it looked the big boys would do the same.
One half-time rollicking later, and it was all change. Two minutes after the restart, Burchill controlled a delightful long pass from Scottish Player of the Year Ferguson before smashing it home. Johnston and Anthony then came off the bench to score midway through the half, with the latter even striking again in stoppage time.
We were now only one point adrift of Spain and Denmark, who’d drawn 1-1 in Copenhagen. Despite having captain Josep Guardiola sent off, La Furia Roja held on for the point that ensured they would have a head-to-head advantage on the Danes.
SEPTEMBER 2001
Fergie wasn’t the only Scottish midfielder to have a change of scenery for the new season. Ipswich might have been relegated to Division 1, but Howie stayed in the Premiership after Wimbledon bought him for £7million. Hutchison did take a step down, on the other hand, joining Portsmouth on a free from Everton.
Meanwhile, FIFA announced that England would host the 2006 World Cup. Of course, next year’s finals would be a little further away from home, and we faced a race against time to book our tickets to South Korea and Japan.
Next up was a home game against Malta, followed by a trip to Cyprus. Think of them as gentle warm-ups before the big finale against Spain in October.
Anderson and Howie were recalled, with Boyd and Burley dropping out. I also ditched Colin Cameron in favour of 21-year-old Jamie McKenzie, who’d taken his right-wing place at Hearts and was now doing the same at international level. Sadly, Matteo’s hopes of a return were scuppered when he broke his jaw.
SCOTLAND 5-2 MALTA (2002 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 8)
Forget about Mars bars – the Scots deep-fried Maltesers in a stunning first-half display! Captaining the Tartan Army on just his second cap, James marked the occasion with TWO goals from centre-back. Maybe Hendry’s days are numbered after all…
Burchill had started the rout with a 3rd-minute strike from a through-ball by Anthony, who finished it half an hour later after McCann had broken his Scotland duck. Jarno Manai had got one goal back for Malta in the meantime, but we still went into the break with a commanding 5-1 lead.
Just a shame we couldn’t keep it up in the second half. The Falcons put up more of a fight after the break, even winning the half when Hubert Suda headed in a Nicky Saliba corner four minutes from time. Meh.
Spain also hit five (without conceding) against Cyprus, while Denmark laboured to a 1-0 win over Macedonia. Our fate was still out of our hands, but we now had to concentrate on winning our last away game in Nicosia while hoping for a surprise elsewhere.
CYPRUS 1-6 SCOTLAND (2002 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 9)
[WARNING: Terrible pun below. Proceed with caution.]
If anyone can, Neil McCann! The 27-year-old went berserk in the first half, unravelling a flimsy Cypriot defence with strikes in the 9th, 20th, 31st and 40th minutes! Anthony then converted a square ball from McKinlay late on to send us into the break 5-0 up!
At that point, we took pity on Cyprus, who’d lost their left-back Dimitris Ioannou to a twisted knee. Our defenders charitably allowed Marios Agathoclous to grab a consolation goal in the 57th minute.
Then we realised… actually, goal difference really could make the difference in a tight group. Anthony got his second and our sixth goal midway through the half, and when an offside call in stoppage time denied Marc a hat-trick, his furious reaction earned him a booking.
We’d done our bit, but expecting Malta or Macedonia to take points off either Denmark or Spain was always going to lead to disappointment. That left the group table looking like this:
Our situation was now clear. If we beat Spain at Hampden, we would advance to the play-offs – or maybe even qualify automatically as group winners if Cyprus produced a miracle in Copenhagen. A draw or a defeat, however, would end our World Cup hopes.
OCTOBER 2001
Before my biggest game yet, I took arguably my biggest gamble yet. Hendry and his luscious blond locks got the chop, having made just one substitute appearance in Rangers’ opening fixtures of the new campaign. At 35 years old, our stalwart captain’s legs had finally gone, and Elliott came back to replace him.
Rae had also been frozen out at Sunderland, which meant Burley was back in the picture too. Dundee’s in-form 24-year-old striker Michael Craig got his first call-up after McCulloch’s slow start to the season at Motherwell.
Oh, and Gould strained his knee ligaments, leaving a vacancy in goal. Andy Goram couldn’t get a game for Motherwell these days (to be fair, he’s 74 years old now), so Alan Combe of Dundee United got the nod instead.
Mind you, it might not be long before Esson is in senior contention. He shut out Spain’s Under-21s again, surviving a host of chances from Pablo (the future Ipswich icon) and José Antonio Reyes as the young Jocks drew 0-0.
Of course, a similar result wouldn’t be good enough for the seniors. We had to go for the win, which meant I stuck with the goal-tastic diamond formation instead of the flat 4-4-2 that had ground out a 1-0 in Barcelona. High-risk, for sure, but would we get our reward?
SCOTLAND 3-1 SPAIN (2002 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 10)
And this, lassies and laddies, is why tiki-taka will never catch on! Scotland’s high-pressing passing game was too much for Spain as we registered 10 shots at goal before they first tested Sullivan. Our Glaswegian Galactico was irresistible in midfield, as Ferguson’s through-ball set up Burchill’s opener in the 26th minute before he assisted McCann on the stroke of half-time.
A 2-0 half-time lead over Spain was beyond even our wildest dreams. Sure enough, Fergie’s new best mate Raúl brought us down a peg by pulling a goal back four minutes into the second half.
Our dream then turned into a nightmare in the 67th minute, as La Roja unleashed all their Furia. Substitute midfielder Bittor Alkiza picked out the run of Atlético Madrid forward Juan Carlos Valerón, who rocketed the ball into the top corners. However, one of the linesmen had spotted that Raúl was blocking Sullivan’s view from an offside position, and so the goal was called back.
Feeling relieved, we took the game back to Spain and finished them off in the 81st minute. McCann lifted a corner towards new captain James, who outjumped Edu Alonso to send Hampden wild!
Obviously, Cyprus never stood a chance against Denmark, who won 5-0 to top the group. Let’s now look at that final Group 8 table, which will surely confirm that Scotland are in the play-offs…
No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you! I honestly wasn’t aware of this, but the group runners-up with the best record go through to the World Cup automatically! The Tartan Army WILL be in Asia this summer – and that means we’ll get to reunite with an old friend!
Believe it or not, Jim Leighton is still keeping goal at 43, having moved to Niigata last year to end his career in the J-League! Jim’s already been involved in four World Cups with Scotland. I couldn’t possibly call him up for a FIFTH, could I?!
NOVEMBER 2001
There would be a strong British & Irish contingent in South Korea and Japan over the summer. England and the Republic of Ireland had also won their groups to qualify automatically, while Northern Ireland were into a play-off with Holland. Sadly, there was no room for Wales.
With about six months to go until I announced my World Cup squad, it was time to begin some unofficial auditions. The first of our warm-up friendlies was at home to Ukraine, who’d somehow finished below Wales in their group. That’s what happens when your manager refuses to call up Andriy Shevchenko.
When we hosted the Zhovto-Blakytni 12 months earlier, we squeaked a narrow 1-0 win. A more convincing performance would be expected of the Tartan Army this time around.
Gould’s recovery from injury saw Combe dropped, with McBride and Smith also being left behind. Meanwhile, two new faces entered the squad – Dougie Freedman, and Craig Callaghan. Nottingham Forest striker Freedman’s name probably rings some bells… but who the heck is Callaghan, I’m hearing you ask?
In reality, there was a defender named Craig Callachan who was on Motherwell’s books but never made the grade. This player, though, was a selfless 20-year-old attacking midfielder who’d been playing regular English Division 1 football for Huddersfield for the past 18 months.
SCOTLAND 1-0 UKRAINE (Friendly)
We got another 1-0 victory against Valery Lobanovsky’s side, thanks to forgotten man Johnston… or was it in spite of him? The Liverpool winger had put us ahead with a stunning strike from Anderson’s cross in the 17th minute, but that was overshadowed by another incident 12 minutes later.
After referee Kevin Carter halted a Scotland attack for an apparent handball from Johnston, the 27-year-old reacted angrily, screaming the ref’s name at him. It probably wasn’t a good idea to do his best James Dean Bradfield impression, as all this manic street preacher got was a red card.
That didn’t cost us too much, though. Douglas was excellent in goal and Elliott put in a strong shift at centre-half to shut the Ukrainians out. I doubt that would’ve happened had Shevchenko been around.
Meanwhile, the play-offs ended in disappointment for Northern Ireland… and also for Euro 2000 runners-up Germany, who lost 3-0 to Romania. For the first time in their history, the Mannschaft had failed to qualify for the World Cup!
The Group Stage draw took place right at the end of the year, on 27 December. Who would we need to beat to reach the knockout stages of a major tournament for the first time?
CM99/00 doesn’t strictly adhere to FIFA’s rules when it comes to World Cup draws, so we’ve been paired with two of South America’s toughest sides. Marcelo Bielsa’s Argentina are always a dangerous proposition, and our opening group game with Chile really could be the decisive one.
But let’s not forget the other team in Group D. Guinea-Bissau are one of four teams making their debut at this World Cup. The tiny West Africans only have a few players in the database and likely won’t threaten us too much in Yokohama. Then again, Scottish fans said the same about Iran in 1978 and Costa Rica in 1990…
If you’re wondering who England got, they’re in Group F with Austria, Ghana and Romania. Yep, that’s THREE European teams in the same pool. Remember what I said about CM99/00 not being completely realistic?
Ireland – who’d inexplicably sacked Mick McCarthy, only to replace him with Joe F***ing Kinnear – went into Group G with Portugal, Mexico and co-hosts South Korea. Well, I say they’re co-hosts, but Seoul is literally the only Korean venue that’s hosting matches. Other than that, it’s basically a Japanese World Cup.
In just two attempts, I’ve done what no real-life Scotland manager has done in TEN – and taken the Tartan Army through to a major tournament. Next week’s update will chronicle our adventures at the 2002 World Cup, so please don’t miss it!
Until next time, thanks for reading.
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