March and June friendlies

[Pie Of The Month]

Just booked up via Charleroi out the Friday and back the Saturday. Will regret that at the time but doing it as cheap as possible with the Euros coming up.

Free cancellation hotels booked in Amsterdam and Rotterdam since the Dutch like to switch between the two.

[Dunning1874]

A tough away game to continue getting practice against tournament level opposition and a home game against a minnow who we should hammer to build confidence after a few games without a win makes perfect sense.

[Jambomo]

One of my worst footballing experiences was a friendly against N Ireland years ago. It was very cold, very wet and we got soaked, the players obviously didn’t give any f**k at all and barely tried to play any football. I’m not sure we even stayed till the end but left to get the train home again. 

This better be fucking better than that. 

[2426255]

Away to the Netherlands is a good one. Good practice in terms of the away atmosphere we will have to face in our opener against Germany. Northern Ireland isn't particularly interesting (pot-5 team) so I'm guessing we didn't have many options available or there are non-footballing reasons for choosing that game which is fair enough.

Might be as simple as practicing our defending against the Netherlands and our attacking against Northern Ireland.

Edited December 11, 2023 by 2426255

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

Hopefully that loser McCoist is sobbing on the gantry again.

[AMMjag]

North Ireland is a big drop off in quality from Switzerland. I assume the only remaining alternatives were them, Cowdenbeath or Eastwood Juveniles and we've picked the game most likely to rack up the goals. 

[PSJ.84]

Flights booked to Amsterdam - out Thursday, back Sunday. Not quite as cheap as I’d have liked but so be it. Doubles up as a birthday weekend for one of our group. 

[Skyline Drifter]

As a matter of interest, what do we think allocation and demand for tickets for Netherlands will be? I'm guessing unlikely to dip below the 12 point level, let alone drop to 6?

[2426255]

31 minutes ago, AMMjag said:

North Ireland is a big drop off in quality from Switzerland. I assume the only remaining alternatives were them, Cowdenbeath or Eastwood Juveniles and we've picked the game most likely to rack up the goals. 

Are you sure the Northern Ireland game is replacing Switzerland. I had assumed it the other way with the Netherlands replacing Switzerland without any actual basis. I haven't seen any confirmation either way. Who said we were going to play Argentina? 

Edited December 11, 2023 by 2426255

[betting competition]

I hope it isn't Amsterdam as its quite an expensive trip. Booked up flights for a few nights and a hotel in Amsterdam that has free cancellation. 

[betting competition]

17 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

As a matter of interest, what do we think allocation and demand for tickets for Netherlands will be? I'm guessing unlikely to dip below the 12 point level, let alone drop to 6?

France went down to 11 points and that is with an allocation of 1600. I think quite a few people won't go to this with the Euros not too far away and also Amsterdam (if confirmed) isn't the cheapest of places. 

Edited December 11, 2023 by betting competition

[Kevin Finnerty]

1 hour ago, AMMjag said:

North Ireland is a big drop off in quality from Switzerland. I assume the only remaining alternatives were them, Cowdenbeath or Eastwood Juveniles and we've picked the game most likely to rack up the goals. 

Bizarrely I actually had a dream a few nights back that Scotland V. Cowdenbeath was the first March fixture. Steve Clarke was drilling the players and kept sternly telling them not to underestimate the other side as "they'll be desperate for a win here."

[Pie Of The Month]

Standard away allocation in Amsterdam is 2750 and Rotterdam is 2106. The French didn't even give us the minimum last time since it was a friendly though and if the Dutch move it somewhere else in the country where it's a novelty to see the national team we could end up shafted a bit like we were in Lille.

It's near impossible to have an educated guess as to how many points games like this will drop down to these days. It's after the Euros tickets are bought plus people will be saving for Germany which might help it drop a bit but anyone with a bit of optimism might have noticed the last 16 allocation is 6000 rather than the 10k we got in the group stages and want to get the extra points just in case we get through.

[HibeeJibee]

2 hours ago, 2426255 said:

Are you sure the Northern Ireland game is replacing Switzerland. I had assumed it the other way with the Netherlands replacing Switzerland without any actual basis. I haven't seen any confirmation either way. Who said we were going to play Argentina? 

 

3 hours ago, 2426255 said:

Away to the Netherlands is a good one. Good practice in terms of the away atmosphere we will have to face in our opener against Germany. Northern Ireland isn't particularly interesting (pot-5 team) so I'm guessing we didn't have many options available or there are non-footballing reasons for choosing that game which is fair enough.

Might be as simple as practicing our defending against the Netherlands and our attacking against Northern Ireland.

 

2 hours ago, AMMjag said:

North Ireland is a big drop off in quality from Switzerland. I assume the only remaining alternatives were them, Cowdenbeath or Eastwood Juveniles and we've picked the game most likely to rack up the goals. 

To date only England, France, Germany plus Netherlands, Northern Ireland and ourselves have announced our schedules. (England did so earlier in the autumn... alongside a Portugal v Sweden game... and I see Colombia v Spain has also appeared). So would hope it's not us being late to the party. You'd think NI is a conscious pick, to play a weak opponent, to restore some confidence if we go down in Amsterdam: there is little to be learnt competitively from an opponent whose NL campaign ended joint last with Cyprus and far behind Kosovo, with qualifiers finishing ahead of only San Marino and far behind Kazakhstan.

SFA are organisationally bound to have closest ties with other home nations... indeed this must be about our 4th friendly v NI in 15yrs.

[2426255]

1 hour ago, HibeeJibee said:

You'd think NI is a conscious pick, to play a weak opponent, to restore some confidence

Will you take any confidence from beating Northern Ireland going into Euro-2024?

It'll be interesting to hear the reasoning from Clarke/Maxwell given the direct contradiction to what had been stated previously. Our opponents, a pot-5 team and a team going to the Euro's, suggest to me the SFA choice was restricted in some way.

Quote

We want competitive games. I don’t think you learn enough from a game like that or playing a pot five or pot six team or whatever. I will be looking for pot one, pot two, pot three, pot four teams. It would be better if it was against teams that aren’t going to the Euros.

Steve Clarke

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/steve-clarke-test-scotland-best-31487320

Spoiler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2024_qualifying

Edited December 11, 2023 by 2426255

[invergowrie arab]

We'd be better off playing ourselves bibs v skins than playing Eastern Ulster.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Delighted to see a right royal pumping of Northern Southern Ireland.

[JamesM82]

1 hour ago, 2426255 said:

Will you take any confidence from beating Northern Ireland going into Euro-2024?

It'll be interesting to hear the reasoning from Clarke/Maxwell given the direct contradiction to what had been stated previously. Our opponents, a pot-5 team and a team going to the Euro's, suggest to me the SFA choice was restricted in some way.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/steve-clarke-test-scotland-best-31487320

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I think they would say though that NI have been higher than that recently (e.g. qualified for 2016, lost in playoffs for 2018 and 2020). It's only since Covid that they've fallen off (badly). Those earlier results mean that their FIFA ranking is still decent(ish) - they're ranked above Israel and Georgia. Also, a game against them will be "competitive" in the sense of club teammates / rivals wanting to prove a point against each other.

Edited December 11, 2023 by JamesM82

[2426255]

36 minutes ago, JamesM82 said:

I think they would say though that NI have been higher than that recently (e.g. qualified for 2016, lost in playoffs for 2018 and 2020). It's only since Covid that they've fallen off (badly). Those earlier results mean that their FIFA ranking is still decent(ish) - they're ranked above Israel and Georgia. Also, a game against them will be "competitive" in the sense of club teammates / rivals wanting to prove a point against each other.

That's fine, no issue with how the SFA spin it, how fans/media interpret it or the games themselves. I'm responding to suggestions that we chose the Northern Ireland game purposely to build confidence.

It's my view that given free choice the the SFA wouldn't have chosen these two games based on previous comments. I believe they had a restricted choice outside of the issue with Switzerland. The Netherlands is a good choice if there was a restriction because we can't face them unless we reach the 1/4 finals.

Edited December 11, 2023 by 2426255

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

1 hour ago, 2426255 said:

That's fine, no issue with how the SFA spin it, how fans/media interpret it or the games themselves. I'm responding to suggestions that we chose the Northern Ireland game purposely to build confidence.

It's my view that given free choice the the SFA wouldn't have chosen these two games based on previous comments. I believe they had a restricted choice outside of the issue with Switzerland. The Netherlands is a good choice if there was a restriction because we can't face them unless we reach the 1/4 finals.

I like the Netherlands game.

12 sides are out for playoffs, and 3 more for the Euros. You also lose England, Spain, France, Turkey, and Cyprus for recency issues. Probably the same situation for a side like Austria, or Poland/Ukraine/Israel if they were available.

It also depends on who is available to come play us away, as most sides don’t want two away games (NI aside apparently).

Given all those restrictions, and taking out the real minnows: 53-12 playoffs-3 Euro sides-6 recent sides, remove the worst 11 sides from the UNL then divide the remaining by 2… leaves ~10 sides to choose from.

Not a huge number all things considered, unless we start looking outwith Europe.

Edit: I never like playing the home nations in any match, so it’s a bit of a ‘meh’ choice. Still, if it was Kosovo/Iceland/Bulgaria/Lithuania we wouldn’t think much different either. I suspect it’s a combination of availability, cost, and pragmatism.

If nothing else, we should dominate the ball and can try a couple of changes in formation/players if someone’s making a push or the Dutch game forces a response in some way.

Edited December 11, 2023 by HuttonDressedAsLahm