We’ve reached the ninth chapter of my Championship Manager 99/00 adventure with Scotland. Will the Tartan Army be celebrating qualifying for a third consecutive World Cup at the end of today’s post?
In Part 8, our attempts to qualify for England 2006 got off to a… let’s say interesting start. You might want to make sure you’re up to date on that before you continue reading this.
When you’re ready, let’s get going…
APRIL 2005
Just to recap, at the halfway stage of the World Cup qualifiers, Scotland were top of Group 8. A famous 4-0 win in Prague had taken us ahead of the Czech Republic on head-to-head, with Israel three points behind.
Next up for the Tartan Army, though, was a rematch with the Israel side which had beaten us 2-1 in our opening fixture in Tel Aviv. Would there be a change in fortune when the Blue-and-Whites came to Hampden Park?
If so, we’d need to manage without our captain Kevin James, who was sidelined with a shin injury. Torn groin muscles also ruled out midfielder Robert Wilson and striker Jermaine McSporran, further limiting my options.
GOALKEEPERS: Alan Combe, Robert Douglas, Andy McPherson
DEFENDERS: Russell Anderson, Alan Archibald, Brian Donaldson, Steven Hammell, Kevin McCann, Stuart McCaffrey, Jackie McNamara, Gary Naysmith, Paul Ritchie, David Weir
MIDFIELDERS: Michael Balfour, Baldur Bett, Barry Ferguson, Willie Howie, Allan Johnston, Ken Rafferty, Martin Lauchlan, Neil McCann, Mark McCormick, Marvyn Wilson
FORWARDS: Marc Anthony, Mark Burchill, Paul Dalglish
Everton midfielder Rafferty was the only uncapped player in this squad. You’ll also notice that his team-mate Weir had been recalled, just before his 35th birthday. Neither made it into the matchday 18, though.
SCOTLAND 3-1 ISRAEL (2006 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 6)
Neil McCann was surprisingly outscoring Marc Anthony for newly-crowned Scottish Premier League champions Rangers this season (18 goals to 13). After just five minutes, McCann continued his excellent form with a cool low long-range strike from Ritchie’s flick-on.
Israel launched a response in the 29th minute, as French-based striker Alon Mizrahi poked in a one-on-one that wasn’t very Nice for Douglas. Five minutes later, though, Anthony restored our advantage with an expert finish to McNamara’s first-time cross.
We continued to dominate our visitors, eventually sealing victory 16 minutes from full-time. It was a fowl experience for Israeli defender Tal Hen when Russell Anderson outjumped him to head in his first Scotland goal.
We now had a month and a bit to prepare for our next game in Bulgaria, whose 3-2 win in Tirane had dealt a major blow to Albania’s hopes of qualifying. The Czech Republic thumped San Marino 3-0 to stay just behind us in 2nd.
JUNE 2005
It had been a great season for McSporran and Donaldson, who were both named in the PFA’s Premiership Team of the Year. They had helped a resurgent Tottenham to a 4th-place finish under Carlo Ancelotti – behind only Leeds, Liverpool, and back-to-back champions Manchester United.
It had been a rather less successful campaign for Huddersfield, who became the first team to complete an English top-flight season without winning a single game. Arsenal beat Manchester City 2-0 to lift the League Cup, and the FA Cup was won by a second-tier side for the first time since 1980, as Division 1 champions West Brom stunned Middlesbrough 1-0.
La Liga’s runaway winners Barcelona reclaimed the Champions League as Kennedy Bakircioglü’s goal just before half-time defeated Real Madrid at Wembley. The UEFA Cup Final saw Inter beat Fiorentina 2-0 with goals from Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. The Nerazzurri then overcame Juventus in a play-off to retain their Serie A scudetto.
Meanwhile in Scotland, Rangers retained the league by 24 points, with McCann being named Player of the Year. The Gers also beat Partick Thistle to defend the League Cup. 2nd-placed Celtic – now coached by Héctor Cúper after Roy Hodgson agreed to replace Arsène Wenger at Arsenal – lost the Scottish Cup Final 2-1 to Hearts after Kevin James scored the winner.
Speaking of James, he was back in the Scotland squad to face Bulgaria, replacing Kevin McCann. One of his Hearts colleagues – midfielder Jamie McKenzie – also got a recall after injury befell Johnston.
BULGARIA 0-3 SCOTLAND (2006 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 7)
Bulgaria are hopeless these days, aren’t they? James put them on the back foot after just six minutes, heading in McCann’s corner to get us off to the perfect start. Though Krasimir Dimitrov struck the post from a free-kick four minutes later, that was the closest the Bulgarians came to upsetting our rhythm.
Howie lit up the rest of the first half, providing a couple of assists to send us into the break 3-0 up. His first was a 28th-minute free-kick that Anthony nodded home after outjumping Zahari Sirakov. Eight minutes later, Hammell was the beneficiary of a killer pass, which Stevie followed up with an impressive solo run and an even better finish.
Though we didn’t add to our advantage in the second half, it didn’t matter. We would head into the new season in a very strong position, especially as Mizrahi’s double for Israel had inflicted a second group defeat on the Czech Republic.
SEPTEMBER 2005
This season brought plenty of promise for Scottish football – not least for Celtic. Buoyed by Cúper’s appointment as manager, the Bhoys went out and signed some fella named David Beckham from Fiorentina for a cut-price £2.5million. Oh, and they did this to Sliema Wanderers in the Champions League qualifiers…
This summer had seen Archibald return to Manchester City for £2.2million from Blackburn after the Sky Blues’ promotion back to the Premiership. My third-choice goalkeeper Combe went from Dundee United to West Ham, and winger Lauchlan joined Hearts from St Johnstone – both on free transfers.
Oh, and Naysmith left Celtic in a £1.2million move to… Rangers. As you do.
It would soon be time for our crucial qualifying double-header – Albania away, followed by the Czech Republic at home. McCormick, McNamara and Bett all gave way to McSporran, Craig McCulloch and Robert Wilson respectively.
Three more players – McCann, McPherson and Balfour – cried off injured in the build-up to the Albania game. Johnston returned to midfield in the former’s place, while new Hearts goalkeeper Kenny Arthur and Aston Villa midfielder Gary Mason earned their first call-ups.
James was serving a suspension, so he would only travel to Tirane as a spectator. Taking the captaincy in his place was right-back McCulloch, who had – just 24 hours earlier – completed a bumper £9million move from Arsenal to Manchester United.
ALBANIA 1-1 SCOTLAND (2006 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 8)
Our six-game winning run ended here, and we only had ourselves to blame. Hammell got off to a nightmare start after three minutes, when he was skinned by Albanian winger Ilir Caushllari, whose cross was finished by striker Alket Zeqo.
We were wasteful with our equalising chances in the first half, and it was only due to a stroke of good fortune that we even levelled at all 10 minutes into the second. A furious shot from Dalglish was parried by keeper Kujtim Shtama to Archibald, who took advantage to score his first international goal.
Substitutes Mason and McSporran then wasted opportunities to leave us disappointed at the final whistle. More agony followed when we heard that the Czechs had beaten Bulgaria 2-1 to close the gap to just one point ahead of our meeting at Hampden.
With San Marino awaiting in our final game in October, we knew that a draw would as good as secure us the group – and a victory would make that absolutely sure. If the Czechs got their revenge for us beating them 4-0 in Prague, though, they would assume 1st place and leave us staring at the prospect of a play-off.
SCOTLAND 4-0 CZECH REPUBLIC (2006 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 9)
Despite that poor result in Albania, McCulloch kept the captaincy even when James returned to face the Czechs. Okay, maybe I forgot to change captains before kick-off… but who cares?! We got the job done and qualified with ease!
Burchill broke the deadlock in the 9th minute, clinically converting a penalty after Anthony had been upended in the area by Czech goalie Oldrich Parizek. Seven minutes later, Anthony chimed in and doubled our lead with his 23rd Scotland goal – taking him ahead of Lawrie Reilly to become our 4th-top scorer of all-time.
That was the first of three assists for midfield wonderkid Robert Wilson, who made hay against a Czech team who frequently squandered possession and couldn’t get a single shot on target. After helping James add to his international tally in the 73rd minute, Bob enabled McKenzie to open his account in the 87th.
Another Scottish masterclass, another 4-0 win over the Czechs… and another World Cup finals place secured. England don’t know what’s coming for them.
OCTOBER 2005
With qualification wrapped up, our final game in Serravalle against whipping boys San Marino meant nothing. I could afford to rest some key players – particularly those who were one yellow card away from suspension, and thus would miss our first World Cup game if they got booked again.
This would be another opportunity for fringe players to make their names. McPherson got a second start in goal after the Aberdeen keeper recovered from his neck strain, especially as Douglas was now nursing a twisted knee. Balfour, Bett and McCann also returned at the expense of Lauchlan, McCaffrey and an injured Ferguson.
Injury had also ruled Donaldson out, which opened the door for another young right-back. 22-year-old Steven McLean had enjoyed a strong start to the English Division 1 season at Fulham, and his performances had earned him a £1.8million move to Wimbledon.
But what’s that? Another player has gone down injured? Russell Anderson, is it? In that case, let’s give 20-year-old Rangers centre-back Jim Walker another call-up. Maybe I’ll bring him off the bench this time!
SAN MARINO 1-7 SCOTLAND (2006 World Cup Qualifying – UEFA Group 8, Match 10)
Last time, you’ll remember that San Marino’s goalkeeper Ennio De Cillis played like he was Gianluigi Buffon. Well… his successor Manuele Lambertini was more like Massimo Taibi (the one from Manchester United in real-life, not the one from my Leverkusen series).
Lambertini had a nightmare first nine minutes, conceding a Burchill half-volley before letting a Howie drive slip underneath his body. He then watched Dalglish get on the scoresheet before Burchill wrapped up a 15-minute brace.
Robert Wilson – now on loan at Sheffield Wednesday after falling out of favour at West Ham – scored his first Scotland goal to send us 5-0 up after 18 minutes. We would be 7-0 ahead by half-time, as Dalglish matched Burchill’s brace before Neil McCann got involved, bagging his 10th international strike.
Naturally, San Marino came out fighting and won the second half, with Pacifico Pavanel grabbing a consolation goal seven minutes after the restart. Their manager also replaced the lacklustre Lambertini with a goalkeeper who actually knew how to do his job, keeping out several shots from a Scottish attack that still looked suspiciously fresh.
San Marino almost got a second goal five minutes from full-time. James was booked for bringing striker Pasquale Pusceddu down in the box, but McPherson saved his bacon by stopping the subsequent penalty from defender Egidio Valdifiori. That kept the final score at 7-1 as we finished our qualifying campaign in style.
NOVEMBER 2005
The British Isles would have FOUR representatives at next year’s finals in England. Joining us as group winners were Mark Hughes’ Wales (who forced Portugal into a play-off) and Joe F***ing Kinnear’s Republic of Ireland (who helped eliminate Holland). Sadly, Northern Ireland were well off the pace in their group, denying us a clean sweep.
While the likes of Portugal, France and Yugoslavia were still battling to qualify, we could take things easy. Our final match of 2005 was a friendly against Austria – and a return to Vienna, where we won 2-0 early last year.
Arthur, McLean, Rafferty and Walker were left out of this latest squad as Anderson, Donaldson, Douglas and Ferguson all returned. With Burchill having dislocated his jaw in Celtic’s UEFA Cup defeat to Milan, I brought in Ipswich’s 25-year-old former Manchester United striker Alex Notman for the first time.
McCann later withdrew with a fractured cheekbone, which meant Lauchlan got another chance. Dominic Matteo also returned after a two-year absence, with the experienced Wigan left-back benefitting from a thigh injury to Hammell.
AUSTRIA 0-1 SCOTLAND (Friendly)
The Ernst Happel Stadion looks like a pretty good hunting ground for us. Robert Wilson scored the only goal of this game after 25 minutes, thundering home James’ flick-on from Howie’s whipped corner. McSporran and Dalglish each had several chances to add to our lead, but Alex Manninger’s goalkeeping heroics kept the scoreline down.
And so we completed an unbeaten calendar year – my first as Scotland manager. Only the Albania draw had denied us a 100% record, but our excellent form had lifted us to 8th in the world rankings, having fallen outside the top 16 after Euro 2004.
World champions Sweden were 32nd, and England had fallen all the way down to 64th. That’s what happens when 1) you don’t play any competitive matches between tournaments, and 2) FIFA come up with the most ridiculous ranking system known to man.
And that leads us into the World Cup draw. Most of the big guns had made it through, though France and Portugal had needed to win play-off ties against Norway and Yugoslavia respectively. The 4th-placed Yugoslavs from 2002 would sit out these finals, as would Euro 2004 Semi Finalists Croatia.
So, what would we have to prepare for when we headed south for the border in the summer? The draw took place after Christmas and gave us this group:
We will kick Group G off on 12 June at Anfield against top seeds Spain. La Furia Roja have bounced back strongly since we stole their tickets to the previous finals in East Asia. That match could be very significant, bearing in mind that the group runners-up will likely face Group H favourites Italy in the last 16.
Following that on 19 June is a colourful encounter at Maine Road against Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz, who were runners-up in the CONCACAF qualifiers. Four days later, we’ll head to Ewood Park and meet a Saudi Arabia side who were the final team to qualify, beating New Zealand in an intercontinental play-off.
Hosts England also got the luck of the draw in Group C, where they would take on Belgium, China and Morocco. Wales and the Republic of Ireland were not so fortunate, being paired together in Group F alongside France and debutants Mali.
MARCH 2006
[Ah, you thought I was going to end the chapter right there, didn’t you? But no… I thought I’d get our last two friendlies out of the way so we can concentrate solely on the World Cup in the next one.]
The first fortnight of 2006 saw Juventus successfully defend the Club World Championship. Following a goalless draw against Barcelona in the Final, the Old Lady won 4-2 after Ronaldo’s decisive penalty was saved by Juve goalkeeper/captain D’Angelo. How does it feel? Pretty great, I’d imagine.
A big year for British international football began with two more friendlies for Scotland. As ever, we would host Turkey at Hampden Park… but we couldn’t face Austria as well, because we’d just beaten them, obviously. As the Scottish FA isn’t really interested in organising friendlies with anyone else, that left them with a dilemma.
Then one executive came up with an ingenious idea: how about we travel to Turkey and play them again? And maybe we could use these matches as the basis of a friendly ‘competition’ called the Ian Wilson Trophy, named after the ex-Scotland midfielder who played for Besiktas in 1989/1990!
[Shrugs] Well… okay then.
It was quite fitting that Marvyn Wilson and Robert Wilson stayed in the squad for the first leg of this ‘Ian Wilson Trophy’. Bob had just signed for Everton from West Ham to replace Rafferty, who’d gone in the other direction. Ironically, Ken returned to the Scotland squad after Ferguson was ruled out.
Injuries to McKenzie and his intended replacement Iain Anderson meant that 20-year-old Portsmouth winger Ian McKinlay was promoted from the Under-21s. Other changes saw Hammell, McCann and Burchill come back in for Matteo, Lauchlan and Notman. And then this happened…
The national tabloids would spend weeks obsessing over Anthony’s shoulder and scapegoating whichever Rangers team-mate had caused the injury. As for me, I was so stunned that I forgot to call up a replacement.
SCOTLAND 0-0 TURKEY (Friendly)
Boy, did we miss Anthony’s finishing prowess here. This was a low-quality match dominated by both goalkeepers, with our own Robert Douglas doing particularly well to constantly frustrate Turkish captain Emre. This was my 58th match as Scotland boss, and it ended in my first goalless draw (that’s not including the NINE I’ve had with the Under-21s).
APRIL 2006
We were beset by more injuries before the second leg of this ‘tournament’ that somebody plucked out of thin air. Left-back Naysmith was ruled out after breaking his jaw, while groin strains saw McCann and Balfour miss out. On the plus side, Barry Ferguson was back, and he was rejoined by Lauchlan, Matteo, McKenzie and Notman.
The only other change to my squad saw McKinlay drop to the ‘B’ team, who came out of hibernation and duly lost 1-0 to Turkey Reserves. Would the ‘A’ team fare any better?
TURKEY 0-2 SCOTLAND (Friendly)
Much better! Aston Villa midfielder Gary Mason struck the first blow in the first minute of his first Scotland start, powering the ball home after latching onto a Matteo cross. Turkey tried to lay a glove on us several times in the first half, but their punches (or shots, rather) didn’t really connect.
We got our second goal 12 minutes into the second period. A hammer of a shot from McSporran was blocked by Turkish defender Vedat, who deflected it into his own net. With that, we secured the Ian Wilson Trophy, and captain James was all smiles as he proudly held the non-existent trophy aloft in Istanbul.
The real question is, though: can we get our hands on the real thing at Wembley on 9 July?
Another tournament beckons for my Tartan Army. Please join me again on Monday, when we’ll head south of the border to contest the 2006 World Cup. Will it end with Kevin James lifting the trophy at Wembley on 9 June? Stranger things have happened, that’s for sure!
Until next time, thanks for reading.
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