Country vs Club vs Country

Scotland salvaged their World Cup qualification against Iceland. It was never very pretty but 3 points away from home is always welcome, especially after defeat in Macedonia. Stephen McManus fell on his sword to prevent a goal, which could have cost us dear. The ball was heading right onto Helguson’s head a yard out so a goal looked likely. Unfortunately for McManus, Gudjohnsen slotted away the spot kick with ease; so captain off and deficit halved, brown trousers time. Bad decision Mick. Cuellar did much the same thing last season and only an injury time Hesselink goal prevented his handball from winning Rangers the title. That night Nakamura’s shot was definitely net-bound and the resultant penalty was saved. Though in hindsight, which is my favourite sight after x-ray vision, Ugly Betty Cuellar missed the next game as well and the rest is three in a row history.

McManus is actually having a particularly shakey start to the season and Caldwell is by far the better of the two. In fact, if not for a couple of right good Caldwell interventions Scotland would have conceded more. I know he’s club captain but maybe the Loovens/Caldwell partnership could have an outing. Though the worst man on the park was Kenny Miller; half an hour to go, you bring on your experienced striker to hold the ball up and stretch their defence. Every time the ball came near him he lost it instantly. I’ve seen better control of a ball in the public park, whenever he tried to trap the ball it bounced 10 yards. Yes he’s a trier. Yes he has pace and runs the channels but there’s got to be some ability married onto that, otherwise just bring in the Olympic relay team. That isn’t just because he plays for the bad lads, granted he has had some right good games in a Scotland jersey but up until Wilson and Boruc decided to gift him 2 goals at Parkhead he hadn’t scored since Jordan popped her cherry. The last 10 minutes were torture; Graham Alexander thought it would be a good idea to take a man on on the edge of his own box and then there was a cracking clearance off the line from Caldwell. Commentators all agreed that the ball hit off him and he didn’t know much about it. I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt as he did turn his head into it.

Job done. Pampers removed. Move onto Setanta 2 to catch Croatia pumping England.

Croatia 0-3 England. Whit? Never saw that coming. Croatia did pull 1 back when the Croatian nearly kicked the head off Terry which amazingly, the ref allowed. But, to be fair England were sooperb and Rooney’s touch and pass to set up 11 year old Theo Walnut was sensational; caught and turned in mid-air leaving two Croatians baffled, while releasing the perfect pass all in one movement, unfortunately there isn’t anyone in dark blue capable of that level of skill. We have to rely on heart and dig, which has carried us pretty far and is the reason we’re always mince in friendlies, that are played at half pace. As usual the commentators were unbelievable; not if they were going to South Africa but wondering who they would fancy in the final. It got so ridiculous that at one point the question was asked, possibly by Chris Waddle, if Capello had instructed his charges to play badly against Andorra to lull Croatia into a false sense of security. What’s the matter with these people? Thing is, England are actually a good team to watch and there is a great player, three great players for every position in that team, but every other home nation country has it rammed down their throats by these patronising gits, not to mention the dreaded 1966. Having said that, Ashley Cole is a total trumpeter, not least because he gets to play the beast with two backs with Cheryl - now that’s a wummin - she even makes it bearable to look at the ginger wan in Girls Aloud. The Croatian support were tremendous - totally pumped by a team that the whole world hates more than a Harold Shipman XI yet they sung and bounced about at the end like they’d won the World Cup. There was a few extremely tasty Croatian burds in the crowd as well, which was at odds with the two Scottish munters they kept cutting to in Iceland.

Next up was the Republic vs Montenegro, didn’t last much of that game as there wasn’t a lot going on. The only thing that stuck in my craw was the sight of Aiden McGeady in the Irish strip.There has been a lot of debate over his choice of country and a lot written. Having just enjoyed the euphoria of the Scotland game I couldn’t help but be annoyed that such a spectacular talent is denied to us. Further to that, the Scotland team in Iceland featured 6 Celtic players, four of them in the midfield. It’s not inconceivable that we could have had an all Celtic midfield, which would be quite an achievement.

McGeady would be a Scotland starter no question. There isn’t a winger in the squad, Maloney is asked to play that role at times, but his natural instinct is to cut inside or go for goal himself, rather than hit the byeline to make a cross. I am not questioning McGeady’s right to choose which country he plays for, that is down to personal choice. What I am questioning is his reasons for doing so and the fact that his decision is applauded by a vast number of the Celtic support. I’m a coat tails Irishman myself; Irish grandparents on both sides, Irish surname you name it, but I really don’t buy into this glorification of all things Irish. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great place to visit, there is a great atmosphere and lovely crack (yes I know I’ve spelt that wrong but that’s the crack I like). What I don’t get is this glassy eyed love of the Republic team. This is a pure footballing point - whatever any preference there is, is down to individuals but surely a born and bred Scotsman would crawl over broken glass to play for his country? Many national teams in the past have had players turn out for them who are not exactly pure blood; Ireland famously made it to the semi-finals with the midfield stalwarts of Ray Houghton and Andy Townsend among others. Houghton from the Gorbals and Townsend sounds like Chas N Dave’s wee brother. Scotland have envoked the granny rule many times as well, with the likes of Matt Elliot and Nigel Quashie. These guys are different from McGeady in that they would have played for the country of their birth but weren’t good enough.

When McGeady made his decision Scotland were under Bertie Vogts, who made John Barnes look like a guru. Surely that couldn’t have swayed his decision? If it did it was pretty short sighted. Whatever his reasons and I’m sure they’re important to him, I can’t ever conceive wishing to play for a country other than Scotland. And I wonder how the same Celtic supporters would feel if the threatened limiting of foreign players is brought into play. 4 has been mooted - so that’s McGeady, Boruc, Nakamura and 1 more. We have no Scottish strikers so that would present a real problem. No Hinkel either (maybe not a bad thing) and hopefully our two Scottish centre backs stayed fit. Hell slap into McGeady if he lost his place due to this rule.

Still when Scotland have guys like the Govan Kafu, Kirk Broadfoot, we’re in safe hands. Give him his due, he had a right good debut. By my reckoning a business associate of David Murray will be in with a 10 million pound bid by Christmas.