Graeme Souness has been bursting with pride watching the Tartan Army's friendly invasion winning hearts and minds in Boston. The Scotland legend is convinced Steve Clarke's men can do themselves proud by taking the nation to the World Cup knockout stage.
Souness on Fan Support
Souness has been lapping up the fan footage from the States with Scots making the most of their time in Massachusetts, blasting out the bagpipes, drinking the bars dry and blowing away the locals by belting out songs at the baseball. He said: "We are a passionate nation. What an advert our supporters are. The Scottish Tourist Board must be jumping up and down."
"It's not a surprise. It's typical of us. They go there and party. They very rarely cause a problem and even then it's generally too much drink and ending up fighting each other! But they don't involve whatever country or city they are in."
World Cup Hopes
There is the serious matter of the competition to contend with, and Clarke's troops have taken a huge leap towards history with the opening day nerve-shredding win against Haiti. Souness, who starred for Scotland at three World Cups, is convinced the country has already banked a spot in the knockout stages with the three points in the bag.
He tipped Clarke's band to turbo charge the Tartan Army with Morocco up next and then Brazil in the final group game. Souness said: "I think they are going to get out of the group. That's already a very good World Cup. Okay, it's structure in a way that makes it – not impossible – but very difficult not to qualify given the first game."
"Once you get out the group you are amongst some very good teams. But football is a mad business. Names on team sheets don't win you football matches – it's who turns up."
Lessons from Haiti Win
The Haiti win was absolutely vital – even if it was more of a slog than we would have liked. Souness won't turn his nose up at any result on the world stage but he admitted lessons have to be learned for the challenges that await. Scotland can't afford to be as generous with possession as they were in the second half against the Haitians as the Atlas Lions have the potential to maul teams who give them half a chance.
Souness, speaking to BBC Five Live, said: "I was delighted (with the win). I think we got away with it because you can't say we played particularly well, especially in the second half when we were holding on to a lead and couldn't keep the ball."
"That's difficult. If you keep giving the ball away in those conditions – where it's hot, humid and sticky – the opposition will hurt you. We'd want us to improve on that. They'll have to. There's no doubt Morocco are a very good team. They will deal with the conditions better than we will."
"But anything is possible. On the day a dodgy decision might go your way, there might be a player sent off. Anything can happen, as we saw with Cape Verde against Spain."
Memories of Spain 82
Scotland will need to contend with two teams in the top 10 in the world rankings – as well as the sweltering heat. The baking temperatures Stateside has brought memories of Spain 82 for Souness – when the Scots stunned Brazil by taking the lead before paying the price for making them angry on the way to an eventual 4-1 defeat.
He said: "Scotland will be aware of the challenge in front of them. It wasn't a surprise to me Morocco were arguably the better team against Brazil. To be diplomatic, some of the Brazilians play in England and they are not the top men."
"Brazil was always full of worldies. In '82, we did well for about 10 minutes. It was Seville in the summer and I remember lining up and looking at that lot and they didn't have a bead of sweat."
"I looked to my left and we were all bright red and soaking with sweat! I just thought, 'we might be in trouble today…' Davie Narey, the fool that he was, put us 1-0 up but they found another gear."
"But that Brazil team was the best team never to win a World Cup. They wrestle fabulous. We know what the challenges are this time. Morocco will be better in this sticky climate but don't write us off."
