by Nick Holt
It was a good squad, with plenty of experience. Only seven of the twenty-two played their domestic football in Scotland, most were plying their trade in the tougher English league, including the team’s big star, Liverpool’s Kenny Dalglish. The biggest concern was in goal, where Partick Thistle’s Alan Rough combined spectacular flying saves with schoolboy errors. If all this sounds like we’re setting up MacLeod and co for a fall, then my job is done, because it came, and it was a long way down, only last-minute redemption saving the team from the flames of utter ignominy. (See next mini-chapter, Scotch missed.)
Scotch missed
Scotland’s history at the World Cup Finals is a litany of self-inflicted podiatric wounds. Having declined an invitation in 1950, they were really bad in 1954 and worse in 1958. They failed to qualify again until 1974, when they sent a competent squad to West Germany but were unable to negotiate a tricky group. They didn’t lose a match in 1974 (for the only time) but went out because they failed to score more than two against Zaire. A draw with Brazil wasn’t as impressive an achievement as it sounds; this was one of the worst Brazil teams to appear in a Finals tournament.
So to 1978 and Argentina.
Scotland had one piece of bad luck before the tournament started when Danny McGrain of Celtic was declared unfit. McGrain was an excellent right-back and one of the mainstays of the team. Before Scotland’s first match Gordon McQueen was also injured and played no part in the tournament – McQueen was a solid defender, commanding in the air, but would have made little difference in Argentina.
Even without these two the squad was full of good players. McQueen’s Manchester United team-mate Martin Buchan was an elegant and experienced defender and Kenny Burns had just been voted player of the season in England. In attack Kenny Dalglish had proved an astute replacement for Kevin Keegan at Liverpool and was a more complete player than in 1974 when he disappointed. Alongside him MacLeod had a choice of Derek Johnstone, prolific for Rangers, or the more experienced Joe Jordan. Some expected him to take Andy Gray of Aston Villa, a young and hungry striker, fearless and terrifically combative, but he opted for Joe Harper of his old club Aberdeen instead.
Midfield was where Scotland were strongest. MacLeod’s best combination appeared to be Willie Johnston, the cussed but talented West Brom winger, with Bruce Rioch and Graeme Souness inside plus one from John Robertson, Asa Hartford or Archie Gemmill filling the other spot. The options proved too many for MacLeod, who made the fatal error of going into the tournament not knowing his best team.
The opening game was against Peru. Scotland’s trickiest selection was at full-back where they were lacking without McGrain. The best bet seemed to be Willie Donachie at left-back (he was the only one in the squad) and Sandy Jardine; his best days were behind him but he offered nous and good distribution. MacLeod picked neither, opting for the inexperienced Stewart Kennedy of Aberdeen (retreat to the familiar of club players you know, another elementary mistake) and Martin Buchan, a centre-half playing out of position. Instances in the World Cup of players doing well out of position are few and far between. Peru’s strength was the pace of their wingers, Muñante and Oblitas, and the ability of Teófilo Cubillas to get the ball out to them; the same Cubillas was dismissed in the British press as past it – he was twenty-nine. MacLeod stationed Rioch and Don Masson, now thirty-two, in the middle and Hartford and Johnston in the wider positions. Up front, calls in the Scottish papers for Johnstone’s inclusion were ignored in favour of Jordan – one decision MacLeod did get right, Jordan was a threat in all three games.
Peru played neat little passing triangles all day and Scotland got nowhere near them. Rioch had few opportunities to get forward, he was too busy chasing the ball and Masson was a disaster. It started okay, Rioch hitting a typically fierce drive which Quiroga only half-stopped – Jordan put in the rebound, but then Peru took control and deservedly equalised before halftime, when a neat passing move picked its way through the Scotland defence.
It was hot in Córdoba and the Scots visibly tired in the second half, notably the ageing midfield and Buchan, unused to charging up and down the flank – Willie Johnston was no defender and provided little cover, even if he did offer Scotland’s most potent threat. They should have gone ahead all the same, but it would have been fortuitous. Another surging run from Rioch seemed to be going nowhere when he took a heavy touch, but minimal contact from the back-tracking Cubillas was deemed enough for a penalty. Masson took the penalty and completed a miserable day’s work when Quiroga saved to his right – the penalty wasn’t hard enough and was at a comfortable height for the goalkeeper.
Peruvian midfielders were walking past their markers now, and Cubillas had no defender within eight yards when he took aim on forty minutes. He gave Rough absolutely no chance from twenty-five yards – past it indeed! Off came Rioch and Masson for fresh legs (Macari and Gemmill), but it was quarter of an hour too late. They couldn’t stem the tide and minutes later Kennedy was caught out of position for the umpteenth time and fouled Oblitas on the edge of the penalty area. Much was made of the fact that five foot five Lou Macari was on the end of the Scottish wall but Rough left a huge area to his right and Cubillas simply toe-poked the ball around the wall (not over Macari as some attest) and into the corner of the goal. Simples, peeps.
MacLeod absolved himself of blame for the defeat, aiming his ire at his players, who he claimed had not performed (or eight of them – not sure which three he reckoned played well . . .). Things went from bad to worse overnight. The results of a sample taken from Willie Johnston came back positive; Johnston had taken some hayfever pep pills he used regularly at home, but there was no standardisation of proscribed drugs in those days and he was unaware they were banned at the World Cup. Johnston took responsibility for his error – the same could not be said of Ally MacLeod or the Scottish FA.
Drug-taking in sport was not the issue in 1978 that it is today. Viewers on TV just thought East Germans were good at running and swimming, not chock-full of steroids. There was genuine shock at Johnston’s test and subsequent ban and the player was hung out to dry and treated as a pariah back home. Totally unfair. Players were unused to a system of testing like the World Cup and there should have been advice and assistance offered by the FA and management team. That was conspicuously not the case in the Scotland camp; Johnston provided a convenient scapegoat to deflect the press from writing about the shortcomings of the campaign. Johnston did himself no favours with a crass interview with Frank Bough on Nationwide, but he was certainly not the criminal he was portrayed to be. (He was a bit of a naughty boy, though, lots of red cards for retaliation, and he once mooned the opposing bench after scoring in an NASL match.)
The next game against the weakest team in the group, Iran, was a must-win. MacLeod brought in Jardine and Donachie, with Buchan moving into the middle instead of Tom Forsyth – odd as it was generally agreed that Forsyth was one of the least awful players against Peru. Macari and Gemmill stayed in and John Robertson, the other genuine winger in the squad, was the obvious replacement for Johnston.
The game was a train wreck. Scotland created absolutely nothing. None of the midfield players got forward into the box and Kenny Dalglish added to the growing list of World Cup matches in which he went missing. Robertson, so confident and destructive for Nottingham Forest, seemed reluctant to take on his man – his crosses should have been manna from heaven for Jordan. Scotland took a barely deserved lead as the Iranian goalkeeper and a defender combined to create a Laurel & Hardy own goal under pressure from Jordan. The equaliser wasn’t even a surprise, Iran were the better side for much of the second half. Remember, this wasn’t the Scotland squad of the 2000s, almost devoid of players of true international class; this was 1978, with Celtic and Rangers still amongst Europe’s elite and the pick of the squad playing for top English sides.
Scotland were derided by the media – gleefully so by the English, still smarting from the memories of the triumphal Tartan Army at Wembley and
the jibes from Scottish colleagues about their failure to qualify. How Scotland must have wished they had failed to qualify, too; anything was better than this humiliation. Even their loyal army of fans turned against them, jeering as the team bus arrived at the hotel.
The third match came with no optimism. The opponents were Holland, who had three points like Peru. Scotland’s forlorn hope, if there was any, was to beat the Dutch by three goals. At last MacLeod started with Souness (for Macari) – his one hint of mea culpa was in admitting the Liverpool playmaker should have played from the first game. Rioch was back – for Robertson, with Hartford and Gemmill pushed wider – and Burns, woeful against Iran, was omitted in favour of Forsyth. Stuart Kennedy came back for Jardine, which seemed a needless change. Kennedy looked a decent player going forward but had the positional sense of a puppy.
WORLD CUP CLASSIC No.9
11 June 1978, San Martin, Mendoza; 35,130
Referee: Erich Linemayr (Austria)
Coaches: Ally MacLeod (Scotland) & Ernst Happel (Holland)
Scotland (4–4–2): Alan Rough (Partick Thistle); Stuart Kennedy (Aberdeen), Tom Forsyth (Glasgow Rangers), Martin Buchan (Manchester United), Willie Donachie (Manchester City); Asa Hartford (West Bromwich Albion), Bruce Rioch (Cpt, Derby County), Graeme Souness (Liverpool), Archie Gemmill (Nottingham Forest); Kenny Dalglish (Liverpool), Joe Jordan (Man Utd).
Holland (4–4–2): Jan Jongbloed (Roda JC); Wim Suurbier (Schalke 04), Wim Rijsbergen (Feyenoord), Ruud Krol (Cpt, Ajax), Jan Poortvliet (PSV Eindhoven); René van de Kerkhof (PSV Eindhoven), Wim Jansen (Feyenoord), Johan Neeskens (Barcelona), Willy van de Kerkhof (PSV Eindhoven); Johnny Rep (SEC Bastia), Rob Rensenbrink (Anderlecht). Subs: Jan Boskamp (Molenbeek) 10m for Neeskens; Piet Wildschut (Twente Enschede) 44m for Rijsbergen
Cautioned: Gemmill (Sco) 35m
Finally it all clicked. With Souness playing deep in midfield, Hartford and Gemmill buzzing purposefully ahead and Rioch launching up to join Jordan, with Dalglish free to take up wide positions or come off the centre-forward and look for the ball, Scotland had their formation. It was midfield diamond before anyone had the faintest idea such a thing existed and it caused Holland problems. Behind them Buchan looked much more assured as a deep centre / sweeper where his lack of pace was no issue, and Forsyth roamed eagerly, tackling and harassing attackers before they got near the goal.
Scotland got on the front foot and stayed there. Rioch hit the bar with a thumping header (and probably ought to have scored), while Dalglish thought he’d scored only to discover the referee blew for a foul not a goal. Even when Holland opened the scoring this rejuvenated Scotland didn’t panic. The goal was Kennedy’s fault; he gave the ball away and in his haste to atone he brought Rep down – Scottish protests that he got the ball were rightly waved away. Rensenbrink slid the penalty into the corner of the goal.
Holland were struggling with injuries. Neeskens attempted a crude and dangerous tackle on Gemmill and the Scot quite reasonably jumped out of the way, unfortunately landing on Neeskens’ stomach; hoist with his own petard, the Dutch play-maker left the field on a stretcher. Shortly after Rijsbergen took a knock and was clearly struggling. The Dutch bench declined to replace him, presumably hoping he would make it to half-time. It backfired. Souness received the ball on the left edge of the Dutch area and put an inviting cross into the back post area, where Jordan steamrollered Krol and headed back into the middle. Just in the space where Rijsbergen should have been was Dalglish, unmarked and for once he finished in the manner to which Liverpool fans were accustomed, high and handsome past a helpless Jongbloed. The Dutch promptly replaced Rijsbergen. Stable door . . . horse . . .
The second half started as the first ended, with a Scotland goal. Again Jordan’s presence caused panic in the Dutch defence, and when Souness tried to latch on to a loose ball he was bumped clumsily by Willy van de Kerkhof. Gemmill was coolness personified with the penalty. Now Scotland had the bit between their teeth.
The next goal was one of the greats and a personal favourite. Archie Gemmill was a great pro, a player with some skill and a lot of intelligence and a huge heart. He had an impressive haul of three League Championship medals; two with Derby and then with Nottingham Forest the previous season, where he had followed manager Brian Clough (no bad judge of a player’s attitude). Good player then, but he had no right to score a goal like this. Picking the ball up in nowhere territory on the right wing, he attacked the Dutch area. Jansen lunged in lazily and was beaten easily, then Ruud Krol got his body shape wrong and allowed Gemmill to pass by on the outside. Jan Poortvliet was covering and Gemmill would have to either go wider still or back into the melee in the box. He did neither, he nutmegged Poortvliet and found space. Jongbloed advanced, and as was his tendency, committed early; Gemmill leaned to his right and calmly lifted the ball over the prostrate goalkeeper. His face was a picture. I still fight back the tears every time I watch the goal. There is something very heartwarming about a worthy but unremarkable player ascending briefly to a higher plane.
The belief that Scotland could pull off something quite extraordinary lasted all of three minutes until Johnny Rep produced a thirty-yarder out of nowhere – Rough merely twitched like a marionette as the ball rocketed past him. The Dutch shooting in this World Cup was a wonder to see. The game petered out after this, for all the Scottish effort. Their terrific display was in vain, but some redemption was achieved, for the players if not for their clueless manager.
The preamble was over the top and absurd and invited the fall, which duly came. MacLeod was an inexperienced manager who had no idea of how voracious the press wolves could be when they scented blood. He gave them a reason to want him to fail with his hubris and was oblivious to his own shortcomings. MacLeod lasted one more game – why?!? – then returned to club management. He died in 2003, convinced, if his autobiography is to be believed, that he was just a wee bit unlucky.
The Scots’ failure let in Peru, who actually headed the group (which must have delighted Brazil and Argentina and Poland who avoided a dangerous Holland side). Both Peru and Holland brushed Iran aside – they used the old-fashioned notion of passing to people wearing the same shirt, such a bizarre idea seemed to have evaded Scotland – and they played out a lifeless 0–0 draw when they met in Mendoza.
Scotland returned in 1982 with another good squad and another hard luck story, losing out on goal difference in a tough group with Brazil and the USSR. They maybe had a case with bad luck, but were hugely culpable in allowing New Zealand to score twice – 5–0 rather than 5–2 would have seen them through.
The squads of 1986, 1990 and 1998 were lacking the quality players of ’74, ’78 and ’82, and their failure was expected; even so, defeats to Costa Rica and a 3–0 whacking by Morocco in 1998 were undignified displays. Now, Scotland would give anything for a chance to get near the Finals. A weak and badly run domestic game, dearth of quality and low ranking inevitably means they are fighting their way past two or three decent sides in a qualifying group, and their next appearance in the Finals looks a distance away. A midfield of Souness, Rioch, Hartford and Gemmill is nowadays just a dream.
Scotland Squad 1978:
GK: Alan Rough (Partick Thistle, 26, 18), Jim Blyth (Coventry City, 23, 2), Bobby Clark (Aberdeen, 32, 17)
DEF: Martin Buchan (Manchester United, 29, 28), Kenny Burns (Nottingham Forest, 24, 11), Willie Donachie (Manchester City, 26, 30), Tom Forsyth (Glasgow Rangers, 29, 19), Sandy Jardine (Rangers, 29, 33), Stuart Kennedy (Aberdeen, 25, 3), Gordon McQueen (Man Utd, 25, 20)
MID & WIDE: Archie Gemmill (Nottm Forest, 31, 26), Asa Hartford (Man City, 27, 24), Willie Johnston (West Bromwich Albion, 31, 21), Lou Macari (Man Utd, 28, 22), Don Masson (Derby County, 28, 16), Bruce Rioch (Derby, 30, 22), John Robertson (Nottm Forest, 25, 2), Graeme Souness (Liverpool, 25, 6)
FWD: Kenny Dalglish (Glasgow Celtic, 27, 54), Joe Harper (Aberdeen, 30, 3), Derek Johnstone (Rangers, 24, 13), Joe Jordan (Leeds United, 26, 30)
GROUP A
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The second phase, as in 1974, saw the South American sides in together, and a strong all-European group containing Italy, Holland, West Germany (who surely would improve?) and the also-rans, Austria.
My comment in brackets is deliberately misleading. West Germany didn’t improve; this was one of their poorest World Cup showings – played six, won one, drew four, lost one. They had the worst of a 0–0 draw with Italy, with the midfield anonymous in the face of Antognoni, Benetti and Tardelli. Next up was Holland, and the Germans sneaked an early lead when Schrijvers made a mess of a free-kick and allowed Abramczik to follow up and head home. Holland poured forward and an Arie Haan blockbuster put the Dutch level. The Germans dug in – this was much their best effort of the tournament – and went in front again from a Dieter Müller header. For a while it looked like a repeat of the 1974 Final (without so many great players), but the Dutch had another gear and René van deKerkhof, one of the two PSV Eindhoven twins in the squad, scored a fine equaliser. There was still time for the referee to make an atrocious decision, sending off Dutch substitute Dick Nanninga after a bit of handbags with Hölzenbein in which the German was clearly the more culpable. Hölzenbein keeps cropping up in World Cup history but his influence as a catalyst for controversy far outstrips his modest talent for playing football; forty caps for a strong team seems generous in the extreme.
WORLD CUP CLASSIC No.10
21 June 1978, Olímpico Chateau Carreras, Córdoba;
38,3318
Referee: Avraham Klein (Israel)
Coaches: Helmut Schön (West Germany) & Helmut Senekowitsch (Austria)
