Scotland the Brave but no Reward for Defensive Endeavour

Cezh Republic 1 Scotland 0

Despite an excellent first half defensive display, Craig Levein’s side were sunk by a Roman Hubnik header with three quarters of the match played in Prague this evening. The Hertha Berlin centre half directed Roman Bednar’s flick on from Czech captain Tomas Rosicky’s corner past Allan McGregor to rescue their qualification campaign having lost to Lithuania in the last competitive international. Apart from the poor marking during this decisive set piece the Scottish back line defended like tigers, the often error-prone Gary Caldwell put in some fantastic tackles and Rangers captain David Weir, who at forty years of age I was certain would be a liability, gave a position master class against a striker half his age in Tomas Necid.

There is a fine line between being a tactical genius and getting that aspect of the game wrong. Whilst they kept the Czechs at bay, frustrating the home side by restricting the likes of Rosicky, Necid, Jan Polak and Jaroslav Plasil to long range efforts which did not threaten McGregor’s goal, Levein’s plan was the former. A goal down with seventy minutes on the clock and all of a sudden Scotland were playing too defensively. You can’t help but wonder if an instant reaction by bringing on substitutes would’ve been better, as it was the manager waited a good five minutes before calling the in-form Kenny Miller and Burnley frontman Chris Iwelumo off the bench.

This was by no means a great Czech side that the Tartan Army travelled to watch tonight. Gone are the greats Poborsky, Nedved, Koller and Galasek. Tomas Ufjalusi and Marek Jankulovski are in self-imposed retirement from international football, Zdenek Grygera was not selected and Milan Baros is injured. Scotland may have been guilty of giving Michal Bilek’s side too much respect. Marek Suchy looked particularly shaky in the heart of defence, but Petr Cech didn’t really have a save to make. Young Necid continues to show promise and justify his tag as one of Europe’s hottest prospects, but the Czechs could do with finding a partner to play up front with him consistently.

Were Scotland too defensive tonight? Debutant Jamie Mackie’s insatiable work rate was impressive and although everyone likes to see a forward helping out his defenders nobody was left up the field and so the Czechs were often under no pressure from clearances and were regularly first to the second ball. The prerogative of playing players in their natural position comes to the fore. Why should Mackie play on the wing when he tops the Championship’s scoring charts? Miller, who stands head and shoulder above any other finding the net in the SPL was no doubt disappointed not to start the match. Looking at the uncertainty in the Czech back-four might Iwelumo’s physical presence unsettled them? Many of these questions will sadly be irrelevant come the next game. Despite the fact that Scotland have risen to the occasion before against giants of international football it is very difficult to see them taking anything out Tuesday’s qualifier with reigning European and World Champions Spain.