Scotland driven to World Cup car park with little room for manoeuvre

Even the least well-known opposition players will be profiled on Wyscout. Steve Clarke will have tasked his video analysis team with watching hours and hours of games which are then cut into hundreds and clips and made into digestible reels for Scotland players to learn more about their opposite men in the Gillette Stadium. Nothing will be left to chance.

It was a different story ahead of Scotland’s opening World Cup game of the 1990 tournament. Costa Rica were a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

“We were really struggling to find out details about them,” explains Andy Roxburgh, the then Scotland manager, in an interview with The Scotsman.

One possibly helpful development was a mooted friendly between Dundee United and Costa Rica in the run-up to the World Cup. It certainly seemed like a perfect opportunity to run the rule over Los Ticos, as they are known. However, it was reported Roxburgh expressed his wish to United that they should turn down the opportunity, lest it handed Costa Rica an advantage. He was concerned they might pick up tips on how to play against a Scottish team.

Not surprisingly, Tannadice manager Jim McLean, inset, was said to be “displeased” by this stance. “I thought it would have been more of a help than a hindrance,” he pointed out, not unreasonably.

He was also miffed that Roxburgh had spoken about it to the press. In the event the game didn’t happen. United were unprepared to travel to Central America and internal ructions in the Costa Rican Football Federation nixed the chance of them coming to Scotland. Roxburgh doesn’t remember the spat with McLean now. “Although I am sure I would have lost!” he says. Either way, Costa Rica remained no less of a puzzle.

“They kept themselves to themselves,” Roxburgh recalls, although he did travel to watch them play two matches in Miami in February, one of which was a win over the United States. “They prepared for about four months privately! They were very difficult for us to work out. They were a surprise package for everybody.”

Goalkeeper Luis Gabelo Conejo being identified as a potential weak link is often recalled by Scottish players who took part in this chastening evening in Genoa. As tends to be the case in such circumstances, Conejo duly performed like he was Dino Zoff, frustrating Scots at every turn.

A change in manager on the eve of the tournament had deepened this sense of being unsure about what to expect from the Costa Ricans. Although seasoned participants now, they were making their World Cup debut. It seemed particularly harsh that the man who got them there, Marvin Rodriguez, was removed early in the new year amid reports of player disharmony. Serbian Bora Milutinovic, who led hosts Mexico to the quarter-finals in the previous tournament, was installed just 70 days before the World Cup kicked off.

Although a respected coach, few saw him turning this unpromising build-up into a historic 1-0 victory over Scotland in their first match. Juan Cayasso scored the winner just after half-time. Try as they might, Scotland could not break down the well-drilled Central Americans.

Despite the trauma, Roxburgh is now firm friends with Milutinovic, pictured below. They were together as recently as November in Qatar at the Under-17 World Cup.

“We often talk about that game,” the Scot says. “He said he had come to watch Scotland play. He said he was so scared of what he’d seen that he didn’t tell his players anything about us. And he did everything he said he could to make sure we would not have a clue who was playing in their side. He had this four-month camp to prepare. They also had some good players. They beat Sweden and went close v Brazil. They were a far better team than everyone thought. In no way did we have the kind of analysis that we would have nowadays. Even Bora says we were unlucky and they were very fortunate.”

Scotland cannot afford to be caught cold

The point being, Scotland can’t afford to be caught cold again against the side reckoned to be the weakest in the group this time around.

Despite being the second-lowest ranked team at the tournament, Haiti will be no pushovers and can count on Sunderland forward and recent recruit Wilson Isidor. He scored his first goal for his country in the recent 1-1 draw with Iceland. Dropped points in the opening game isn’t an option if Scotland want to progress past the first stage for the first time. Roxburgh knows this to his cost. His side were already behind the eight ball. Although a cathartic win over Sweden followed, Scotland’s last at a World Cup, the damage could not be rectified.

“The main thing for Scotland is, if you start well then you have momentum and you are away,” says Roxburgh, who at 82 years of age remains the technical director of the Asian Football Confederation. “I just laugh because I worked at New York Red Bull for two years, we played a number of games at the Gillette Stadium up in Boston against New England.

“I call that stadium ‘The Car Park’. The reason I call it that is that it is a typical American stadium where you have this big stadium with a massive car park around it, and the hotel we stayed in when we played there is at the other end of the car park. We used to label the place The Car Park. Where are we playing next? ‘Oh we are up at The Car Park.’ It became a standing joke.”

Fortunately the artificial pitch has been ripped up and replaced with grass. “The first two games are there, which is helpful,” adds Roxburgh. “Although it might be warm it is not Miami – I was at two of the World Club matches in Miami last year, virtually the same time when Scotland play Brazil, and it was stifling. It is a different ball game altogether. Miami is different. Scotland are fortunate they play two games in a row in the same stadium and in the evening (in Boston) it should be pretty normal conditions.”

While Steve Clarke might adopt two very different approaches in The Car Park, with the formidable Morocco the second set of opponents to be faced, the aim will be the same: avoid getting blocked in.

Sign up for The Scotsman's World Cup newsletter - full details here