Germany 2, Scotland 1
Scotland go down fighting GERMANY’S fear of disgrace proved to be marginally more powerful than Scotland’s desire for glory at the Westfalen Stadium in Dortmund last night, Berti Vogts’ stirring side eventually succumbing narrowly in a Euro 2004 qualifier that was as breath- taking and eventful as it had promised. Having appeared to be on their knees when Michael Ballack’s penalty kick early in the second half extended the lead provided by Fredi Bobic in the first, the Scots made an admirable attempt at a comeback with Neil McCann’s exceptional strike, but were abruptly diminished by the ordering-off of substitute Maurice Ross soon after coming back into contention. That goal from Bobic was all the more demoralising for the Scots because it had been both unexpected and undeserved. Indeed, the 26 minutes that preceded it served as confirmation that the Germans are as moderate as their performances and result throughout the series have implied. No German team in the past 50 years can have been as uncertain of themselves, demonstrating a proneness to errors so basic that they were almost primitive. This in the stadium where they have never been beaten and where no competitive match has brought them fewer than four goals. Even Vogts, a celebrated full-back hardly renowned for terrorising opposing defences, scored the only goal of his 96-cap international career here in an 8-0 rout of Malta. The Scotland manager, however, vindicated the suspicion that his previously immutable opinion that his homeland would enjoy an unchallenged supremacy in the group was pure propaganda with James McFadden, Steven Thompson and Neil McCann all in attack. The Scots were even more ambitiously deployed than the home side, whose manager, Germany manager Rudi Voeller, adhered to his normal 4-4-2, surprising the home crowd only with the inclusion of Stuttgart’s precocious striker, Kevin Kuranyi. But having appeared generally pedestrian and unthreatening, Voeller’s side found themselves in front through a combination of alert striking and a miscalculation from Robert Douglas which could have been minor, but which was transformed into huge significance by Kuranyi and Bobic. There seemed to be little menace when Arne Friedrich took possession and moved through midfield before sending a low drive to the right of Douglas from about 30 yards. The Celtic goalkeeper was down in time to put his right hand on the ball, but, instead of turning it round the post, pushed it out to his right. It is easy to argue that Douglas should have conceded the corner kick, but, in circumstances as testing as these, his first priority is to prevent its crossing his goal line. To that extent, he was a little unfortunate that it should run straight to Kuranyi. The striker thereafter showed quickness of thought and execution to turn the low centre into the path of Bobic, who swept it into the unprotected net from six yards. Douglas deserves full credit for the save he made from Bobic’s net-bound header just seven minutes after the goal, diving quickly to his left. In truth, the Scots themselves in that first half did not present as much promise of danger as their fans would have hoped from such an attacking line-up. McFadden’s tame shot straight at Oliver Kahn came from one of very few openings. But, the goal apart, they had appeared comfortable enough to keep the Germans at bay. But the absence of Paul Lambert from the second half - the captain having been injured early in the match and replaced with Ross, with Jackie McNamara moving forward into midfield - presaged a passage of intense aggression from the Germans and a sudden nervousness from the Scot which allowed the home side to double their advantage and cause the referee to do some injudicious card waving, culminating in Ross’s ordering-off. There was not a murmur of protest from the visitors when Pressley was penalised for a push on Bobic as the latter reached a cross from Friedrich, his header falling safely into the arms of Douglas. Pressley’s offence, however, gave Ballack the opportunity to convert the penalty kick with a powerful right-foot drive. It was when Barry Ferguson tried to take a free kick that Rau almost jumped on him. As the midfielder shrugged him off, other German players joined in and the outcome was a ludicrous booking for Ferguson and one for Rau. The latter was involved again when Ross, right foot a little high, won the ball cleanly. It would have been a straightforward free kick but for the shocking collapse of Rau and the subsequent massing of his team-mates in protest that clearly persuaded referee Anders Frisk to issue the yellow card. The same thing occurred when Ross, studs showing, carried through on a challenge on the same player and the second yellow, along with the red, was the outcome. It was unseemly behaviour from a team already two goals ahead. That apparently conclusive lead, however, was reduced by McCann’s exceptional counter. Thompson gathered the ball on the right and, as the little winger drove into the area, the cross was perfection, curling on to the right foot of the Southampton man. The volley hurtled past goalkeeper Oliver Kahn from 12 yards. It was a pulse-quickening moment for the Scots in a match that, ultimately, became as severely demanding a test as most would have expected. Germany: Kahn; Friedrich, Baumann, Worns, Rau; Schneider (Kehl 80), Ballack, Ramelow, Rehmer; Bobic (Klose 76), Kuranyi. Subs: Lehmann, Lauth, Hartmann, Hinkel, Rahn. Scotland: Douglas; McNamara, Dailly, Pressley, Naysmith; Ferguson, Lambert (Ross 45), Cameron; McFadden (Rae 53), Thompson, McCann. Subs: Gallacher, Webster, Wilkie, Devlin, Dickov. Referee: A Frisk (Swe)
Chick Young - Smells like team spirit
I could swear there is a new spirit about Scotland. Well, to be honest, Christian Dailly has done it for me. The image of the West Ham defender as a mild mannered charmer who wouldn't say boo to a goose was blown out the water for all time in the tunnel at full time in the Westfalen Stadium in Dortmund seconds after the full time whistle. There was your old reporter in live interview mode with Berti Vogts as the players from both teams filed towards the dressing room when suddenly there were shouts aimed at the Germans accusing them of being cheats. Oh yes, and there was a wee adjective of the industrial language variety tagged on for good measure. So suddenly I have three problems. One, I heard the expletives but I didn't know if the microphones on the cameras had. Two, because it was behind me I couldn't be sure it was a player and not one of the Tartan Army who had beaten the security system. And three, my brain was whirring about the next question to the Scotland manager. Had he heard it and would he choose to deal with it when I brought it up? But does the bold Berti not save my bacon and cut off from the interview to tell Christian Dailly - thereby solving my identity problem - to calm down, and at the same time addressing my problem three. So excuse me while I open the door for a barrage of attacks accusing me of double standards. For here am I defending Dailly when I had a real go in this column about Chris Sutton's cheating allegations about Dunfermline. But it's not the same thing. Sutton accused the Pars of lying down. Dailly accused the Germans of falling down. And anyone who saw the game would have to agree he had a fair point. Our players' fury wasn't about losing, because the real truth is that they have more quality in their locker than Scotland and are a better side. But the conning of the referee, who bought it wholesale, showed a nasty side to Rudi Voeller's team. And Dailly showed the courage and dignity to follow up his off camera comments with a full on interview explaining why he said what he said and doing so in a more calm and collected manner. Furthermore I could imagine the Tartan Army watching and listening totally agog at the passion showed by a player they had previously assumed was so laid back as to be horizontal. Chris did himself a real favour. Anders Frisk, the referee, had a nightmare. He was there to protect the Germans and it is beyond belief to me that he is considered to be Uefa's number two man in the middle. Some of his decisions were baffling and you just could not help feeling that his role was to gently usher Germany in the direction of the automatic qualifying place. His inablity to see - or to acknowledge that he had seen - their cheating antics was beyond belief. Germany are a better team than Scotland. Of course they are. But that isn't really the point. What Berti Vogts needs now from his players is the passion of
Dortmund taken home to Hamdpen on October 11 and most people would have
settled for a situation that is unfolding here. Namely that if we beat
Lithuania in the last game, it would be almost certain that we would
qualify. That only happens if Germany take something off Iceland in
Hanover¿.but I just fear this group has a twist and turn in it yet, that
the Germans will let us down. We'll beat the Baltic state. I am positive
of that. But will it be enough? I can't swear that Germany will beat
Iceland. And you know, I doubt if even Christian Dailly would...
Dailly's outburst is hardly Christian CHRISTIAN Dailly won’t be pursued by UEFA for the comments made after Wednesday night’s defeat to Germany, but he may like to collar Berti Vogts for an answer as to why the coach so willfully cliped on him. It does, of course, go down as one of the Great Football Corridor TV Moments, filed next to Jim McLean’s bopping of BBC reporter John Barnes and Kevin Keegan’s "I would love it" rap in the early Premiership years. As with the last two incidents, the element of surprise was all in the Westfalen Stadium: There we were yawning away to another staccato Berti interview, in which his brave boys were this and his brave boys were that, before suddenly curses fill the air and accusations thrown. It was the kind of spiky assault we could have done with out on the pitch, a beautifully-timed volley which landed precisely in post-watershed territory. The only bleep-bleeps, after all, had been out on the pitch in another glory-sodden Scottish failure. In the seconds which followed the outburst all viewers were of one thought: who the hell was that? Any dialect accent specialists might have detected the sonorous Dundonian tone, but even that did not narrow it down to one, since Maurice Ross is of the same Tayside parish. And he more than Dailly, had reason to accuse the Germans of cheating having been booked twice after a flurry of Tobias Rau’s legs. But Dailly’s cover was blown by Berti’s bawl. "Christian, Christian!" he exclaimed, in the manner of a headmaster barking at a pupil running in the corridor. With Berti’s mangled pronunciation it didn’t actually sound like "Christian", more "Christ, Christ!". Since last time you looked Jesus had not been called up by the Scotland coach (although he might have been in goal - "Jesus saves, but Bobic scores with the rebound" as the old brickhouse wall slogan goes) the identity of the culprit was confirmed: Christian Dailly. Vogts was being treacherous to his treachery, disloyal in his disloyalty. Here he was seeking to win against his old German buddies, but then dobbing in one of his present side’s players. No wonder we can’t get a decent result if the coach does not even know who he’s batting for. Still, there was something loveable in his asides as the nation suddenly tuned back into the interview, attention snared by the rattle of a couple of F-words. His arched eyebrow as he returned to Chick Young’s probing was exquisite in its construction, and projected an eloquent reading of the situation: Christian’s frustrated, but then so are we all, it said. As someone noted, there was something paternal in the admonition, with Vogts again displaying what most think when they are not decrying his tactics and mimicking his hangdog expression: he is a pretty sound guy. He even kept his cool when Chick was all but slandering his home nation in front of him: "But the Germans are cheats, aren’t they Berti?" was the gist of his argument, with Vogts blinking stoically back and doing everything in his power not to dive like a swan into Chick’s face. For Dailly, though, the outcome of all this can only be positive. For one thing he has been called "silly" by UEFA’s Director of Communications Mike Lee, a sign you have made it in the corridors of power. And here also is a player the Tartan Army has never previously been completely sure about, something which has not been entirely his own fault. In his international career, Dailly has been played all over the park by both Vogts and his successor Craig Brown, and has never truly found his niche. In the Faroes, he and David Weir were the appointed fall-guys, the declared pussy-footers spurned by the Scotland fans. Yet now Dailly has been reborn as the foul-mouthed mutha, who not only gave the Germans an earful off the pitch, but also furnished them with an eyeful on it: priceless was the moment when Dailly offered Tobias Rau the sign recognised by self-daters everywhere after the German had blasted wildly wide in the second half. Dailly once told of his habit of stumbling into pubs unannounced, whereupon he would pull up a stool and jam away on his guitar. His rock ‘n’ roll credentials have now been engraved in his Fender Stratocaster for ever: the foul-mouthed respecter of no reputation, the tousle-haired urban warrior of Dortmund. It’s not what you would expect of Christian Dailly, the man named after a religious newspaper. The only possible downside to this latest corridor controversy is the fear he might have irked the Germans into easing up against Iceland, who Scotland need them to beat or hold to a draw at least. This, though, would at least prove Dailly’s frankly delivered sentiment correct: f****** cheats indeed.
Dailly is likely to escape UEFA action for outburst UEFA has hinted that Christian Dailly and James McFadden are unlikely to face disciplinary action after their outbursts against Germany following the Euro 2004 qualifier defeat in Dortmund. Dailly was heard to shout "f****** cheats" as manager Berti Vogts was being interviewed after the 2-1 loss, while McFadden also claimed the Germans did not play by the rules. Rangers defender Maurice Ross was dismissed during the game - just 21 minutes after appearing as a substitute for Paul Lambert - for two separate challenges with Tobias Rau. However, Swedish match official Anders Frisk has not included any note of the claims in his match report. Mike Lee, UEFA’s director of communications, described the incidents as "silly" but believes the chances of the pair being subject to disciplinary action is unlikely. He said: "We have not received any complaint and my understanding is that there is no reference to these comments in either of the reports. "The comments were unfortunate but it is unlikely it would lead to any formal disciplinary action. But the comments were not helpful and a bit silly." |
