The newbies on Burley’s list are: Ross McCormack (Motherwell), Kevin Thomson and Steven Whittaker (Rangers), Christophe Berra (Hearts) and James Morrison (West Brom). All have potential to do well for Scotland, and all should see this as a golden opportunity to make themselves noticed for World Cup qualifying. Morrison in particular has worked his way onto the radar, with some brilliant performances this season for West Brom, who were, in the second half of the season, far and away the best of the Championship. McCormack is also an overdue young player, and adds to the already potent strike possibilities up front for Scotland. Berra was on the list for the Croatia friendly, but never made it off of the bench. With a few key injuries in defense, his time has come.

A few names are conspicuous by their absence. Barry Ferguson, whose May is a bit busy as is, was left off by Burley to avoid further injuring his knee. Stephen McManus will almost certainly get the captain’s armband for the second straight match. Scott Brown is off the list, for the public reason of minor post-season surgery, but after a couple of dire Scotland performances, I hardly think he’ll be missed. Steven Fletcher, who did well in his debut against Croatia, is back, and we’re all thrilled to see James McFadden back in the lineup after missing the last match for keyhole knee surgery. Looking at the roster, I do think we could have done with one less forward and one more midfielder. Six strikers? Let’s be honest, two at most will start and three at most will play, so why put six on the roster? That’s a minor argument, though, and overall, I really like the squad list.

Here is the total list of twenty-three. If this young squad gets any sort of result in Prague, it will be a hugely positive sign of things to come from Scotland. Exciting times, these, for a fan of the side, and this makes me even more anxious for May 30th to come.

Keepers: Craig Gordon (Sunderland), David Marshall (Norwich)
Defenders: Russell Anderson (Sunderland), Christophe Berra (Hearts), Gary Caldwell (Celtic), Christian Dailly (Rangers), Alan Hutton (Spurs), Stephen McManus (Celtic), Kevin McNaughton (Cardiff), Gary Naysmith (Sheffield United), Steven Whittaker (Rangers)
Midfielders: Darren Fletcher (Manchester United), Paul Hartley (Celtic), James Morrison (West Brom), Gavin Rae (Cardiff), Barry Robson (Celtic), Kevin Thomson (Rangers)
Forwards: Kris Boyd (Rangers), Steven Fletcher (Hibernian), Ross McCormack (Motherwell), James McFadden (Birmingham), Shaun Maloney (Aston Villa), Kenny Miller (Derby)

Fads’ goal against France would probably be enough on its own to win him the award, being the most iconic and memorable goal for Scotland in years, and perhaps since Archie Gemmill’s famous score in the 1978 World Cup. It would, of course, be more important in Scotland history if it had led to a tournament qualification, and Fads agrees that the team staying home takes a bit of luster off of the award.

“It is nice to get a personal award but I would gladly swap it to be at the Euro 2008 finals. I am sure we will all be reminded how close we came come the summer, when we are stuck watching it on the TV. I try not to look back too much but beating France, the World Cup finalists, in Paris and scoring the winner with a good goal is special.”

Special indeed, James. Here’s hoping a bit of silverware brings you back to better times, and gets you in the proper mindset for a very tough relegation battle on Sunday, when Birmingham takes on Blackburn. A win is necessary for both McFadden and former Scotland boss Alex McLeish to stay up in the Premiership. Good luck lads.

First, the group stages. Since my ridiculous obsession with this sport is going to force me to watch all the games I can, I want to have a favorite in each of the four groups. My group A support is going to Turkey, because I can’t bring myself to root for Portugal and the Czechs are still going to be enemies in my eyes, since the May 30th Czech-Scotland friendly will be only a week past. And Switzerland? Yeah … no. In group B, I’m joining the Tartan Army and going with Poland. My family’s roots are in Inverness, also the home of my favorite club, and like most of Scotland, Inverness has seen a huge influx of Polish immigrants in the past five years. They have been fantastic neighbors and ingratiated themselves into Highland life very well. They really do deserve our support, and they have mine. In group C, it has to be Romania, for three reasons. First, I am covering the Tricolorii for World Cup Blog, and I’d like to have more than just the first week of matches to cover. Second, Marius Niculae of Caley Thistle might just make an appearance, which gives them a link to my club allegiance. And also, what could be better to shut up the constant bickering between Italy and France than for Romania to beat them both? Then, there’s group D, where I’ve decided to go for Russia, mostly for two Zenit players, Pavel Pogrebnyak and Slava Malafeev, who have really impressed me in their UEFA Cup run.

When it gets to the knockouts, if any of the above teams actually survive (none are favorites), I’ll have to pick and choose my favorites by the individual match. Frankly, if Poland and Turkey end up playing, or Romania and Russia, I’ll be so happy at how the group stages went that I’ll hardly care much who wins it.

Croatia does get an honorable mention, for doing the business against England and keeping them out. That Poland-Croatia match might just need to be a draw.

Scotland v. England. It was the first international game. In fact, it was the fixture for the first five international matches, before we let the Welsh play, and it’s all been downhill since then. Just kidding. Still, all of the nations that claim to have rivalries with England (France, Germany, Argentina, etc) have to get in line, because we were here first, and Scotland will always lay claim to the oldest rivalry - that of the so-called “Auld enemies”.

If Rangers win the UEFA Cup, whether by a sudden explosion of offense or their tried-and-true (and incredibly dull) defensive lockdown, it will not only mean the first European trophy for Scotland since Aberdeen’s 1983 Cup Winners’ Cup. It will also mean that Rangers will get a chance to take on the Champions League winner, either Manchester United or Chelsea, in this year’s UEFA Super Cup.

Of course, the rivalry would be better represented by a team with a bit less Unionist of a fan base. All those Union Jacks in the crowd will just confuse the Mancunians or Londonites. But it will still, at least on paper, be Scotland and England, and our long sad rivalry drought will get a wee drip of rain, just enough to keep us going.

On Sunday, the Danes were too much for the depleted Scotland side, still missing Fleeting’s leadership and ability, and the ladies lost their third in five matches. However, today’s result showed just how important the captain really is to her team. Fleeting returned for the match, and scored a first-half hat trick to ensure victory over Portugal, 4-1. The fourth goal was scored by Celtic’s Jennifer Beattie. Excellent work, ladies, and we can only hope that Captain Courageous (now on 103 goals in 101 caps) can stay healthy. She makes a world of difference in this team.

Qualification is still a very tall order. With two matches left to play, Scotland is on seven points, putting them third behind leaders Ukraine, who will almost certainly win the group, and second-placed Denmark. Two wins are vital, since only the four best third-place finishers will make it to a playoff for the tournament. Good luck, ladies. After the disappointment of missing out of Euro 2008, it would be fantastic to have our side in Finland next year for the women’s Euros.

We are now two matches away from arguably the greatest year of football in the Fergusson clan’s history. (That’s the proper spelling, by the way - double ’s’) Sir Alex, of course, is the manager of Manchester United, and will take his side to Moscow to face Chelsea, in a match that is interesting only for the trophy awarded at the end. His distant kinsman Barry Ferguson is captain of both Rangers and Scotland, and today guided his club to their first UEFA Cup final. I say guided, but I could equally well say “stumbled his way” to it, since he missed the opening penalty.

So, here we sit, 180 minutes from the total domination of European football by the clan Fergusson. Lord Galloway would be proud.

For now, though, I wanted to recall a less positive time in the history of the Scotland side. On this date 15 years ago was one of Scotland’s worst losses ever. The 1994 World Cup qualifying campaign started as a mixed bag for Scotland. Our first match was a 3-1 loss in Switzerland, but as qualifying went on, the Swiss proved to be one of the better sides in Group 1, and the defeat didn’t seem so terrible. Two subsequent draws with Portugal and Italy had hopes a bit higher in Scotland, and on April 28th, 1993, we went to Lisbon to take on Portugal again. It had been nil-nil at Hampden, and no one could have expected the harsh reversal of the return leg. When it was all said and done, it was 5-0 to Portugal, and Scotland striker Ally McCoist was headed home with a broken leg that would keep him off the pitch for a year. Scotland’s hopes for a return to the World Cup were completely dashed, and manager Andy Roxbrough memorably called it “The Night A Team Died”.

I hope we’re never on the wrong end of a night like that again, but as World Cup qualifying gets closer and closer, it doesn’t hurt to remember the bad times along with the good, and remember how far we’ve come since.

Now that Euro 2008 is approaching fast, I’ll be splitting my World Cup Blog duties between this blog and the Romania World Cup Blog, which I will be representing for the tournament. With Scotland waiting this one out, and without even England to root against, I have to say I’m a bit of a neutral in this year’s Euros, but I’ll try to cover Romania as well as I can. I am a big fan of Adrian Mutu, and there’s a certain Inverness Caley Thistle striker to keep an eye on as well, so there are reasons to keep up with the Tricolorii. I’ll still try to be more regular at this post too, since Scotland will always be my first and foremost loyalty as a football supporter. Mon the Scots.

Now, the plans have taken another blow. Because of fixture congestion, the start of the Four Nations has been put off until at least 2011. This is a real disappointment for me, and should be for all Scotland fans. We had a chance to mix these Four Nations matches in between our World Cup qualifiers next year. It would have provided a chance to not only play more games, but to play ones that really meant something to Scotland players. The recent rise in quality of both the Northern Ireland and Wales teams made it that much more interesting. Now, it will be at least a year after the World Cup before we see any sort of regional tournament.

But it’s more than just disappointing for Scotland fans, or fans of the other Home Nations. This plan, if successful, could be a template for more regional tournaments, which some people have suggested is the alternative to random friendlies. Regional rivalries make the games more meaningful, and a tournament format allows there to be a real prize for winning, besides 10 more points one way or the other in the FIFA world rankings. I personally would love to see a regional tournament for, say, southwestern Europe, with Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. Anyway, we now have at least three years to wait before we know whether the Four Nations format will have a chance to work. Oh well.