| Scotland 2, Belgium
2 Dodds (1, 29 pen) Wilmots (58) Van Buyten (90) 24 March 2001 Hampden Att: 37,480 BROWN MUST PICK SCOTLAND UP
The implications of a Scotland performance that transformed itself from sweetness to scandal could prove even more damaging than the header with which Daniel van Buyten induced mass nausea at Hampden Park. The loss of two points is not enough in itself to bankrupt Craig Brown's team in Group 6 of the World Cup qualifying, but its revitalising effect on others, most notably Belgium themselves and Croatia, may be the main source of national angst by the conclusion of the series. Whenever Alex Ferguson sees Manchester United squander points unnecessarily during a title campaign, his regret does not derive simply from the result. He understands, as Brown does, that such aberrations are virtually inevitable in the course of a marathon event. What gnaws most irritatingly is the thought that potential challengers will be encouraged. "A draw or even a defeat when you should have done better isn't uncommon," says the Old Trafford manager, "but what annoys you is that it gives the others a glimmer of hope when there had seemed to be none. "They begin to think they can get to you again. It picks them up when their mission had seemed impossible, and that's more dangerous than simply dropping a couple of points." No great leap of the imagination is required to see the hypothetical impact of victory for the Scots on the psyche of their principal rivals in the group. Belgium would then have drawn at home to Croatia and lost to Scotland in their only two meetings with the other fancied teams. The Croatians would have recalled the draw Brown's team secured against them in Zagreb, added it to the three points against Belgium and possibly felt a chill from realising that it amounted to a commanding lead and that they must still visit Glasgow in September and host Belgium in their final match the following month. The awful reality is, though, that the Croatians will now welcome what was for them the ideal result at Hampden, while the Belgians are feeling as though they won, Scotland as if they lost. The entire psychological package could be stuffed with potentially harmful recriminations for the Scots. Brown clearly appreciated these probabilities when he lamented the unlikely collapse of a well-constructed 2-0 lead against ten men, following defender Eric Deflandre's red card for handling on the goal-line, conceding the penalty kick from which the ebullient Billy Dodds completed his double. "That's very hard to take," said Brown. "Losing that kind of advantage when the opposition are a man short is just not on. It leaves the group wide open, and there is no need to be pessimistic, but I think victory would have allowed us to start contemplating the likelihood of getting to Japan or South Korea. "Now we are psychologically down and the players will have to pick themselves up. "But I'm sure they will, as they've done it before." Brown's confidence that his team are capable of achieving a productive result in Brussels on 5 September - a draw or even a win - remains undiminished, but he is aware that it would be much more easily gained if it were not utterly imperative. He acknowledged this even before Saturday's match when he said: "I think we can get a result there, but I wouldn't want us to have to win. There is a difference." The return match with Robert Waseige's side is due four days after the visit of Croatia, a double-header now certain to be shot through with tension. If it is assumed the Scots beat San Marino on Wednesday and the other two safely negotiate their forthcoming encounters with the group's weaker members, the three countries will be effectively tied on points (in actuality, Belgium three ahead of the other two but with a game more played) entering that fateful September weekend. That it should have been allowed to come to this is no small disgrace. Even if individuals can be blamed for the goals - Colin Hendry for "losing" Bob Peeters before the latter crossed for Marc Wilmots to score the first and Matt Elliott for losing the jump as Van Buyten headed the winner - this was a fall deserving collective culpability. No matter the specifics of how it was done, no team should lose a two-goal advantage against ten men. Nor should it have been necessary to score the fabled third goal to "kill them off", as one or two observers commented. Barry Ferguson's miss - driving the ball against goalkeeper Geert de Vlieger from close in after Dominic Matteo had supplied the killing pass - may have been slightly shocking, but it is easily forgiven and should not have been, in any case, a pivotal moment. But Ferguson, as he has been for Rangers in recent months, was a disappointment. The midfielder did not confront the assignment as boldly as his two partners, Craig Burley and Paul Lambert, or the wide players, Matteo and the veteran Tom Boyd, and the strikers, Dodds and Don Hutchison. Dodds' opening goal was an appropriately adroit finish - glancing the ball with the inside of his right foot past De Vlieger - to a mesmerising move involving Hendry, Hutchison and Burley, who provided the perfect final ball into the goal area. Dodds also converted the penalty almost gleefully, driving high to the right of the keeper. The question of whether Brown should have used substitutes earlier - as Waseige did to ultimately profitable effect - was embraced mainly by the manager himself, who also supplied the answer. "If I had and we'd lost two goals, I would have been accused of stupidity," he said. "There seemed no reason to disrupt a side who looked comfortable, and more likely to score a third than the Belgians did to score at all." Brown will doubtless be blamed on some pretext or another, but, on this occasion at least, this seems insupportable. The manager's critics will certainly not include those who represented him on the field. Scotland |
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