Once again attention turns to World Cup 2010 qualification this week, and one of the biggest match-ups comes between Bert van Marwijk’s Holland and George Burley’s Scotland.
Currently Scotland sit 5 points adrift of group leaders Holland. A win for the Dutch would cement them as favourites to progress to the finals at the halfway stage of the qualification process. However, should Scotland pull off a win at the Amsterdam Arena on Saturday evening, their hopes of making it to the world cup for the first time since 1998 will still be alive.
There has been much talk about the injury problems the Scottish national side face, with David Weir, Kris Commons and Kirk Broadfoot all pulling out of the squad on Tuesday. All of this on top of the news that Barry Ferguson and Stephen McManus are unlikely to feature unless they recover in time.
All is not doom and gloom for the Scots though; Holland will be without goal predator Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who retired from international football last season, and any internationally recognised goalkeeper. Coach Bert van Marwijk had attempted to lure Edwin van der Sar out of retirement for the fixture but to no avail.
Without a result on Saturday, Scotland will have to hope for qualification via the play-offs for the eight best second placed teams in the qualification groups. Even that means Scotland have to push to rack up vital points at this midway stage.
Hopefully the home nations can all gain a place for the 2010 World Cup, but it is big games such as these which will decide who stays and who flies out to South Africa.
Personally, I’m most excited about seeing replays of that famous Archie Gemmill goal over the next few days. His mazy run and goal in the 1978 world cup campaign against Holland rates as one of Scotland’s best ever. I’m sure the BBC will certainly be digging it out of the archives in time.
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