In the beginning, it was Pele and Jairzinho, Gerson and Amarildo, the Brazilian boys of 1966, still champions of the world, if only for another month.
These were the icons that Scotland faced the first time they played the Selecao, 60 years and 10 games ago. Stevie Chalmers, a Lisbon Lion in waiting, opened the scoring after a minute. It ended 1-1.
What Steve Clarke would give for more of the same on Wednesday in the blistering humidity of Miami. Scotland’s game of the century is nigh.
There’s been pain against Brazil. Too much.
The forlorn look on Tom Boyd’s face in the 73rd minute in Paris in 1998 as the ball ricochets off his right arm and into the back of his own net; the goal that settled it – 2-1 to the South Americans.
The head-in-hands shock of the great Billy Bremner when he fails to score from a few yards out just after the hour mark in Frankfurt in 1974 – 0-0, undefeated Scotland going home on goal difference.
The goal difference spectre looms large again now, more than a half a century later. Scotland know they don’t need to win and don’t even necessarily need to draw to get themselves into the knockout round for the first time in their history.
Getting a point, or three, is the object of the exercise and their total focus, but a battling 1-0 loss, a rough 2-0 defeat, or even a desperate chasing and more goals conceded might still see them advance.
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