Pat Nevin: Steve Clarke faces his toughest career test in World Cup showdown - we need our superpower

The fun, frolics and friendship will be shared in the bars in and around the stadium in Miami, but when the revelries recede, the reality will hit. Brazil have some extremely good players, indeed many world class players, who are all desperate to show their manager that they should be starting every match. Those players expect to go all the way to the final then win it. That would assure every player talking part legendary status back home for the rest of his life and beyond. This is why Brazil are unlikely to take it easy on us, however friendly the fans are to each other beforehand.

Somehow Steve Clarke will have to outwit one of the greatest coaches in football history. That is a tough job in itself, but Carlo Ancelotti also has far, far greater resources to draw on in his squad. Has Clarke ever had a tougher assignment? This is the time above all others in his long coaching career that he will have to use every single trick and tactic he has learned along the way. From Jose Mourinho to Kenny Dalglish, from Ruud Gullit to Sir Bobby Robson.

Scotland need a result - that is usually a euphemism for a draw - but this time it could also mean a narrow defeat. It will mean our hopes of qualification could be hanging by a thread in the following days, but it is a thread the nation will be happy to hang on to together.

I generally like to contemplate our own strengths first and then ponder the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses after that. This would be naïve on this occasion. There has to be a plan to stop skills lined up against us. Matheus Cunha has looked sharper at this tournament than he did during most of the season at Manchester United and it wasn’t a bad season for him by any means at Old Trafford. The top Brazilians do have a habit of lifting themselves - some would say saving themselves - for World Cups.

The attacking options are alarming. Nineteen-year-old Rayan has been a revelation at Bournemouth and looks set to be a world star very soon. Endrick is a similar age and is on a similar trajectory, though his career could be even more stratospheric. Gabriel Martinelli was a big part of Arsenal’s title-winning season. The important thing to note here is that none of the above are considered starters for Brazil.

With all that quality, they are still in the shadow of Vinicius Junior. He is a truly world-class talent of the first order. I suspect the first and most important problem Scotland will have to deal with is this man.

Coming in from the left wing, he is attacking Scotland at what has been long considered our weak spot. With our left flank having Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney, the right side has been more problematic. Although to be fair, early on against Morocco, our left looked shakier.

So how do you stop Vini Jnr? It is a tough question because on form he can go past any defender either on the inside or on the outside with no discernible preference. His speed is exceptional and he has dribbling skills are amongst the best in the world right now, if not the pinnacle itself.

We can’t just focus on Vini Jnr

The obvious thing to do is to double up, whichever system we play, making sure there are two players near him whenever he gets the ball. This can be done, but the dangers are very obvious against Brazil. Putting it simply, if there are two on him, there is going to be more space for the others. Look what happened when we adapted our shape against Morocco to contain Achraf Hakimi. That didn’t start well at all and it cost us dearly in the end. Just like the idea of marking Vini Jr out of the game, that made sense logically - but the unintended and unexpected consequences can be dire.

The Brazilian winger already has a couple of goals, with the first being a stunner, cutting back inside and lashing an unstoppable shot. His goal scoring numbers are exceptional for a wide player. Hi ratio of around one in three is more than acceptable for a top central striker. It shouldn’t be ignored that it probably isn’t even his true calling, that would be the assists and his ability to stretch defences to create the conditions for others to score.

The creation of the second goal against Haiti was a thing of beauty even if it looks incredibly simple. That move infield to drag an entire defence one way before reversing the play at precisely the right split second needs a chess player’s brain. He is thinking on so many levels at such pace. Michael Olise did a similar thing for the French in their opener against Senegal. Played correctly the move is pretty much unstoppable.

An old manager I had would often say “let’s not get psychedelic about the opposition”, which I think was meant as a joke, but it usually preceded a counterproductive tortuous deep dive into how great they were. Maybe I am doing the same here and there is an argument that we have to seek out the weaknesses in the Brazil team first and foremost.

If that is the case then where are those weaknesses? Well they are not as much major failings, just minor chinks that might just be worked on. The back four and keeper look extremely competent to say the very least. In midfield, if it is Bruno Guimares, Casemiro and Lucas Paqueta, that is not a fabulously quick and stunningly mobile triumvirate. There is no doubting their talent, but pure talent can be outrun and outfought if the opponent has more youth or more energy. Three games in quick succession for them may be pushing it, so it might be that wily old Ancelotti will add some energy to the engine room in boiling Miami to counter this problem.

The other most important factor is that Brazil had a tough time against the Moroccans and we gave the Moroccan’s plenty to think about, particularly during that second half in Boston. We finished powerfully in that game and once again if we can cope with an early onslaught, that desire, strength and resilience could be our saving grace. Most of those Brazilians have had long hard seasons, and although the heat will be sapping for us, it will affect them too.

In Scotland’s six qualifiers for the World Cup, we scored five of our 13 goals in the final ten minutes of matches. So managing to score in the dying embers of games has been our super power.

So there is the likely outlook from Clarke: keep it tight and if possible maybe even dull and defensive for as long as possible. A 0-0 or 1-1 would be great and even 0-1 wouldn’t be awful as we come out for the last quarter after the much-needed hydration break.

In short, just the usual ideology from the coach. It has got us this far, but can it get us further for the first time in our history? I am still hopeful no matter how talented those Brazilians are.

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