SHOWER OF SCOTLAND

Sorry, I’m a Lady, The Devil Sent You to Lorado and Sleepy-Time-Toy are reminders that no one remembers the bad times, the mind is selective and focuses on the positives. Baccara’s back catalogue is roughly one song long, the others are rightly forgotten, a figment of only a few people’s imaginations. Scotland needed a certain song and took it around America; well, from Boston to Miami at least. The nation arrived with hope, boasting European champions, Premier League and Serie A winners among their cohort on the pitch, hoping to get through the group while drinking cities dry. All they had to do was get past Haiti, African champions* Morocco and those boys from Brazil.

It was the holiday of a lifetime for tens of thousands, seeing the sights and literally drinking them in. The Samuel Adams brewery had never seen the like before. The bagpipes were played, a duck became their mascot and TikBookers tried to get Americans to try Irn-Bru. Amid all the many disgraces at the Geopolitics World Cup, Scotland fans have been a refreshing antidote to the rightful negativity. On the pitch, Haiti were defeated thanks to Scotland’s solitary goal of the tournament [so far! – hopeful/unrealistic Football Daily Scotland Ed] but 70 seconds into the Morocco clash, the realities of a global competition hit home as Ismael Saibari scored. There was no lack of trying or encouragement from the travelling faithful, it just was not meant to be.

Football always gives you cruel hope, but there was next to no chance Steve Clarke’s side were going to give Brazil a gubbing. It took fewer than seven minutes for Scott McKenna to dawdle on the ball, before being dispossessed by Rayan in the penalty area. Vinícius Júnior, who was once so angry he didn’t win the Ballon d’Or that he refused to attend the ceremony, did the rest. McKenna does not have that diva personality but it does indicate the difference in the worlds they inhabit. Jack Hendry also did his best to mess things up but even VAR took pity on Scotland and disallowed Brazil’s second with a dubious call. Not that Brazil needed to worry, as Scotland failed to clear away in first-half injury time and Angus Gunn flapped like a distressed swan, allowing Vini Jr to head into an empty net. Keep it tight, lads.

“The lads are gutted, we fell short on quality but we gave it absolutely everything,” howled Super John McGinn. “The lads are empty now. It’s unlikely [that we qualify] but we’ll wait and see.” Perhaps even more cruelly, there is still the possibility that Scotland could scrape into the last 32, even though Clarke wept: “I think we’re going home.” One goal and three points could, somehow, be enough to keep this party going all night long for a few more days. Regardless, Scotland know they are not going to win the whole ruddy thing and Jules Rimet is not going to gleam in Inverness, but there is no reason for that to stop the fun. Football fandom can be a futile thing but if it allows an experience of the lifetime, then it should be embraced. The GWC may continue to boogie, but it really needs a certain team.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Three groups to finalise and six matches to gorge on: we kick off with the final Group C matches at 4pm EDT/9pm BST: Scott Murray is on deck for Ecuador 1-2 Germany, while Sarah Rendell will helm Curaçao 1-2 Côte d’Ivoire. Then at 7pm EDT/12am BST, we move to Group F: Rob Smyth is the man for Japan 2-2 Sweden, while Tom Lutz is on the ones and twos for Tunisia 0-4 Netherlands. But wait! Group D needs taking care of, so Beau Dure will take on Turkey 1-2 USA USA USA, while Jonathan Howcroft is in charge for Paraguay 3-1 Australia – both games are at 10pm EDT/3am BST.

RECOMMENDED BUYING

We have some Football Weekly Live events coming, folks. If you want to see Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and other top, top pod squad members in the flesh, you can do so in Dublin and London this September. Plus: livestream tickets are still available for the New York show on 16 July.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I cannot wait to dance with the ball. Football has always been joyful for me, and I’m excited to bring that spirit to Ravenna. Let the magic begin!” – Ronaldinho had a busy Wednesday, coming out of retirement at the age of 46 to sign for Serie C side Ravenna, then hot-footing it to Miami Stadium to watch Brazil beat Scotland in their final group game.

RECOMMENDED ASKING

Big Website’s team of US reporters are on hand to answer your GWC questions in a live Q&A – just post them here before 5pm BST (12pm EDT, 9am PDT) to get involved.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

I’ve given up hope of ever being the author of the letter o’ the day with you lot but wish to join the 1,056 other California-based pedants and point out that the aforementioned cheese [Football Daily letters passim] is correctly referred to as ‘Monterey Jack’. Monterey is the city in California, Monterrey (with two Rs) is in Mexico” – Jim Broshar.

Congratulations to Scotland for finding new ways to extend the torture of their wonderful fans. In previous tournaments they would go out unbeaten, or in glorious defeat, with the goal of the tournament thrown in for good measure. Now, in keeping with this bloated GWC, they get an extra three-day wait in the Miami heat, while watching one team after another best them on goal difference” – Justin Kavanagh.

Fox Sports’ ‘The 32’ is punchier than the name here in Germany at least. As well as quarter-finals (viertelfinale), German has the semis as ‘half finals’ (halbfinale), the round-of-16 as “eighth finals” (achtelfinale), and so naturally the new stage is the ‘16th finals’ (sechszehntelfinale). Germany also considers the second-place team as ‘vice champions’ (vizemeister), probably as they’ve been second so often” – Chris Green.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day is … Chris Green. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here. 

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

Get your ears around the latest episode of World Cup Daily! Max and Barry are joined by Ewan Murray, Nicky Bandini and Mark Langdon to discuss all the latest action.

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