Despite the Odds SWNT Can Still Avoid the Nations League Drop. They've just got to Believe.
SWNT's Nations League Group A fate may be out of their hands but while the possibility exists there has to belief that close margins can be flipped on their head; starting with a win against Belgium.
The Chapman Suite, where Tuesday’s SWNT press conference took place is located at the rear of Oriam overlooking the outdoor training pitches that an hour previous the Scotland women’s national team completed their final preparations on home soil before heading to Belgium on Wednesday.
On arrival, and after entering via the main door, your walk towards it takes you past a definitively sport-centric landscape.
Shorts and sports wear are more prevalent than jeans and trainers. There are basketball courts where a wheelchair sports session is currently in progress, pivot your head from east-to-west and on Europe’s largest synthetic indoor pitch a youthful generation of Scottish football stars are tidying away the bibs and balls.
Past changing rooms you turn left down a corridor where the words of the national anthem are stretched across the walls in both English and Gaelic, a welcome to some of Scotland’s most celebrated talent as they prepare to get to work. Turn again, and the colours change from golden yellow to shades of blue; of all the words that are emblazoned across this panel of brickwork one stands up above all other, “Believe”.
Going into Friday’s trip to Leuven to face Belgium Scotland’s hopes of remaining in Nations League Group A hang by the wispiest of threads. Victories will have to come against the Belgians and four days later at home to England for survival to be achieved, and even then, that may not be enough as anything other than a defeat for England at home to The Netherlands at Wembley will confirm Scotland’s relegation.
Hanging by a thread they are but sometimes when you a pull a thread tight, choose to wrap it around a single digit over and over again; to the point of tension where it feels like it could snap that thread can gather into a collective of many, with a feeling far stronger than any chain of steel or iron. For Scotland, there is still a chance that the collective can see it through.
Do the squad believe that they can get the results they need I ask Aston Villa’s Kirsty Hanson, the winger has been handed the task of previewing Friday night’s contest, “We know what the results can do,” said last year’s WSL Player of the Year nominee, “but we are focusing on ourselves, pushing each other everyday to ensure that when we step on that pitch on Friday we can go right at it and get the result that we need.”
Putting aside a humbling 4-0 loss to The Netherlands in Nijmegen Scotland’s results have been tight, drawing once and losing by a single goal on two further occasions during an UWNL campaign where they currently sit bottom of the table with a point to their name. The phrase “fine margins” and “being close” have become the buzzwords of this Nations League campaign for Scotland.
It is perhaps fair to believe that something should have been gained from a trip to the Stadium of Light against England. There is never not a buzz to see a result pulled from the jaws of defeat, such as was the case when Sophie Howard headed home a late Lee Gibson free-kick to secure a draw against Belgium but at home to The Netherlands the over-arching feeling from fans was that Scotland set out not to lose as opposed to going out in pursuit of a victory; in this current iteration, the suggestion is front foot Scotland is the most potent of all.
Reference will be made to the injuries that forced Pedro Martinéz Losa’s hand as Esmee Brugts goal secured a 1-0 victory for the visiting Dutch but the shackles now have to be released, there is nothing to lose from a pair of must-win games.
Those fine margins that have so far gone against Scotland will have to be turned in our favour, “Obviously last time they were very physical”, explains Hanson who will be trying to implement her own learnings from the last time Scotland faced Belgium, “They were touch tight a lot of the time and I know I need to maybe work on my close control a bit and do different things to get away from them on the ball, having character on the ball but also off the ball. If things aren’t going right you never give up.”
With the right mentality Scotland have the weapons to get a result in Belgium and, from there, against an England side who have demonstrated fragility for the first time under Sarina Weigman’s primarily indomitable reign over the Lionesses at Hampden.
Whatever the results of these two games, come 11pm on Tuesday night the full analysis on Scotland’s UWNL campaign can begin; until then, it should wait.
If success is achieved then renewed optimism can be allowed to emerge. If results and performances fail to inspire then fair and reasoned questioning should be permitted to probe for the answers supporters will feel they deserve.
The SWNT rollercoaster has had its fair share of ups and downs since Martinéz Losa took over a set up drifting to nowhere back in July 2021 but consistency and success have so far alluded the Spaniard.
Pulling a Nations League recovery job or even a pair of performances that ripple with a bit of Scottish swagger out the bag, will provide evidence that Scotland are moving in the right direction under a manager who recently signed a new deal until 2027.
For me, I am trying to live a glass half-full existence in a world increasingly determined to drink us dry. I would rather believe in the magic that could happen on Friday night than accepting a campaign which began with great hopes and realistic ambitions of establishing ourselves as a true elite tier Nations League side, can be allowed to pass with no more than a whimper.
Until the balls on the mathematician’s abacus spring free from their rods and scatter across the air then the message of belief; that a result in Belgium and Nations League survival could follow is one that has to be drilled into players, coaches and fans alike.
When you believe anything, and everything is possible but without it is there any point in turning up at all.
Scotland face Belgium this Friday 1st December at Den Dreef Stadion with a 7;30pm kick off UK time and the game is live on BBC Alba.
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