World Cup: Scotland's Fate Still In Their Hands

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1:06Discover the V-Series lineup at Cadillac.com. The Football Daily at the People World Cup 2026 with Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith live from LA. Hello, you're listening to the Football Daily with me, Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith. That's right. Coming up, we're going to be speaking to Pat Nevin, who was at the Scotland game. Tim Vickery is going to join us to talk Brazil-Haiti. The scores from overnight, USA beat Australia 2-0 and are the second team to qualify for the next round. Scotland lost 1-0 to Morocco. Brazil beat Haiti 3-0. And at the end of all that, Turkey have been eliminated after being beaten by 10-man Paraguay.

1:45All the highlights and scores are available on the BBC Sport website and at. So it's yet another big day of football, not just for the top-level internationals. You also played Brighton earlier this morning, bottom level internationals even that is probably stretching it isn't it 8.45 played a nine a side game in South LA with Max Rushton and with Danny Cipriani the ex England rugby player why was he there? did you know he was going to be there? he was on our team lives in LA now he was so good at football and let me guess was he really fit? Yeah. Oh, and he's really athletic as well. He was scoring unbelievable goals, setting up people.

2:30He was talking to me, like manages me. And I just, I loved it. And how was your personal performance? I mean, oh gosh, no, no, no, no. I went up for a little bit, but I wasn't getting the service. I felt like Ronaldo. Do you know what I mean? It felt like no one wanted to pass to me. Past it. Yeah, no, not past it. But it just felt like no one wanted to pass to me. And then at the back, I don't know. So you are a goalkeeper. Yeah, I am a goalkeeper. went in goal for the first seven minutes got a bit in my near post if I'm honest not great more than a football but I enjoyed it I wore my new cleats which I bought yesterday oh yes cleats and football boots a one hour detour quite boring for me it was about 35 minutes just bought some new boots I don't know why it took so long just say which are the cheapest ones in my size I'll have them I did try on four pairs of boots yes you did for effectively one game and it cost me£80 absolutely fuming but yeah no it was nice and it was just nice to get out and play with you know friends and hopefully you'll come but it was quite early this morning.

3:22It was a bit too early for me. You do breakfast, but you went to Barry's. I went to Barry's and did the old boot camp. That's great. Absolutely abysmal. So we now are aching that there's no tomorrow. Yes, we are. We were very keen to go and watch the USA game with American fans and we've got a mutual friend who's working out here and he said, right, I've picked a bar. It's going to be amazing. We turned up and as we were driving up, we could see that there was a huge queue outside this bar to get in, and it was, like, properly, properly rammed. It was rammed. It's quite weird, because when our friend got there, at the time that we'd mutually agreed to meet him there, which was roughly 11, we weren't there because you weren't ready.

4:03Well, I've been at Barry's. You'd been at Barry's, but then also you just... I was just mooching around a bit. You were just mooching about in your vest. Yes, I was in my vest. A little treat for you. I like to turn up sort of on the whistle, really. Like Americans do. Yeah, and unfortunately... Every American had the same idea. The queue was around the corner. Yeah, we couldn't get in. And this is actually a sign of how much Americans are getting into this now. Every other place in that area that had a screen was also packed. Yeah, inside and out as well. Inside and out, could not find a spot.

4:36And we ended up watching the USA game in a small Italian restaurant on a very small screen that was slightly too far away. But the takeaway here is that Americans are properly getting into it here. They might not know all their players or who their coach is, as we found out today. But they're going for it and they're going for it like they're Americanising it. And they were chanting, as you'd want at the end, in the bar, USA, USA, USA. I didn't join in. I think we've got to start with Scotland. What a second half performance from them. Let's bring in Pat Nevin. Pat, you're at the game. You're back at your hotel now.

5:14Have you had a little bit of chance to digest and reflect on what you saw from the Scottish team? Yes, I've had a lot of time to think about it. And I feel exactly the same way as I feel before. I was feeling before. A bit disappointed. But in reality, here's the odd thing. I thought after the first game in Scotland, I was really disappointed. Although we won, I was disappointed. Scotland got beat this time. I'm really proud of them. it's just the weirdest thing about football because I think the team played well after the first 25 minutes in which we were totally destroyed and we looked as if we were playing a different sport from them, we were so far behind but slowly but surely clawed our way back into the game and by the end of the second half I actually think Scotland deserved to get the point that they needed out of it and I think we were a wee bit unlucky although having said that, to be fair we created the square root of nothing.

6:13We didn't create any chances at all and we have to be honest about that. Yes, that's true. But the way that the kind of momentum shifted, the pressure that Morocco were under in that second half, particularly once Steve Clarke brought Ben Gannon Doakon, when he brought Lyndon Dykes on, suddenly just the whole kind of structure of the game, the nature of the game changed and it was really exciting and Scotland were pushing and you thought, I think they're going to do it. And recent history with Stevie Clark, we have. That's the thing. And all the history of Scotland trying to get through and these sort of things, and I've lived through enough of it, I've played through some of it.

6:52You know, late goals, heartbreak. We find new, weird, complicated and exciting ways to fail. And we've done it for years, right? And the reality is... Point. We've not quite got over it, okay? And we've kind of got that feeling that we were that nation. And then, of late, we've kind of changed it around and Stephen Clarke's managed to get these strange ways of qualifying that we score three fantastic goals against Denmark and we're not the better team in the night, but we have this magical night to actually get through. So we've kind of changed that narrative, but this felt a wee bit like we were back in that narrative again where we're not quite getting there, we're not getting the break of the ball the little bits of luck that we need but it's still up until the very last game and it's one of those ones and this is the weirdness of it I've got a feeling we'll end up playing Brazil now and we'll play Brazil and say we lose 1-0 to Brazil right, we'll be in 3 points we'll have to sit and wait for about 3, 4 or 5 days to find out if we're actually through or not it's horrendous and it's going to be down to the last kick of the ball, I mean I remember I talked to somebody recently and said, what is the actual worst time that ever happened to Scotland where we blew it by a goal?

8:15Right, it's your fault, right? I'm blaming you specifically, right? Because you may not remember it, but it was England and you managed to, you were up a 3-0 against the Dutch in the Euros and then lost one late goal. Do you remember this? Yeah. And that knocked Scotland out. And that is the problem we've got. But we find, as I say, new interesting and exciting ways to completely and utterly blow it. I just hope it's not one then because the way we play tonight, I don't think we deserved it. Technically, we're not the best team in the world. But in reality, I love the way that we can have fought back into it against one of the top teams on the planet.

8:56Did you think that John McGinn was a bit unlucky not to get a penalty early on in the second half? because in in real time when we were watching it i thought there was nothing in it and then on the replay i was like well he's definitely he's not got the ball there's definitely contact i don't know if you i don't know if you have watched it back i have right so it's one that i think it could be the core moment of the game and i think you're right to bring it up so as a forward who spent a lot of time getting into those positions in the box my thoughts are if i'm one and one with you and I get the ball beyond you and then you try and tackle me and you take you hit me I don't care where you hit me you're not allowed to hit me when I'm going through and I've got control of the ball and I'm on the ball then that's a penalty kick there'll be a free kick outside the box it'll be a penalty inside the box no I'll be honest with you it's also be soft soft one yeah yeah yeah I know it also be honest with you if you don't give it the VAR ain't gonna to change it in the modern world and we have to live in the modern world so that's kind of what i thought if if the ref had given it on the pitch it's not getting overturned but if he's not giving it the var aren't calling him over probably nailed absolutely no then and that's a modern game and i know a lot of scotland fans are be furious and angry and and we know what it's like you know what it's like in social media quite often you know people are very balanced you know they're like the nuance debate or or indeed not and you're not going to get that but in reality that is where we are just now and you have to remember i don't know how close people everyone who was listening was watching that game it was actually stunning the referee was living in the past in a good way i really liked it um the amount of people were you know that thing where someone bumps into a wee bit and you crumple right and normal human beings don't do that it's like you're walking along the street in like oxford street and somebody bumps into you and you fall down you go people don't right except footballers do well therefore he thinks along with me in this one okay this referee tonight now he didn't get everything right but he went he did let most things go and it was quite good and it was good and yeah and in the end that's the penalty in In reality, I know a lot of Scottish people are furious with him.

11:20I can't be really because I think he was a referee that allowed that sort of thing to go on. And remember, I hate being balanced here and all that sort of thing, but Scotland played against Haiti. Haiti are still furious because there's a pretty clear penalty that they should have got. And also Haiti would be easily the better side as well. So in balance, if you'd have said to us, we win the first game, we narrowly lose the second one we've got Brazil coming up and we've got a chance if we don't win or we lose or 1-0 or something we'll still go through and a very good chance or else if we still get a point against Brazil which is not beyond the bounds of possibility the way we play we'll go through probably take that Pat we've got to talk about the national anthem listen to it before the game I mean as an English person I can't really get emotional about a Scottish national anthem, but crikey.

12:16But we managed it. Oh, we managed it. Goosebumps absolutely everywhere. Hair on all parts of your body standing on end. You are a hairy man. What was it like in the stadium? And then what was it like when they scored after 71 seconds? Right, well, the wonderful thing about the Scottish national anthem, and it is really quite moving. It's a beautiful song. It's pretty superb when you're there, when it's done right. The Scotland against Denmark one recently was extraordinary. both games here at the Foxborough were utterly and completely amazing and you can see all the the locals who are there listening going wow this is amazing and and you see actually the Moroccans thinking well we've got to react to that you know and they're sharing and they're going back and it It is.

13:05I hate being so predictable. But it is spine-tingling. It is spine-tingling every single time. And there was a lot of passion to it tonight. And it's something, again, the Scots are very proud of. But boy, was that punctured quickly. As soon as you scored that goal after 71 seconds. Somebody said that to me tonight. It was a weird thing. He said, like, if you take the first 71 seconds out of that game, who's the better team overall? It kind of might have been Scotland, actually. For 20 minutes, we were battered at sight. 25 minutes, battered at sight. We had the end of the first quarter, because it's the first quarter.

13:44Exactly, it makes me shudder as well. Into that, it was changed a bit. And slowly but surely after that, Scotland grew into it. And I don't think there's much of a doubt that Scotland were the better side in the second half. Although, underlining, we had a possibility of a penalty or two and one great chance that we managed to spoil for ourselves because it was kind of glossed over. I don't know how much you saw of it, but the ball was played over on the right-hand side. I think it was going to kick. And McTominay was coming in to head it. And Lyndon Dykes got in his way and headed it past. And it's one of those ones where it doesn't look like a great chance because Lyndon puts it past and he's stretching for it.

14:27Lyndon not there. McTominay scores. In terms of the way that Steve Clarke set up, in that first, particularly first 15 minutes, I was feeling quite fearful that it was going to be an absolute rout. But having spoken to people before and seen the way that Scotland play, they don't mind a bit of that kind of rope-a-dope when you're up against it, up against it, and then gradually grow into the game and then particularly towards the end, really start putting the hammer down. And so selection-wise, was it correct what Steve Clarke did? and when he bought Ben Ganondoke and when he bought Lyndon Dykes in, did you think?

15:03Yeah, and remember Ben Ganondoke makes a big difference because he's unfairly quick, really unfairly fast, right? But he ran out of gas in the first game and he was cramping up. So if you're going to use that guy, use him when he can be most effective. When's that? It's when the opposition are tiring. It's kind of not quite obvious and I know the fans don't like to hear it, but if you've got 45 minutes or 40 minutes in you, make it the last 40 so that you can have a massive effect on it. And again, he almost had the effect and almost got through. Tactically, I don't know. I would have maybe done it slightly different.

15:43You know, I would have, we played with a back four. Can we get a wee bit technical for a minute? Is that all right? We're acting quite stupidly technical. Right, okay. Please do. Hakimi was incredible tonight what he did he did a tactical thing tonight it was pretty special you don't see in the modern you don't see generally right so Clarkie put it out that Guarantean was to play a little bit further forward so that he would be basically man to man marking Hakimi to stop Hakimi he is that good I know he's a fullback but he's that incredible right so Hakimi spots this after about three minutes after the goal Hakimi's playing left wing Hakumi's then playing centre forward which is exactly what I would do when I was man-to-man marked sometimes in my career OK, you're marking me?

16:30Good I'm going to take you for a wee walk now I'm going to take you wherever you don't want to be I'm going to go and play in the left wing even though you're the other side of the pitch and of course what you do in football is you pass players on but there was no right time to pass that player on it created utter confusion in the Scottish back line. They were having kittens all over the place because Hakeemee was just disappearing. Now, they were clever because what they did is they dropped by the sixth, the young lad who's a great player. They dropped him back in and set it back and asked Deok to play right back.

17:04It was technically brilliant. It was really good. But it took Hakeemee to be clever enough to do that and to do all these things. And it utterly confused Scotland. And then at that point in time, Stevie Clark says, OK, this is when you hand on. and that's how we changed it and then we got it right and knew when the hand-on happened if he goes that far in you pass it to that player etc and from that moment on Scotland grew but it was too late already Given that they will go into that final game against Brazil feeling good about themselves I'm sure they will watch that game back and Steve Clarke will say look at how you played against a team ranked 7 or 8 or wherever it is in the world in that second half.

17:48You had them on the ropes. Yeah, absolutely. He will say that. I would imagine that's his first line when he eventually got in. He was a bit miffed before he got in, by the way. We stopped by a couple of journalists. He was a bit miffed. Yeah, yeah. That's another conversation. I feel sorry. After a game, as a player, as a manager, the last thing you want to do, the very last thing you want to do unless you've won, is talk to anyone. You want to get a debrief, you want to get it sorted, you want to be with your people. that's a positive debate for another day but he'll go in and say that and he won't need to say it too often because they'll know they'll feel it themselves we kind of had them we were causing them all sorts of problems they were throwing everything they were lumping the ball along I mean I don't know what the Moroccan for is but there was a bit of that there was quite a bit of that get the big lads on Exactly.

18:44And also, the goalkeeper went down with Cramp about five minutes to go because he's the one player that you have to stop the game for, right? Explain to me how you can have Cramp if you have not had a save to make. Talk me through that one. I don't think I can, Pat. I don't think I can. I think it's a bit of the old dark arts. I think possibly so. I think you could be right. The lovely thing is, again, this referee that everybody can't stand, he just went over and talked to him and basically said, you've got 30 seconds to get up, and walked away. Yeah. And he did. He was very firm. So, Scotland leave Boston now.

19:23The Scotland fans leave Boston. The fans are going to miss Boston. Boston are going to miss the fans. I mean, it's been the most beautiful kind of love story going on. like multi-part love story it must have been a joy to be part of it pat well you have to remember scotland fans are tarts and what we did is we we had the same with germans right we had the same in germany and we kind of make everyone fall in love with it kind of a little bit and that's exactly what happened here as well um i was um i was doing a i was djing last night uh before a gig in Boston and it was I actually laughed out loud at one point in time to show you how ridiculous this was so I walked in and the bouncers were outside and the bouncers were in love with the people who were coming in I have never known that in my life that's never happened it's never happened let's be fair about this man it's just not happening and there was two security guys before the band would come back, come off at the end and I was going to take over the DJing again, I was up with the two big security men at the back and they were like, everybody's mate, they were letting everyone through.

20:36They were going, oh, can we help you here? I'm thinking, they're going to start buying us drinking, this is security that I'm doing this. So, and the security guy came here and goes, you know, you guys, I'm not trying to Boston accent, but you guys, it's incredible, but we have one real problem that's been a big problem with you guys over here and I said what's that? We have ran out of beer in every single pub. It's a real problem for us. Well done everyone. Well done everyone. Finally Pat hunch, gut, whatever you want to go with, are Scotland for the first time going to get out of a group? I heard a stat today on the way back when we gave them a stat and the stat is from the operator supercomputer that currently our percentage chances of getting through are 76.

21:2476 % which what I did say to him being slightly less positive very Scottish about this see if it's still 76 % at the end of all the games in the second round I'll listen but it might not be that look we've got a chance and if we put on a decent performance against Brazil and say you lost 1-0 the likelihood is we still go through so for all my chat about we find new and exciting ways to fail. I'm still hopeful we've got a chance, yeah. Pat, absolute pleasure to talk to you as always and we'll chat to you again soon.

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23:13Five likes for... My favorite World Cup moment. It's the first World Cup I properly remember watching. Argentina 78. 78, the ticker tape, Mario Kempes, Ari Hahn scoring goals from miles out and always one of my favourite World Cup moments, Archie Gemmels' great goal for Scotland against the Dutch. What makes the World Cup such a special tournament is the atmosphere, the colour, it is a meeting of the nations and of people who love football. The People World Cup 2026. Listen on BBC Sounds. The Football Daily Podcasts.

23:55The other game in Scotland's group, Brazil-Haiti, Brazil winning 3-0. Let's bring in Tim Vickery, who is the only person you want to speak to about South American football, frankly. This Brazil side are a bit of an enigma, Tim. How are people feeling in Brazil about them? Yeah, they are. they're an enigma shrouded in a mystery wrapped in a in a i don't know what um they've uh they've been playing whack-a-mole for a right for a while now uh one problem appears and they solve it creating another problem for themselves it's been a very strange build-up very very strange build-up everyone is feeling much much better about things now the campaign is is underway um with the first victory but if i may let me take you down because we're going to a copper america played in the united states exactly 10 years ago the second game was against haiti they won 7-1 the first game they drew nil nil to ecuador and the third game they lost one nil to peru and were eliminated in the group phase so that tells you a little bit about the dangers of reading too much into rabbit killing.

25:13Coon, you got a couple of goals. Vinny Jr. got a goal. They would be expected to beat Haiti, but did you see more of what Brazilian fans want to see from them? I don't think that the idea of the team in the first game against Morocco made a great deal of sense. I feel badly for Igor Thiago because I think he was hung out to dry a little bit because one of the ideas of the team is that Vinny Vinicius Jr. stays up and why not you don't want him running back he stays up so the thing that Mateus Cunha does is he will sacrifice himself he will he will get behind the line of the ball he will cover that left side when Brazil don't have possession enabling Vinny to stay up yeah now against Morocco when they didn't play Cunha they played Igor Thiago which was a surprise no one saw that coming it meant that there was no one in that space and Morocco's out ball and the reason for their first half dominance was that they could always play the ball into Hakimi, the attacking right back and he always had a corridor in which to run so the team simply didn't make sense and Igor Thiago ended up carrying the can for that but I think that's more of the fault of the coach than it is of the player they looked far better balanced with Cunha in there but as that result from 10 years ago might seem to indicate Haiti are kind of perfect opponents because they don't defend particularly well and especially they don't defend particularly well in that space between their right wing back and their right centre back which is exactly where Vinny is and it's exactly where Brazil's three first half goals came from.

27:11So it steps in the right direction, yes, and it's a morale boost. And if Ancelotti isn't feeding the pressure and just raises his eyebrow, Roger Moore style and bats all the criticism away, you can be sure that the players are feeding the pressure. They go on social media, they see things that are being said about them and they will be feeling the pressure. So this is a terrific morale booster. And it more or less ensures their qualification for the knockout stage. And I think Ancelotti all along has felt that the group phase is a bit of a phony war. And the thing will start once the knockout games come.

27:50There wasn't much urgency in the second half from Brazil. Because they could have really put the hammer down. And they didn't. Yeah, a little bit surprising. Because given the fact that Morocco and Brazil have drawn the first game. it would sing that first place in this group will come down to goal difference. That's likely now because you would certainly expect Morocco to beat Haiti. And Brazil now have a goal advantage of two. But Morocco could well overtake that, given that Brazil are facing a Scottish side, which will be fighting for their lives in the competition. Is a conclusion from that that Ancelotti is not really concerned about first or second place?

28:36that is one possible conclusion but he is proving very very hard to read the side that took the field in the opening game against Morocco no one, no one in the Brazilian press picked that side no one thought, that was a surprise to everyone and we found out that the players only knew shortly before the game that didn't work did it so this time the players knew much earlier although the press didn't know so it's all this there's a fascinating little cultural name of tug of war going on there because Ancelotti from the Italian school where you don't really want to do anything more than you have to do and the Brazilian approach to World Cups it's just so important to them the idea of starting cold no no no no you are allowed to ease off in the third game if you've won your first two that isn't the situation in which Brazil find themselves which is bad news for Scotland in the sweltering heat of Miami Rafinha went off injured.

29:37Have we had any update on him? And also, do we know if and when Neymar might be available to come back in? Yeah, don't know about Rafinha yet. That looked a little bit worrying. Although he was sitting on the touchline and he wasn't receiving treatment. But if it's a muscular problem, that is a little bit worrying. Ancelotti has said that Neymar will be available for selection for the Scotland game. The whole thing with Neymar is a massive leap of faith. And it's more than a month that he's played. And frankly, gentlemen, his form before his latest injury wasn't particularly good. It wasn't. And Ancelotti has, and this is part of him, it's one of the reasons he's so successful as a coach, he does have a reverence for talent.

30:26and I think he is hoping that in the business end of the tournament as it wears on, as Neymar acquires a little bit of a rhythm, of a match rhythm and as people get tired, as opponents get tired by exposure to the number of games and the number of games in extreme heat that may become the business end in perhaps little cameo roles, Neymar will be able to tip the balance but it is a leap of faith. Tim, you're in Rio at the moment. What is the feeling in Brazil? Are the fans confident? Are they a little bit downtrodden? What's the vibe in general? Well, remember, it's been 24 years since they won the World Cup.

31:07So the Brazilian public, they're a strange mixture of kind of spoilt by too much success and frustrated by not a lot of success in recent times. There's a whole generation of young adult Brazilians who've never seen their country be world champions. And remember, every campaign since the last win in 2002 has ended when they've come up against a European team in the knockout stages. One of the reasons they've got a European at the helm. Now, Ancelotti himself is starring in an advert that shows a newspaper headliner poll saying that 72 % of Brazilians don't believe they're going to win this year.

31:44But let me tell you, this is an extremely manic, depressive sporting culture. it can go from we are hopeless we have absolutely no chance we're humiliating ourselves to we are unstoppable no one can lay a glove on us within 20 seconds and maybe that process has just started it tonight also it seems quite familiar in England I mean we have we go through those those feelings and those emotions all the time it has been quite a lot longer since we won anything I think it was 66 wasn't it yes yeah it was it was it was what did from your point of view and I know it is quite hard, as you've alluded to, to second guess what Ancelotti is doing and what he will do.

32:25What would you say the ceiling for this Brazil side is at this tournament? Well, he's only there because he wants to win. And he knows, I spoke to him the day that he was appointed, and he knows that success in this job is winning the World Cup and failure is anything else. Now, he's very shrewdly managed to get himself a contract up until the 2030 World Cup before this one started. So he's got himself covered. Oh, he's a smart cookie, Carlo Bancelotti. This is not his first rodeo. No, but he thinks they can win. He does. It looks a little bit of a long shot at the moment, but the World Cup is like time speeded up.