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Key events
Steve Clarke spoke to ITV: “A few rotations just to freshen it up. We’re going to need a big shift tonight so it’s good to get some fresh faces in. Someone like Ben [Gannon Doak] coming off the bench can be really valuable in the second half.
“Morocco are one of the favourites for the tournament. They’ll be in the last four again. We have to be as good as we can be with and without the ball. It’s a big ask, but they’re ready.”
Doug Stratton gets in touch: “That Joe Jordan quote in the shirts (21:57) has got me in bits. 1978 was my first World Cup, and I genuinely believed - briefly- that Scotland would always be there, and always be competitive. Just the thought, now, that we might make it out of the group stage, at last, almost fifty years later…. Ach, I’m done.”
So does Kieron O’Hara: “As you correctly pointed out in your blog, Scotland have never exited the group stage via the front door so it would be historic if they managed it now. However, I’m not sure anyone has yet pointed out that, if the finals of the 1970s had been run on the same group tiebreak rules as 2026, Scotland would have qualified in 1974 and 1978, in 1974 at the expense of Brazil, and in 1978 putting out the Netherlands.”
Team USA’s flying start continues. Here’s Alexander Abnos’s report from Seattle.
Soccer won. That much could have been predicted before a temperate and bright Friday afternoon in the pacific northwest, in a rare match between two sides that can agree on that terminology.
This week, Roy Keane suggested John McGinn can look like a pub player at times. McGinn took those comments in good cheer when talking to ITV:
“I didn’t think what he said was that bad! He followed it up with something complimentary.
“He was right. I actually think the amount of games that I’m looking at a pub player is becoming less and less as I get older. “I try and not have as many games like that and be more consistent. I don’t think it was too bad. People were saying: ‘Did you see what he said? I just thought it was quite nice that they were talking about me!
“We’ve got nothing to fear going into these games. All the pressure is going to be on Morocco. All the pressure is going to be on Brazil. What we’ve realised now with the players going and playing abroad and playing at the highest level is a lot of it is about belief.
“If you think we’ve got to play Morocco and Brazil, two teams in the top ten in the world, we’re beat before you’ve started. I think the last few days have shown that this World Cup, anything’s possible. Hopefully we can probably surprise Morocco – but that won’t be a surprise to ourselves if we go and get three points on Friday.”
Justin Kavanagh gets in touch: “Thanks for the Joe Jordan pic and quote John, which has really cheered me up. I spent half the day (my birthday) in the dental chair having knocked out a tooth (don’t ask!). Big Joe was one of the great heroes of my youth; that quote is magical and looking in the mirror now doesn’t feel quite so devastating.”
Morocco were Scotland’s final opponents at the France 1998 World Cup and 28 years later, they are reunited. Here’s the starting teams from Saint-Etienne.
Scotland: Jim Leighton; Jackie McNamara, Colin Hendry, David Weir, Tommy Boyd; Craig Burley, Paul Lambert, John Collins, Christian Dailly; Gordon Durie, Kevin Gallacher.
Morocco: Driss Benzekri; Abdelilah Saber, Lahcen Abrami, Noureddine Naybet; El Moustafa Hadji, Smahi Triki, Gharib Amzine, Youssef Chippo, Tahar El Khalej; Abdeljilil Hadda, Salaheddine Bassir.
Mary Waltz gets in touch: “How can Scotland not be everyone’s second team? The fans. Amazing. Singing at the Red Sox game, marching down the streets of Boston with their bagpipes.”
Ewan Murray
Scotland’s switch to three/five man defence is no surprise. The inclusion of Nathan Patterson at right wing back instead of Aaron Hickey will turn heads, however. There have been no reports of a Hickey fitness, albeit his minutes are typically managed after a significant injury that saw him miss more than a year at Brentford. Hickey was short of his best against Haiti and received a yellow card, with those elements perhaps the simple explanation for this switch.
The exact shape of Scotland’s midfield will be intriguing. Ryan Christie plays in a deeper role for Bournemouth than typically for Scotland. Christie, one of three changes to the starting XI, is likely to be used to support Che Adams in attack.
Scotland’s team shirts are embroidered inside the neck with a message from Joe Jordan. “I came from a small place and set out in my life and career to go the furthest I could,” it reads. “For me that was playing for my country in World Cups.”
Scotland look to be 5-4-1, or even 4-5-1. Morocco will again play 4-2-3-1, by the looks of it.
Ewan Murray
Ally McCoist, who scored the winner for Scotland against Switzerland at Euro 96, is wandering around the media centre in Boston wearing his country’s strip from that very era. Scotland were denied a place in the knock-out stage of that tournament on goal difference (or, as far as Scots are concerned, because David Seaman let a Patrick Kluivert shot through his legs at Wembley as England beat the Netherlands 4-1).
There are shades of 1996 around Scotland’s scenario here. A narrow win over Haiti leaves Steve Clarke’s team with at least the possibility of being in a goal difference scrap for the last 32. Scotland could almost certainly avoid that anxiety with the claiming of a point from this game against a hotly-tipped Moroccan team. Morocco are rightly the heavy favourites. Scotland have to prove the cliche true in showing they are better as the underdog. Easier said than done.
Three changes for Scotland: Kieran Tierney, Nathan Patterson and Ryan Christie wil start with Aaron Hickey, Ben Gannon-Doak and Lawrence Shankland on the bench. That suggests a formation change. Morocco are unchanged from the Brazil game.
The teams
Scotland: Gunn, Hanley, Hendry, Tierney, Patterson, McTominay, Ferguson, Robertson, McGinn, Christie, Adams. Subs: Kelly, Gordon, Hickey, Fletcher, Dykes, Stewart, Souttar, Hyam, Doak, Hirst, Shankland, McLean, Ralston, Curtis, McKenna.
Morocco: Bounou, Hakimi, Diop, Riad, Mazraoui, El Aynaoui, Bouaddi, Diaz, Ounahi, El Khannous, Saibari. Subs: Mohamedi, Tagnaouti, Amrabat, Saadane, Talbi, Rahimi, El Ouahdi, El Mourabet, Yassine, Sbai, Belammari, El Kaabi, Amaimouni-Echghouyab, Halhal, Saleh-Eddine.
Referee: Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan)
With the USA team winning well against Australia, feels like all three host teams will go through. The hosts in 2010 and 2022 didn’t get through the groups but good for business, right? Nice piece from the excellent Joe Callaghan.
In putting himself out front and centre Marsch has, arguably, given his players the room to feel their way into the roles, before meeting the moment. Out there in the rest of the world, some may already be tiring of Marsch’s excesses but Canada is revelling in his leadership. Thursday was both catharsis and crisis and Marsch led the country through both and left windmilling his arms for more.
Tony Barr gets in touch with a question: “D’you think there’s a lot of ‘we mustn’t underestimate the Scots’ doing the rounds on the Moroccan TV pre-game chat, or is that peculiar to English pundits when your lot are up against lower opposition?
”Either way, I like to think the Moroccan Alan Shearer (Hamdallah?) is telling someone right now that Scotland ‘ iinahum laysuu ‘aghbia’’.”
Weather watch: it’s *just* 26 degrees in Foxboro, with some clouds in the sky. What counts as a heatwave in Largs, to put it another way.
The transfer market never stops and Ayyoub Bouaddi has been linked with just about everybody since his showing against Brazil. He’s a Lille player at present, but unlikely to be one beyond the closure of the window.
Ouahbi was referring to Bouaddi’s performance in a 1-0 victory against Ancelotti’s Madrid in October 2024 on the day he turned 17, which ended with Lille’s supporters singing happy birthday to him on the pitch.
That ensured that every big club in Europe has been tracking his progress since. Arsenal are in preliminary talks to sign a player believed to be valued at about £70m by Lille; Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich are thought to have registered an interest and Liverpool had scouts watching him on Saturday.
Against Brazil, it was noticeable the Morocco fans were significantly louder. That should make the atmosphere one to remember in Foxboro.
Steve Clarke is not a man to overstate things and he was typically realistic in his assessment of the Moroccans.
“We are under no illusion about the size of the task. I feel Morocco are a really, really good side. They reached the last four of the last World Cup and I have a feeling this Morocco team is slightly better than that, so that gives you an idea of the task ahead. They have power, they have pace, they have little bits of skill that can open up a game. For me they are the real deal, a top side. We will have to be at our very best to compete.
“It is a big challenge for us. We give them a lot of respect. We expect they will probably have more of the ball, more possession. We have to make sure that when we have the ball we can be a threat to Morocco.”
Scott McTominay did not have his best game against Haiti but he remains his team’s key man.
You need only walk in the vicinity of Hampden Park to learn of McTominay’s standing as a Scotland player. Kenny Dalglish and Denis Law have never been depicted on portraits on the gable end of terraced flats close to the national stadium. McTominay, a player born in England, produced such an iconic moment against Denmark last November that it will sit as an artistic reference point for ever more.
Paul MacInnes has been out and about with the Scotland fans.
Just 10 days since they first began arriving in New England, Scotland fans have managed to bring yet another nation under their thrall. Carrying a letter of support from FC Cologne, the last place to fall for the Scots two years ago, they have charmed, amused and fascinated the locals in Boston and beyond. Following the antics of the Scottish fans, their discovery of tailgating or their dancing at the baseball, appears to have become an American pastime, with clips ubiquitous on everyone’s social media feeds.
Preamble
The Tartan Army have been making friends in Boston, and they were able to celebrate a first win since 1990 when beating Haiti on Saturday . The Concacaf team proved nothing like an Iran from 1978 or Costa Rica from 1990. Not that Scotland were particularly impressive, and there were Caledonian nerves jangling all evening. Will John McGinn’s deflected goal be the high point? Here comes a real challenge in the shape of the African champions* (Cas ruling permitting) Morocco, a team who were much the better team in their opening match with Brazil. And were semi-finalists last time out, though this is a far more expansive team that the battling outfit from Qatar. If the equation for qualification is four points then a draw here would be handy. Exiting the group stage via the front door for the first time would be within Scotland’s grasp. It’s on? Well, that’s what we’re about to find out.
Kick-off is 6pm ET/11pm UK time/8am AEST. Join me.
