Two on the Edge

The darkening skies reflect Scotland's men's football team's first appearance in a major tournament for 23 years. A long time, but nothing changes as we lost 0-2 to the Czech Republic in what, on paper at least, was the easiest game in the group. Scotland are ranked 44th in the world and the Czechs 40th while the other two teams in the group are 14th (Croatia) and 4th (England). The game was a good example of football as a 'weakest link' game with two ordinary players in blue making damaging errors that were punished by a striker on form. The first was a failure to close down a cross into the box and the second was a pointless long range shot which was easily blocked and set up the opportunity for a great bit of long-range skill. That one in particular probably felt low risk when the player tried it but it was the goal that killed the game, silencing the crowd and deflating the players. Hopefully he'll learn the lesson and show more composure in the future, but these things rarely even out for a small country like Scotland, whose chances on this sort of stage are few and far between, Ah well, just have to enjoy the rest of the tournament. So far the Italians have impressed me the most, although yet to see France play.