WORLD CUP DAY 3: Scotland win, just, and water breaks dictate

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1:27Gregor, Scotland have won a World Cup match. Mate, before we get into any analysis, how are you feeling?

1:35Gregor Robertson: I'm feeling euphoric, but also like, at the same time, slightly worried about the next two games now. I suppose that's a standard position for the Scotsman. But no, like, this doesn't happen very often. I was reading the Times kind of running feed on this and Mark Palmer, the Scottish correspondent was saying this is the fifth time that Scotland have won a World Cup game the last one was 1990 against Sweden so yeah, doesn't happen often certainly not in my lifetime it was a tough watch for large spells but we got there in the end just about and let's look, it sets us up we're in it now until the end we're in it in the Morocco game we're in it in the Brazil game and who knows we might even be in it if we keep them down to some respectable scorelines Yeah exactly that's the kind of dreaming we want you mentioned some of the coverage on the Times website this is what Michael Grant had to say the Scottish football correspondent he said this on the Times website Scotland won their opening game at the World Cup it's as simple as that no frills barely a moment to enjoy it between John McGill's goal and the final whistle which felt like it took five hours to come but they won they are top of group c after a victory at the world cup for the first time since 1990 and the first in an opening game since 1982 gannon doak was a creative spark but too many were anxious they were poor in possession and pinned by haiti the worst team they will face in the second half the tartan army did not care in the end 1-0 mcgin top of the group nights like these don't come around often an endurance test with a beautiful conclusion and i think that sums it up pretty perfectly as Michael so often does Gregor.

3:21Why do you think it was such a tough watch? You know we, you, myself, we all talked them up going into this game and listen they've won, we're not doing them down but this was a tough watch at times particularly in that second half. Michael mentioned nerves there, do you think some of the big players maybe did get a bit nervous or tactics, what do you think? Why was it such a nervous watch?

3:43Gregor Robertson: It's hard to say, I mean we started quite well actually. There were some good combinations down the left between Andy Robertson and John McGinn. That was obviously the one kind of call in the team selection was to put McGinn on the left and stick with a 4-4-2 and I don't think we'll see it again. I think that's the one thing as excited we all were by seeing Shankland up front with a strike partner. There's no way we can allow Morocco or Brazil to kind of cut through the middle of us as happens so frequently in parts of this game. So that That was one issue. And I don't think you got the bet, like when you play a four, a four-man midfield and McGinn's on the left, I don't know, I don't think he was able to sort of drift into those little pockets, the sort of number 10 spaces he does so well for Aston Villa.

4:30Gregor Robertson: And we ultimately didn't keep the ball well enough. We tried and tried and tried to get the ball out to Ben Gann and Dokku, as Michael said correctly, was the one kind of real creative spark. his pace even in the build up to the goal that was a that was his kind of his little spark that got the cross into the box, got past the full back got the cross into the box and then the chance presented itself for him again so yeah it's hard so soon after the game to think what went wrong, I don't think it is nerves I don't think we froze, I don't think I don't think that was the issue, I think we didn't keep the ball well enough and we didn't look particularly up front, we didn't really still, despite having two up front actually use them we didn't get the ball into Shanklin or Jay Adams very often and we didn't really seem to have much capacity to link the play between the midfield and the attack very well either, so I would be amazed if we don't see another man in midfield in the next two games we have got a bit of reaction gregor this is johnny northcroft he was with michael grant in the ground this is what he had to say so have you ever waited 28 years for something and then just wished it was over that's what watching scotland was like in boston um beautiful stuff at the end the tartan army singing scotland's on fire bouncing up and down but my goodness what they what we had to go through to get there um steve clark went to up front tried to be brave but are Scotland good enough to play two up front against anyone?

6:13The ball didn't stick with the strikers. We had no control in midfield. Lewis Ferguson was a sort of one-man unit in that area. We're terrified by Haiti's transition pace. Quite a lot of nervous players out there. McGinn scored after good work by our one really quality performer on the night, Ben Gannon Doak. Didn't settle us, though. Second half wasn't much better. Haiti missed chances Piero should have scored somehow Kenny McLean stayed on after absolutely nailing one of their players in stoppage time absolutely rode our luck but we will take it it's got on the top of the group for the first time and I actually don't know when fans have gone off into the night singing their songs ready to drink Boston or Foxborough or wherever we are dry I've just forgotten how much torture watching Scotland in World Cup says.

7:11But hey, we will take it. For better or worse, and it might kill us. Scotland are back. Scotland are back. Top of the group. It's got to get better though. Yeah, I mean, I've got to agree with you, Greg, as to some of your points from before, which I wanted to bring back in there. Do you think players like McTominay as well, you know, you talked about keeping hold of possession. there were quite a few times when he gave the ball away when maybe he was thinking about times when he was playing number 10 you know in his new role playing a little bit fast and loose with possession and you were going hang on Scott you're meant to be a central midfielder in a 4-2, 4-4-2 here keep hold of the ball a little bit do you actually think that maybe listen, 4-4-2 served its purpose got the win, gave the fans what they want actually this team and this group of players might be better with a 4-5-1

8:02Gregor Robertson: Yeah, yeah I mean there was logic to what Steve Clark did here and we discussed that at length before the game you know having someone around Shankland kind of having Ben Doak in the team was a guarantee and then I just feel that to kind of control the game a bit more we will need another midfield body and part of this is probably thrust upon us a bit Billy Gilmore's injury sort of changed probably his thinking a little bit and we don't have that type of player so probably the player to come in would be Ryan Christie and then that would allow McTominay to play a little bit higher up the pitch and to kind of make those runs into the box because actually we should say Andy Robertson put in a lot of good crosses, there was a lot of good deliveries from the left and Shankland was always just a yard or two away from getting on the end of them we didn't really have enough enough players committing themselves to get into the box either.

9:05Gregor Robertson: So yeah, lots to think about, lots to ponder moving forward. But first of all, be happy. Yeah, well, I was going to say we've done what we so often do on this podcast and delve straight into the analysis. But what was your reaction to the goal? I mean, it was slightly fortuitous, it must be said, but it came from a good move. It came after the kind of drinks break where you slightly wondered whether Steve Clarke had got into his players and said, look, let's get forward. Let's play some direct balls. Let's try and get Ben Duggan and Doak on the ball. And that worked. How did you feel when that ball hit the back of the net?

9:39I mean, muted shouts, you know, trying not to wake the rest of your family up?

9:43Gregor Robertson: Yeah, it was vigorous arm thrusting in the air, but very quietly. Yeah, that's the way it is. You've got two sleeping children upstairs. Yeah, no, that was great. It was a great, great moment. And, you know, you could see it was a great moment in the stadium. you could see like the atmosphere beforehand, the anthems loved that, just brought a smile to my face it was great great stuff, great scenes so yeah that was great and there was the moment before that when McTominay hit the post as well again, kind of causing a bit of anxiety down the right and then just laying it back from McTominay you've got to remember McTominay coming off the back of a bit of illness as well so maybe that affected him a little bit so we had a few a few kind of half openings in the first half but in the second half it got really really anxious and as I say I think they can have cut through us far too easily and that Piero header towards with like five minutes to go my goodness my heart was in my mouth and I think probably the whole of Scotland would agree with that Yeah very very nervy some players though I think do deserve a bit of credit Grant Hanley a player that potentially at times hasn't always been top top player for Scotland or seen as that, he did his job won a lot of his headers, cleared the ball and I thought Andy Robertson captaining at left back had a brilliant game and Ben Gannan-Doke as well looks like a real find for Scotland in terms of offering something different which we'd mentioned in the preview shows.

11:14So I think there are positives to be had here

11:16Gregor Robertson: Yeah, I think Aaron Hickey had a bit of a difficult game, he's obviously missed a lot of the season at Brentford through injury Hanley and Henry stuck to their tasks and I have to be brutally honest and I'm slightly terrified about the prospect of that back four going up against what we're going to face next because we're going to come on to talk about it and Morocco look like a real team and Brazil after a shaky start started to assert themselves in that game as well and they've got some amazing talent at the top end of the pitch So it will be more of a back-to-the-wall kind of approach in the next two games.

12:00Gregor Robertson: And it's about how you kind of turn those moments. And there'll be a lot of those moments of defence into attack. And I think, again, Ganondoke will be the key. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we should just say as well, I'm thinking back to the Euros and previous conversations that we've had on this podcast. There is a flip side to this, mate, of, you know, winning ugly in football, in tournament football, is what you have to do. and Steve Clarke's got them over the line. There's a clean sheet, there's a goal and there's three points. So whilst it's not the 3-1 win that everyone wanted, it's not the 2-0 win, it's not the procession, this is what Scotland haven't done for so long.

12:35This is what you have talked about wanting for so long. So there's a joy and a euphoria in that even if it is a very torturous 1-0 win.

12:45Gregor Robertson: I mean, absolutely. I think Boston will see that tonight. they will see the joy of the thousands of Scots in the city tonight and you know they will enjoy it deservedly as well so you're right it's not, you know we completely, we just didn't show up in the last two Euros and well we have you know, again this was underwhelming we did get the job done and you know in recent years and under Clark there have been many moments against big teams, big nations, where we have stepped up. So that's the hope. That's what you've got to hope, that we kind of raise ourselves against a kind of better standard of opposition.

13:31Gregor Robertson: But absolutely, coming back to it, enjoy this, first of all, tonight. Because Haiti posed some issues, like they posed some problems. They had some dangerous players. They were brave. When they won the ball back, they went forward quickly. And Isidor kept trying to die for penalties in the first half. They were trying to do everything they could to find an open then. Bellegarde's kind of, you know, always, when he got on the ball, you were always a bit of anxiety about that as well. Yeah, I thought they were, you know, they put on a really good showing for themselves as well. So, just delighted that we got through it in the end.

14:12Yeah, absolutely. Plenty of celebrations to be had in Boston tonight, as you mentioned. Listeners all want to know though, How are you going to be celebrating? Are you going to go to bed for a bit? Are you going to stay up? You've got your young daughter who's got her Scotland kit recently for her birthday. What's the plan for tomorrow? Family celebrations? Get the bunting out? What's going on?

14:32Gregor Robertson: I think she's just about old enough that she knows there's a game tonight so she'll be up the first thing in the morning, crack it on, what's that, in about two hours' time and say, what was the score, Daddy? And I'll be able to tell her we won. So, happy days. Exactly. And, perfect, she can watch the two-minute highlights and doesn't have to go through the torture of the full 90s. What a dream. What an absolutely ideal place to be. Wonderful, wonderful stuff for Scotland. You can read Johnny Northcroft. We obviously heard from him earlier with that voice message and Michael Grant. He's on the Times website as well with the match report and reaction to Scotland have won a World Cup game.

15:06Three points. They are top of the group and the reason they are top of the group is that Morocco and Brazil drew. We're going to talk about that just after this little break. We'll be back in a second. Thank you.

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17:21Welcome back to the Game Football Podcast from the Times and Sunday Times. This is our World Cup Daily Show, episode three, your essential briefing every morning. We've just had the Scotland joy. I think there was some joy in there, Gregor Robertson. But now we do some more analysis. There was plenty of analysis in the part one of Brazil against Morocco. What a fascinating game this was. I spoke to James Geerbrandt a little earlier, just before we hit record on this episode, and asked him what he made of this game. This is what he had to say. Well, I thought it was a really, really good game for the first 45 minutes, and not really a game to make you feel more confident about Brazil's chances of adding that sixth star to the shirt, because Morocco really, I think, played the more impressive football in that first half.

18:11They had moments of really good, sweeping, penetrative combination play, particularly down Brazil's right-hand side against the right-back Roger Ibanez, who had a really, really tough game. The Morocco midfield, I think, remember at the last World Cup in 2022 when Morocco, of course, got to the semifinals, and everyone was very impressed by Morocco's midfield three of Unahi, Amala and Amrabat as it was then. Well, Unahi is now partnered by Ayub Bouadi, the 18-year-old, and Neil El-Ainaoui. And if anything, I think this trio potentially looks even like an upgrade on the midfield trio that Morocco had at the last World Cup.

19:00Morocco did kind of their threat did kind of peter out a bit after halftime it was a very different game after halftime the game sort of really kind of slowed down a lot Brazil I think came back into it and sort of rested back a bit of control which I guess is good from their point of view but going into the tournament there are big question marks over Brazil's fullback positions and their central midfield. And I don't think this match really allayed any of those questions. Ibanez, as I mentioned, had a very tough game. Casemiro also had a very tough game. His midfield pivot with Bruno Guimaraes really didn't look like it worked very well at all.

19:47Brazil were a bit better when Fabinho came on, but they just don't have a lot of real quality options in those positions, particularly at fullback. And I think that's a puzzle that Ancelotti is going to have to try and solve during this World Cup. But it doesn't look like it's going to be easy. James outlining a good summary there, Gregor, of the game in terms of Brazil's frailties. So many of us, me included, James as well on one of the preview shows, were so excited about the possibility of a Carlo Ancelotti Brazil team maybe pulling together this kind of disparate group of stars like Gabriel and Marquinhos, maybe ageing stars like Casemiro but it just didn't work did it to me I mean it was an entertaining first half I thought Morocco were fantastic be it other than Vinicius' goal Brazil didn't look like a team who were going to win this tournament what did you make of it?

20:42Gregor Robertson: No yeah you're right I think I thought Morocco were outstanding in the first half in particular started brilliantly moved the ball so quickly and really Brazil's kind of main threat or only threat really was when Vinicius got on the ball on the left and there was one kind of dart to the byline and a deflected cross that stood up and Thiago, he thought he was going to get his head to it but didn't quite manage to. That was a decent chance. And then, as you say, when he got the ball on the cutting, as he does so often, from the left onto his right foot, you knew that the net was going to ripple.

21:16Gregor Robertson: So it was like Brazil kind of seemed more like a team we have like individuals who can create a kind of special moment whereas Morocco looked like a team who were kind of greater than the sum of their parts and they were really exciting I thought I think Brazil improved a lot in the second half undoubtedly I think the changes that Ancelotti made at half-time helped Casemiro I mean a big part of this was kind of Morocco's dominance in the middle of the pitch I've got 18-year-old Bouade in the midfield he was Lloyd Luke's an absolute star kind of running all over Brazil's Brazil's kind of old war horses in the middle of the pitch and Unai who's someone who you remember in Qatar kind of made such an impression I think he was at Marseille at the time now he's at Girona and I think he's the kind of player where back in the day you would think he would earn a great move off the back of that last World Cup that's not really what happens these days and there must be some kind of level of inconsistencies with him because he was great in this game again so kind of lithe and and uh and sharp and and and kind of positive as well every time he gets on the ball so i thought yeah i thought morocco were outstanding brazil um yeah lots of work to do yeah and martin samuel's written a really interesting piece that you can read on the times website now making the point that the drinks break saved Brazil a little bit in this game.

22:48Morocco were really on top. And after the drinks break was when Brazil got the goal. Obviously, this also slightly applies to Scotland with their goal as well. It is becoming a slightly interesting theme. I've seen a lot of people mention commentators in the US talking about it, and that's the end of the first quarter. Whereas actually, in our head, we're going, oh, well, this is just a drinks break for hydration purposes. Actually, coaches, teams, and maybe a US audience are viewing it as we've now got a game of football in four quarters. What do you think of that? Because, you know, it happens in our game now back here where, you know, goalkeepers go down for these supposed injuries and both teams get a bit of a water break and a bit of a chance to catch at.

23:29But do you think we're going to see that more and more, that actually it's going to become a significant moment in the game where teams' momentum might change and we might see some goals scored after it?

23:40Gregor Robertson: Yeah, I think it's a problem, yeah. you kind of understand when the circumstances necessitate that for the player's safety and health that they should have a break and they should have an opportunity to take on some fluids. But it's not always been the case in all these games. I think the Open game was measured at like 23 degrees and it was like cloudy for large parts of it. There'd been like, you know, a lot of rain as well. Not every game has been, you know, the kind of circumstances in which you need a water break but it's mandatory now and it's commercialised so that's a big issue and I think it does affect the flow of a game undoubtedly, I mean like a half time affects the flow you know, affects the flow of a game as you say stoppages like the ones that officials are trying to stamp out with goalkeepers going down definitely stop the flow of a game you see players going down to fair injury and they're not just goalkeepers and there's a reason they're doing it, it's to try and kind of stop momentum and you know have an opportunity to kind of get your senses again so yeah I don't think there's anything we can do about it in this World Cup but it's going to be something that I think will play a part in throughout the tournament Definitely I couldn't agree more.

25:09I think it's going to be a big issue that's going to rumble and rumble. Martin Samuel writing about it on the Times website. You can read that now. Gregor, just quickly on Brazil's forward line. Obviously, Vinicius a superstar. Igo Thiago starting this game. A brilliant journey for him. A brilliant story. But I did half wonder whether he's a little bit out of his depth here or whether just a little bit not quite ready for the international stage. Obviously got Neymar injured. Cunha came on. This may be an example of Brazil having a group of players that aren't, when they're on their day and firing, they can be great, but maybe not quite the Brazil that we're used to from the days when we were growing up.

25:46Gregor Robertson: That's definitely not the Brazil we're used to. I wouldn't go quite as far as to say that about Igor Tiago. I mean, I think what he has at Brentford is a team that plays very much to his strengths. And there were moments, particularly in the first half, where Alisson would mix up his kicking. Obviously, a lot of the time he'd be going short, but sometimes you try and go along and be direct and I feel like Ancelotti put him in the team to do that to be like a different outlet to get them up the pitch sometimes and mix up their play they didn't they didn't utilize them very well

26:21Gregor Robertson: they're also not really a team that's kind of just going to get lots of crosses in the box and that's where a lot of his goals came for with Brentford too so I think he's a really good player I think he's someone who can he can do a bit of everything he can drop deep and link play he can be the target man he can run him behind and he can create a goal out of nothing but I think this was a fairly disjointed performance and a difficult first game for him in the World Cup but I'm not sure that'll be the last we'll see of him Yeah, earlier on in the evening Gregor Qatar getting a last minute equaliser against Switzerland I couldn't quite believe Switzerland had allowed them back into the game but a brilliant moment for Qatar getting their first point at a World Cup a brilliant header as well late on in this game.

27:04In terms of the games we've got coming up I should say that I've still got one game to watch. I think you're going to go back to bed in a minute but at five o 'clock I've still got Australia-Turkey to finish my shift. We've got some intriguing games coming up tomorrow. Netherlands against Japan being one of them. Sweden in action as well. Germany, Curacao. If you're picking one that you definitely had to watch which are you going to pick given that you're going to be very sleep deprived?

27:28Gregor Robertson: Netherlands, Japan. I think that could be a cracker. I said before in one of our previous shows I think the Netherlands are a team that it could well click for we've got a lot of really talented players some have come back from injury and it seems like we're always saying that it could happen for Netherlands and we did that for Spain for so long and I think it's still eminently possible that it could happen for this team there's still a lot of talent in this team so I'm excited to see them and I'm really excited to see Japan as well because we saw obviously in the friendly against England it's one example of how much that team has developed and they've been viewed as one of the dark horses so I think that's a big game and a really, really intriguing group.

28:15Yeah, loads and loads of interesting games to come but I am still excited about Australia-Turkey. I might need to go and make myself a cup of tea to make it through, Gregor, but we'll let you go back to bed. Thank you very much for joining me for some snap reaction. Thank you very much for listening too. We've got loads, loads more to come tomorrow we're going to hear from some of our more reporters out in the States. Tom Olen as well is in Curacao to watch their game against Germany. Loads more to come on the Times website as well. Stay with us and keep listening. We'll see you very soon.

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