Here’s Ewan Murray’s match report from New Jersey.
In a last outing before a first World Cup appearance in 28 years, Scotland dismantled Bolivia. Suddenly, worries over a potentially tournament defining joust with Haiti next weekend evaporated. If Clarke’s men are this ruthless and efficient when the proper stuff starts, they have a serious chance of emerging from the group phase for the first time in Scotland’s international history. This friendly, in theory an exercise in box ticking, instead gave reasons for huge Scottish confidence. Scotland will remember their first ever game against Bolivia with great fondness.
So, in conclusion, as we wait for reports and reaction: Scotland are going to win the World Cup.
Full-time: Bolivia 0-4 Scotland
The second half seen out with some comfort after that excellent first half from Scotland. No injuries, either, and it’s been as close to a perfect warm-up for Haiti next week for Steve Clarke. No mention of Hernan Medford now, it’s time for the group stage.
90 min: The stadium emptying as it’s not the easiest journey out of Harrison, New Jersey. Scotland will return to their base in Charlotte tomorrow. Three minutes are added on.
88 min: Hirst makes space for himself and shoots wide. He’s also disappointed in himself. The opening pair of strikers made a far stronger claim to start against Haiti.
87 min: Ralston’s ball is a beauty and Stewart attempts to reach it and stab home. Just wide. He’s annoyed with himself. Perhaps Scotland have decided to ration their goals for the actual finals.
85 min: A rare Bolivia attack after Tyler Fletcher waits for the ball to come to him, and Torrez gets a bit too excitable and shoots wide.
83 min: That’s all 10 outfield players changed for Scotland, and there’s been no injury scares. Ralston is booked for smashing into a midfield loose ball.
81 min: James Humphries is back in touch: “I thought Bolivia were decent - beat Brazil in qualifying, did they not? - but on the basis that Che Adams has got a double, and that he only scores against diddy teams, I fear they’re now consigned to the diddy bucket.(roaring comeback from Bolivia in 3, 2....).”
I don’t think that’s happening.
80 min: Off go Hanley, Hendry and Ferguson, on come Souttar, Hyam and Fletcher.
Bolivia have brought on a 16-year-old in Nabil Nacif, who plays for Oriente Petrolero.
78 min: A chant of "let’s go Scotland, let’s go” from some young fans. The Tartan Army are capturing hearts and minds.
76 min: Hirst’s heavy touch fails to set up Ross Stewart. The Ipswich man has not quite matched the excellence of Shankland’s intelligence in the first half.
75 min: Tyler Fletcher is coming on soon, having replaced Billy Gilmour, and played just 17 minutes for Manchester United’s first team this season.
73 min: McGinn tries to play in Hirst, who has misread his colleague’s intentions. Hirst has gone for bleached highlights, shades of Andy Townsend at USA 94. Or a member of Black Lace.
71 min: We’re now in that odd witching hour where nobody will want to overcommit, and miss out on the finals. Scotland have already made their point in this game.
70 min: Scott McTominay has gone off, and Kenny McLean who comes on.
68 min: Here’s the cooling break, make it part of your routine at this World Cup.
66 min: As ever, changes slow down the game. That’s always an issue with these warm-up matches. Curtis, down the wing, pings to the byline. He’s had a fine season for Killie, having been loaned, after playing amid the madness under Russell Martin at Rangers.
64 min: George Hirst, all being well, will make it to a World Cup, his dad David having missed out for England at Euro 92 to Alan Shearer.
62 min: That’s it for Shankland, Che Adams, Ben Gannon-Doak and Aaron Hickey. George Hirst, Anthony Ralston, Findlay Curtis and Ross Stewart come on.
61 min: McGinn shows his class in dropping deep, and spraying the ball wide. Scotland attacking into the shade rather than the sun they played into in the first half. Shankland is frustrated after a near miss from a Tierney cross. The replay shows it’s a bad miss.
59 min: Gannon-Doak has been a menace all evening, and has a couple of chances to escape with the ball. Then, when it comes loose, McTominay is penalised for smashing over a Bolivian opponent.
57 min: McGinn plays in Adams who attempts to set up Shankland when he was best advised to have a go himself.
55 min: Gunn comes out to claim a ball that might cause problems. Will it be him or Craig Gordon who play against Haiti? Gordon only played three matches for Hearts all season.
53 min: Scotland’s turn to defend a set piece, taken by Melgar, and deflected away. Steve Clarke will want his team to be as good in defence as they were attack in that first half.
51 min: More corners, and then McTominay flicks McGinn’s kick. The Bolivian keeper, impressively tattooed, knew nothing about where the ball was going to land.
50 min: Gannon-Doak gets away, and Adams, on a hat-trick, waits in expectation for the ball to arrive. It results in a corner that Scotland recycle before McGinn shoots and another corner results.
47 min: Two players of standing replacing two players of standing; there’s real quality in the Scotland ranks, if not across the board but at full-back, and in midfield, Clarke is spoiled for choice.
46 min: Back we come, and there’s sight of John McGinn coming on. Bolivia have made a couple of changes, too. Kieran Tierney is another arrival. So that’s Robertson off, and Christie, too.
Simon McMahon gets in touch: “Yeah, ok Scotland, this is good, but maybe calm it a bit and save one or two for Haiti? Four against Curaçao, three in half an hour v Bolivia, I mean, wtf? I’m starting to believe. Make Scotland Great Again.”
Half-time: Bolivia 0-4 Scotland
Scotland have been brilliant, Bolivia bloody awful but it’s been full of fine play from Robertson, Shankland and Gannon-Doak in particular. Four fine goals rattled in.
45+1 min: Anyone else worried that Scotland have used up all their goals here? Three minutes added on of a half that could not have gone any better for Steve Clarke.
Goal! Bolivia 0-4 Scotland (Adams, 45)
Gannon-Doak’s run cuts deep, and then Adams gets two bites, the second a beauty of a finish, drilled home.
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44 min: Bolivia try a clever free-kick but Scotland read their minds. The Bolivian league is still being played but the South Americans are less than sharp.
43 min: Villamil gets a shot on goal that goes wide but play is called back for an earlier foul. Hickey left some on Fernandez, the Bolivia full-back.
41 min: Lewis Ferguson’s corner is great, and Andy Robertson really should make it four. Scotland, the rampant lions.
40 min: Gannon-Doak bobs and weaves and forces a good save from Viscarra, and yet again it’s neat play by Lawrence Shankland that sets up the chance.
39 min: Bolivia’s Villamil is down, and that offers a break to the players. Lots of those red Scotland shirts in the stands.
38 min: Gannon-Doak, who missed a lot of the season for Bournemouth, has been decent and may well be fresh. His position there was taken by Rayan, who was a tough player to shift, in any case.
36 min: Paul McCann gets in touch: “The next town over from Harrison is Kearney, which was settled by Paisley carpet makers. In the 1980s it still had fish and chip shops and places that sold Irn Bru. It also had an Ulster Club (Rangers) and an Irish Club (Celtic) and a Scottish Club, presumably for St Mirren fans. I had a memorable Hogmany in the latter in 1989 with nine Scottish nurses.”
Excellent stuff.
Matt Dony joins us in Gaelic: “Tha e a’ tighinn dhachaigh!”
34 min: Weirdly, and this can’t have helped, Scotland prepared for their last World Cup, in 1999, by playing friendlies in New Jersey and Washington. They went out in the group stage.
33 min: Christie, coming off the opposite, right-hand flank cuts in and has time to shoot, and probably could have done better. The Bolivians are not doing much in the way of defending.
31 min: This couldn’t be going any better for Scotland. The excitement levels must be increasing. Reminder: before 1990, they beat Malta 2-1, and lost to Costa Rica.
Goal! Bolivia 0-3 Scotland (Adams, 30)
Gannon-Doal breaks free, and tees up Adams to tap home. Scotland in dreamland, bring on Haiti.
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29 min: First save for Gunn, from Bolivia’s Matheus. Gunn played just 45 minutes of football for Nottingham Forest all season, against Crystal Palace in February.
28 min: We are reminded that Bolivia beat Brazil last year, and got as far as the playoffs for the finals. This is a performance to lend plenty of confidence to the Scots.
26 min: Back underway, everyone refreshed and towelled down.
24 min: The goalie was not much cop for that goal, but champagne stuff played there by Scotland. At the moment, water is being taken on. This essentially breaks games down to quarters, right?
Goal! Bolivia 0-2 Scotland (McTominay, 23)
Lovely goal, more great link-up play from Shankland, who lays it to McTominay to smash home.
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22 min: More galloping down the flank from Robertson. Don’t tire yourself too soon, to invoke Del Amitri.
20 min: Shankland and Adams are linking well, the former laying up Adams to blam a shot just wide. Good chance, well created. Perhaps Adams’ finish might have been better.
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19 min: The pitch looks OK, better than that England are currently playing on in Tampa. Shankland is playing very well, and almost directed a flick to Christie.
17 min: Scotland’s initial brio has died off a little. Let’s hope it’s not the climate already.
15 min: Tony Barr gets in touch: “Wash your mouth (well, keyboard) out John!
No less an organ than the Guardian itself anointed the Scotland away kit as one of the best at the tournament. Speaking personally, I preferred the bright pink Earl of Roseberry number that got so many culture-war idiots’ knickers in a twist. This one’ll do until the Euros come around.”
James Humphries is back in touch: “I realise of course that this is a bit, but if you could avoid deliberately angering the football gods/ghost of Ally Mcleod’s dog that’d be great, aye?”
14 min: More careful passing from the Bolivians, for whom both full-backs play in Russia, Akron Tolyatti, a club formed in 2018.
12 min: Bolivia get a corner as a bagpipe wails in the background. The corner is poor, looks like they need a Nicolas Jover to sort this. Austin MacPhee, a Scot, will be helping out Portugal on set pieces at this World Cup.
10 min: Aaron Hickey is caught out and Gannon-Doak fouls Terceros. The resulting free-kick is a shambles, and cleared easily.
9 min: Gannon-Doak on the outside, and he pings in a cross, that evades everyone. Andy Robertson is playing very well. Are Liverpool quite sure about this?
7 min: Scotland look full of fizz, is it time to do an Ally MacLeod and suggest they are going to win the World Cup?
6 min: It’s a great start for Scotland, Christie and Robertson in tandem, and then Adams gets a shot in, that Viscarra can only parry away.
Goal! Bolivia 0-1 Scotland (Shankland, 5)
Gannon-Doak seems to have licence to go forward while Ryan Christie is tucking in, with Scotland playing an old-style 4-4-2. And you know what, it’s working, as Robertson overlaps and loops a ball from Christie to the back post and Shankland heads in.
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3 min: Andy Robertson, the skipper, runs to a flick from Shankland but then fouls the opposing defender. It looks hot, and Bolivia look comfortable in passing the ball around.
Away we go in Harrison
1 min: It’s not a packed stadium, and Scotland being in red feels unfamiliar. The kit resembles that of Chile, or a lower-ranked La Liga team. It’s Bolivia who set off at a rate, Villamíl to the fore. Gtant Hanley has to head clear.
Flower of Scotland rings out, the bagpipes made it through customs at JFK.
Tony Hughes gets in touch: “As a teenager a million years ago at Kirkcaldy High School, the euphoria of Mexico ‘86 was such that 8 of us in our Physics class held a sweepstakes, whereby each of us paid in two pounds and got 3 randomly assigned Scotland players, and whomever came out collectively with the most goals, for Scotland, got to keep all 16 pounds. And 22 doesn’t go into 8, so unfortunately we had to add Alex Ferguson and Craig Brown (along with the goalkeepers). Some of us were really unlucky. I got Graeme Sharp, Arthur Albiston and Maurice Malpas, none of whom scored, and obviously the kid that had Gordon Strachan won the lot.”
I completed Mexico 86, it was the last one I completed.
This stadium in Harrison, New Jersey is home to New York Red Bulls; I’ve been, back in 2010, it was a short train ride from the World Trade Center, and from memory, not a great deal around it. Looking up famous people from Harrison and the best I came up with is Tab Ramos. I saw Juan Pablo Angel playing for the Red Bulls, so there’s that.
Ben Gannon-Doak spoke to the BBC in New Jersey: ““I don’t really know until the game gets started, but I think me and the rest of the lads have had a good week to prepare in my opinion in harsher conditions down in Florida, so I think we’re more than equipped to go out and play the football that we want to play. [We want] a good result to go into this World Cup with confidence, to go and play well as a team, play some nice football and aye, just to go out there and enjoy myself. No one would have thought we would have been here.”
Last time out for Scotland, the win over Curacao, which proved costly for Billy Gilmour and an opportunity for Tyler Fletcher.
Of those Bolivian players, the striker, Paniagua, plays for Wydad Casablanca, and Terceros plays for Santos in Brazil. It’s a real mix of home-based players and emigres.
This is the first time Bolivia have met Scotland.
The Bolivia team: Viscarra, Rocha, Haquín, Morales, Fernández, Matheus, Vaca, Villamíl, Terceros, Ribera, Paniagua. Subs: Arroyo, Centella, Govea, Lampe, López, Macazaga, Melgar, Nacif, Tórrez, Viviani, Zabala
James Humphries gets in touch: “Not that I wish mini-Fletch any ill - his dad was, I think, one of the most underrated players of his generation - but whose chips has Lennon Miller pished on such that Tyler gets called up ahead of him?
“Played 25 games for udinese this season, several years of bossing games at senior level for a pretty ropey Well side, and he plays (or played) a fairly similar role to Gilmour, too. But, no, let’s call up the guy who’s had about half an hour of senior football. And folk say Steve Clarke doesn’t like taking risks, eh?”
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For Scotland, Angus Gunn is in goal, Lawrence Shankland, Andy Robertson, Aaron Hickey, Ben Gannon-Doak and Ryan Christie remain from last weekend’s game against Curacao. Though expect plenty of changes. Gunn, Grant Hanley, Jack Hendry, Lewis Ferguson, and Che Adams are the players coming in.
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The Scotland team
Scotland: Gunn, Hickey, Robertson, McTominay, Hanley, Adams, Christie, Hendry, Gannon-Doak, Ferguson, Shankland. Subs: Kelly, Gordon, Tierney, McGinn, Fletcher, Dykes, Stewart, Souttar, Hyam, Hirst, Patterson, McLean, Ralston, Curtis, McKenna
Ewan also wrote our Scotland preview.
Clarke is pragmatic in approach but it will be a shock if he does not start with two strikers for game one against Haiti. Victory there and Scotland have a genuine chance of progression from the first round for the first time. There is also a lingering reason for Clarke to at least appear bold; he was castigated by supporters for negative tactics in a must-win match against Hungary at the last Euros.
A more defensive style is likely and understandable against Morocco and Brazil, who simply put are better teams than Scotland. Clarke’s team can be useful in such a situation; they are excellently drilled and carry a counterattacking threat.
Ewan Murray is following Scotland at the World Cup, and he will be reporting on this game from New Jersey. All eyes are on Haiti.
Clarke insists he cannot alter plans on account of potential fitness setbacks.
“Do you want to wrap them in cotton wool and [they] don’t train?” Clarke asked. “You need to work. Injuries are part and parcel of football. When it happens, especially when it happens in the circumstances it happened to Billy, it is really disappointing. Everybody has got to take a deep breath and move forward again. That is what we will do.”
Preamble
Harrison, New Jersey hosts this warm-up for Steve Clarke’s Scotland. Expect to see plenty of substitutions, and hope for no more injuries after Billy Gilmour was ruled out last week. This is the final match before Haiti, a week from now, a chance to acclimatise, and get used to the conditions. Bolivia are not one of the 48 finalists, having lost to Iraq in the intercontinental playoffs; they were last at a final in 1994, and it’s been a long time since Erwin “Platini” Sanchez and Marco Etcheverry, the latter a legend of MLS lore. Scotland are back at the World Cup for the first time since 1998, and this is the last step before Haiti.
Kick-off is 9pm Scotland time/4pm Eastern time
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