Why Scotland's win over minnows still augurs well for World Cup bid

Beating Liechtenstein, a landlocked microstate which is sandwiched in between Austria and Switzerland in the European Alps and has a population of little over 40,000 people, will have little if any bearing on the national team's World Cup qualifying campaign.
Only Turks and Caicos Islands, British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, Anguilla and San Marino are placed below the soccer minnows in the FIFA World Rankings.
The victory was, to put it bluntly, akin to defeating Coatbridge.
Failing to prevail in their final outing before qualifying gets underway would have been, to borrow a phrase made famous by the late, great STV commentator Arthur Montford, a disaster for Scotland.
This country's opening Group C opponents Denmark will, it is safe to say, provide a far sterner challenge in Copenhagen in September and so will Belarus and Greece thereafter.
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Al of that said, this comfortable four goal win was warmly welcomed for a variety of reasons. For a start, it enabled the national team to put the woeful displays and dire results in their last two outings against Greece back in March and Iceland on Friday night behind them and finish what has at times been a difficult season on a positive note.
The Tartan Army footsoldiers who had made the journey to Liechtenstein enjoyed their evening in the picturesque and sun-drenched ground greatly and will travel back home in fine spirts and with high hopes for the challenges which lie ahead.
There were certainly none of the boos or jeers which were aimed in the direction of manager Steve Clarke by an incensed and disgusted crowd at Hampden last week when it was all over.
Scoring not once, not twice, but three times will have lifted Che Adams no end as well. Yes, the opposition was limited to say the least. However, strikers feed off goals and the Torino man had gone over a year without netting for his country. His previous strike had come in the Euro 2024 warm-up game against Gibraltar in Portugal last June. He will have been buoyed enormously by his hat-trick.
His opener was his seventh at international level and drew him level with Gordon Durie, John Wark, Robert Snodgrass, Billy Dodds, Andy Gray and Joe Harper in the scoring charts. His next moved him alongside Archie Gemmill, Billy Liddell, John Robertson Snr, Bob McPhail and Ralph Brand. His final effort saw him join Paul McStay, Kevin Gallacher, Joe Jordan, Davie Wilson, Tommy Walker and Ian St John. That is exalted company indeed.
(Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group) The visitors made no fewer than six substitutions during the course of the 90 minutes. But the former Southampton player remained on for the duration. For obvious reasons. His manager was keen for his first choice marksman to claim a hat-trick. He did so in the second minute of injury time with just seconds remaining when he nodded a Connor Barron cutback in.
He became the first Scotland player to score three times in one game since John McGinn did so against San Marino back in 2019.
One of the most memorable goals that Adams, who has had an excellent debut season in Italy, has scored in a dark blue jersey came against Denmark in a Qatar 2022 qualifier in Glasgow back in 2021. He will fancy his chances of adding to his tally against the top seeds in the section in a few months after this morale-boosting runout.
George Hirst will not be short of self-belief either if he is given the nod by Clarke in the meeting with the Scandinavians. The Ipswich Town man was perhaps the only Scotland player who received pass marks during the sorry Iceland debacle. He once again showed why he had been preferred to his more experienced compatriot in attack with a bright and intelligent display.
Hirst revelled in the 4-4-2 formation which his manager switched to and opened his account for his adopted homeland in the second half following good work by Anthony Ralston and Adams. The latter flicked on a cross with his head and the striker buried it from close range. It was just his fourth appearance for his country.
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It was a classic poacher's effort. Still, he was in the right place at the right time and there is a knack in that. His personal showing, then, augurs well for the future. So too did the fact that Tommy Conway of Middlesbrough came on and got more game time in attack and Kieron Bowie of Hibernian joined him.
Bowie was one of no fewer than five debutants. Ross Doohan, the Aberdeen keeper who looks poised to join Celtic this summer, was only called up at the weekend in the wake of the injuries which Angus Gunn and Robby McCrorie suffered on Friday night. He had next to nothing to do. Still, he will have benefitted from the experience. So will Barron of Rangers, Andy Irving of West Ham, Josh Doig of Sassuolo.
(Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group) Lennon Miller of Motherwell made his bow for Scotland against Iceland. But he started next to Billy Gilmour in the centre of midfield and acquitted himself maturely. He set up his side's second when he pinched the ball off of Nicolas Hasler on the edge of the Liechtenstein penalty box and fed Adams ahead of him.
It was also encouraging to see Nathan Patterson, who has had such a torrid time of it with injuries since moving to Everton, take over from Ralston and add to his haul of caps. He has been a potent weapon for his country in the past and can be so again if he can get a run of games for his club.
It was, it should not be forgotten, only Liechtenstein. But anyone who can remember the narrow and nail-biting Euro 2012 wins over them in 2010 and 2011 will have been relieved by the ease with which the away triumph was secured. It gives Scotland fans a glimmer of hope for the future.

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Daily Mirror

an hour ago

• Daily Mirror

Partying with Bond, 'most-violent' match & David Campese - The Lions Down Under

The British & Irish Lions are set to add to a fabled history of tours to Australia this summer as they return Down Under for the first time since 2013 Australia might be known as the 'lucky country' but don't tell that to David Campese. The Wallabies great might have won the 1991 World Cup - where he was named Player of the Tournament - earned more than 100 caps in a 14-year international career and have gone down as one of the finest athletes (let alone rugby players) that Australia has ever produced. Yet to Lions fans, he'll always be remembered for a mistake, one that arguably handed the tourists victory in a rollercoaster 1989 series. ‌ It set the platform for what has become a rivalry pock-marked with soaring highs, plundering lows and a fair bit of bad blood in between. ‌ With 20 minutes left in the decisive third Test in Sydney, Australia led 12-9 when a Rob Andrew drop goal slipped wide of the posts, where a waiting Campese collected in his own in-goal area. The winger went back to run the ball out from behind his own try-line but then flicked a pass to his supporting full-back Greg Martin. However, as if in slow motion, the pass went behind Martin, hit the floor and the covering Ieuan Evans gleefully dived on the loose ball for the try and a lead the Lions would turn into a series-winning 19-18 victory. 'It was a one-in-100 moment,' Campese said when reflecting on the aftermath. 'I walked in the dressing room, none of the Australian players or [coach] Bob Dwyer came near me for about 15 minutes and I was pretty down.' To rub salt into Campese's wound, he was pulled over by the police while driving home and handed a speeding ticket. 'Talk about bad luck,' he said. And later, in a bizarre turn of events, as he walked through the front door, just desperate to get to bed, he had phone call from the St Helen's rugby league team offering him a huge sum of money to sign. 'I don't know what game they were watching,' he added. 'It was a strange night, that's for sure. The ironic thing is, I did the exact same pass the next week and it worked. It was bad luck.' ‌ Campese's is not the only iconic Lions moment to have come Down Under. Think Brian O'Driscoll's breath-taking try, Kurtley Beale's jaw-dropping slip, and George North's hilarious fireman's lift on Israel Folau. Historically, the Lions' most storied rivalries may be with South Africa and New Zealand, both scenes of legendary 1970s successes. But they have played those two nations 91 times combined and have won just 25. Take out the 71' tour to New Zealand, where the Lions recorded their only series win against the All Blacks, and the '74 trip to South Africa, where they emerged unbeaten and with a famous 3-0 win against the Springboks, and their overall record against those two southern hemisphere giants is – to be blunt – bleak. ‌ Against Australia, it's anything but. Of the 23 Test matches, from 1899 to 2013, the Lions have won 17. Indeed, of the nine Test series staged between them, they have won seven. Though the Lions have a long history of touring Australia - the very ever Lions tour included two months there in 1888, sandwiching two stints in New Zealand – their rivalry simmered rather than boiled for more than a century. ‌ And then came 1989, and the rivalry burst into life – and not just because of Campese's infamous error. The background to the series was fascinating in itself. The '89 Lions were the first to visit Australia since 1971, the first to play more than two games in the country since 1966 and only the second ever Lions side to use Australia as their sole destination. Only the Reverend Matthew Mullineux's tourists 90 years earlier had toured Australia without venturing to New Zealand. With this in mind, it was hardly surprising that there were plenty of doubters ahead of the adventure. Australian rugby had struggled during the 1970s but the Grand Slam tourists of 1984 – the Wallabies beat all four home unions on an autumn tour - had shown that they could hang with the best. ‌ The Lions may have won all eight of their non-Test fixtures but they were convincingly beaten in the first international in Sydney, a 30-12 hammering. But that defeat only spurred the Lions on to create history of their own. The Battle of Ballymore, as it was aptly christened by the Australian press, is widely regarded as one of the most bruising encounters in the history of the game. Victory over the soon-to-be world champions kept the tourists' series hopes alive but it was perhaps the manner of the triumph that paved the way for a series win – with the first scrum setting the tone. Australia's scrum-half Nick Farr-Jones prepared to feed the ball in but opposite number Robert Jones sneakily stood on his rival's foot and Farr-Jones snapped. As the two smallest men on the field came to blows, the Lions forwards piled in and battle commenced. ‌ Similarly robust confrontations occurred at regular intervals throughout the match, with Dai Young later accused of stamping on the head of Australian lock Stephen Cutler in one of the most-controversial moments of the entire series. "I would describe it as the most violent game of rugby that has ever been played,' said flanker Mike Teague after a 19-12 win. ‌ Robert Jones said: 'It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to stand on his foot at the first scrum and push down. He came back at me, and within seconds there was a pretty lively punch up going on.' The Australian public were engaged – and enraged. And then, a week later, came Campese. Now, with the Lions in a fixed cycle of touring Australia, New Zealand and South Africa on rotation, they have only been back Down Under twice since that series. ‌ 2001 was very different to 1989 – and what went on tour certainly did not stay on tour. Graham Henry was named as the first overseas coach in Lions history, having earned an impressive reputation with Wales, but the decision was met with criticism from sections of the press, arguing that an Irishman or a Brit should always be handed the reigns ahead of a foreigner. Rumours of discontent in the camp were rife before newspaper columns and player diaries threatened to ruin the tour. Austin Healy never has shaken off the fall-out from his Observer column, where he labelled Wallabies lock Justin Harrison a 'plank' and an 'ape'. He later used those pages to predict a fine would be coming his way. He was right. It was £3,000. ‌ The Lions somehow still produced one of their best-ever performances in the opening Test - inspired by a coming-of-age try from Irish centre O'Driscoll, where he danced through a sea of Aussie defenders and sprinted clear to score - before the Wallabies fought back to triumph in the second and third matches. 2013 was hardly spice-free either. Kurtley Beale's missed penalty in the last minute cost the Wallabies a first Test win and, while they battled back to level the series, the Lions produced an all-time display to win 41-16 in the third – with James Bond actor Daniel Craig partying with them in the changing rooms. 'Australia is a special place,' said Jamie Roberts at the end of that tour. 'Anything can happen.'

Daily Mirror

2 hours ago

• Daily Mirror

British Lions coach Farrell issued major warning ahead of Joe Schmidt reunion

Former Australia captain James Horwill believes the Wallabies can spring a surprise this summer when they meet the challenge of the British and Irish Lions Australian rugby reached its lowest ebb at the 2023 Rugby World Cup but just two years later, Joe Schmidt has the team ready to challenge The British & Irish Lions. That is the view of James Horwill, captain the last time the Lions were in town, and confident the Wallabies are hitting their straps at just the right time. It is a far cry from the tail end of the Eddie Jones era, which featured an ignominious ending at the World Cup in France as Australia crashed out in the group stages for the very first time – a 40-6 defeat to Wales seemingly evidence of a side in terminal decline. Cue the arrival of Schmidt, fresh from success with Leinster and then Ireland, followed by a spell in the New Zealand coaching staff that coincided with a return to form for the All Blacks. ‌ All was not perfect in 2024, a year which saw Australia ship four tries in 10 minutes to Argentina in a record defeat. But by the end of the year, it was clear that the team had started to find their feet under the Kiwi, with a last-gasp win over England at Allianz Stadium the highlight. ‌ And Horwill believes that the performances of Australia's Super Rugby teams should give Wallaby fans even more confidence ahead of the arrival of the Lions. He said: 'There has been some good growth. When you reflect back as a country on the 2023 World Cup, it was very disappointing across the board. But since Joe has come in as coach, and been able to put a bit more stability around the programme, we saw some of the performances improve. 'Looking directly at last year's end-of-year tour, there were some good performances – the performance against England, we very well could have beaten Ireland in Ireland. Overall, I think it was a positive tour and we saw some steps in the right direction. 'This year, Super Rugby has seen much more sustained, consistent performances from our Aussie sides. Maybe towards the back end there has been a little bit of drop off. But early on in the year, we have seen much more consistency from our Super sides, which can only bode well for the Wallabies selectors. 'I think everything is trending in the right direction, with obviously a big challenge coming in the Lions tour.' ‌ Working alongside Schmidt are experienced campaigners Laurie Fisher – the former Gloucester coach – and New Zealand scrum guru Mike Cron. Last but not least, Geoff Parling, who went toe-to-toe with Horwill in that Lions series 12 years ago, will find himself on the other side of the battle this time around. And it is the influence of that support staff that has been crucial, according to Horwill. He said: 'Joe has brought in his experience of his time in Ireland and his ability to put that programme together. It is the stability, not just through Joe but also the assistants. There are very good assistants working with him. ‌ 'While the head coach is obviously important, now more than ever, the coaching group is vital, both at club and Test level. The team he has brought together from a coaching aspect is very impressive. There has been some real clarity of what they are trying to achieve and how they are trying to play. 'And then it's a bit about bringing a bit of confidence back and giving some guys a bit more time in the saddle to perform. There have no doubt been some challenges but if we've got guys available and firing, we've got quite a formidable team.' ‌ What is clear in 2025 is that Australia find themselves with greater options than in recent seasons – particularly in the back row where the stocks are overflowing. In addition to key figures like Rob Valetini, Harry Wilson and Fraser McReight, the likes of Carlo Tizzano from the Western Force and Seru Uru at the Reds would all hope to be in a matchday 23. Add in Josh Kemeny and Pete Samu, both of whom started the Champions Cup final for Northampton Saints and champions Bordeaux-Bègles respectively, and it is clear that Schmidt has some big calls to make. ‌ Horwill reflected: 'If you go through and want to pick a XV, if you go position-by-position, you are asking yourself who would you pick and it's a hard decision. We probably haven't had that in previous years. You can almost see the quality of the squad by the people you leave out, rather than the people you select. 'When he names his squad for the Lions, there are going to be guys who are very good players who deserve to be there but there just aren't enough shirts to get the job. That only bodes well for performance, guys pushing and people chomping at the heels if you don't perform. 'You just have a look and try to pick the back row now and who misses out? Who is on the bench? It will be a fascinating battle. ‌ 'I think Fraser McReight is a difference-maker for us. He's a player that we saw on the end-of-season tour at Wallaby level, the game he didn't play against Scotland, you saw the difference in performance. 'Who plays No.8? Bobby Valetini and Harry Wilson have been putting in huge performances. Those two guys are going to be vital to get that go-forward ball for us against the Lions. And Carlo Tizzano couldn't be doing much more.' ‌ Brought in to replace Jones after his disastrous second spell, Schmidt will move on in 2026, to be succeeded by Reds boss Les Kiss. He and Schmidt have previously worked together with Ireland, while Kiss has plenty of experience of northern hemisphere rugby, having spent time at Ulster and then London Irish prior to them entering administration. While there has been no clear succession plan over the last two Wallaby coach changes, there appears to be a longer-term vision this time around. Horwill said: 'The two guys have worked together previously with Ireland and while they are different, they both have a similar understanding of how they like the game to be played. 'In terms of consistency and continuing the momentum that hopefully we have built by then, going into a home World Cup, I imagine that it will go quite seamlessly. 'Joe is staying on until July next year now and my understanding is that a big part of that is to help Les set up that programme so that they are ready to pick up and run with it and are not starting afresh. 'While Les no doubt has some differences to what Joe does, speaking to the Queensland guys, they all speak incredibly highly of him. He's done some great things with the Reds in the short time he has been there.' Horwill and the Wallabies were part of a Lions series for the ages 12 years ago. With Schmidt at the helm and a team on the up, there is reason to believe this summer's tour could be just as entertaining.

The Guardian

2 hours ago

• The Guardian

America is showing us football in its final dictator form – we can't afford to look away

Should we give it a miss? Is it best to stay away from next summer's Trump-Infantino US World Cup? Depending on your politics the answer may be a resounding no or a bemused shrug. Some will see pure drive-by entertainment. Why would anyone want to boycott a month-long end-of-days Grand Soccer Parade staged by two of the world's most cinematic egomaniacs? But it is a question that has been asked, and will be asked a lot more in the next year. Those who intend to travel will need to answer it by action or omission. Would it be better for dissenting media and discomfited football fans to simply no-platform this event? The picture is at least clearer now. After a week of the new steroid-fed Club World Cup we know what this thing will feel like and who it will benefit. There is no mystery with these events now, no sense of politics lurking coyly out of sight. Under Gianni Infantino Fifa has become a kind of mobile propaganda agency for indulgent regimes, right out in front twirling its pompoms, hitching its leotard, twerking along at the front of the parade like an unholy Uncle Sam. So we had the grisly sight this week of Donald Trump not just borrowing football's light, but wrestling it on to his lap and ruffling its hair, burbling like a random hot-button word generator about women and trans people, while Juventus players gawped in the background. We have the spectacle of both club and international football hijacked as a personal vanity platform for Infantino, the dictator's fluffer, the man who sold the world not once but twice. Infantino's status as a wildly over-promoted administrator has always had an operatic quality. But there is something far more sinister in his political over-reach, out there nodding along at the latest Oval Office freak-off, helping to legitimise each divisive statement, each casual erasure of process. Nobody gave Fifa a mandate to behave like this. Its mission is to promote and regulate. And yet here is it acting as a commercial disruptor in its own sport and as a lickspittle to the powerful, disregarding the human rights fluff and political neutrality enshrined in its 'statutes', offering zero transparency or accountability. To date Infantino's only public interface in the US is a 'fireside chat', AKA approved PR interview, at the Dick's Sporting Goods stage in New York. There he is, up there on the Stage of Dick's, mouthing platitudes to pre-programmed questions, high on his own power supply, the newly acquired Gianni glow-up eyebrows arched in a patina of inauthenticity. They say celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. Take a look at what football can do to you. And so far this tournament has presented the full grotesquery in store. What is the Club World Cup like on the ground? Pretty much the same as it is on the screen given this event is invisible in physical form beyond the stadiums. The key takeaway is confirmation of the weirdly jackboot, cult-like nature of the Infantino-shaped universe. Even the optics are trying to tell you something, all black holes, hard surfaces, gold, power-flash. Why does Fifa have its own vast lighted branding on the pitch like a global super-corporation or a military dictatorship? What is the Club World Cup logo supposed to represent, with its weird angular lines, the void at its heart? An obscure Stalinist plug socket? Darth Vader's space fighter? Not to mention the bizarre obsession with that shapeless and indefinable trophy, present on the big screen in every ground in weird scrolling closeup, one minute a Sauron's eye, the next some kind of finger-snapping torture instrument, with its secret draws full of ectoplasm, a dead crow, the personal effects of Pol Pot. Mainly there is the very openly manipulative nature of the spectacle, football in its final dictator form, with a sense of utter disdain for its captive consumer-subjects. Yes, they will literally put up with anything if we pipe it into their smartphones. So here is beauty, love, colour, connection, the things you're hard-wired to respond to, cattle-prodded into your nervous system for the benefit of assorted interests. Here is football reimagined as a kind of mass online pornography. Fifa even calls its media website Fifahub. With all this in mind some have suggested a World Cup and US boycott is the correct and logical response, not least in two recent articles published in these pages. The organisation Human Rights Watch has carried a warning about the implications of staging the tournament under the Trump regime. Guardian readers and social media voices have asked the same question from all sides of discourse. The hostile versions of this: if you don't like it then just don't come, we don't want you anyway [expletives deleted]. If you were worried about us in Qatar, western imperialist, why are you going to the US? And from the liberal left a concern that to report on sport is also to condone a regime that sends deportation officers to games, imposes travel bans on Fifa members and is edging towards another remote war. And all the while marches football around in a headlock, snapping its underwear elastic, saying thanks, Gianni, for the distracting firework show. This is not a normal situation. So why normalise it? Why give it legitimising light and heat? And yet, one week into the World Cup's rehearsal dinner, the only logical response is: you just have to go. Not only would a boycott serve no practical purpose; it would be counterproductive, an act of compliance for a regime that will happily operate without an opposing voice on the stage. There are two structural reasons for this. And a third that relates to the United States itself, or at least to the idea of the United States, to its possibilities, which are not defined by Trump, by the latest military action, or by Infantino. Most obviously, if you leave the stage you abandon the argument to the other person. Dissent remains a useful commodity. However pointless, ineffective and landlocked the process of pointing out the flaws and contradictions may have become, it is necessary to keep doing so. Qatar 2022 was a dictator show that simply sailed above the criticisms. But someone, however minor, has to make them, to offer at least some kind of counter-view. No-platforming an autocrat's show makes no sense on a basic level. These people would prefer you weren't there in any case. Whereas in reality the people platforming and enabling Trump and Infantino are not journalists trying to give another version of events, but the people who keep voting them into power, friendly dictators, subservient football associations and client media who will be present whatever happens. Fifa and its Saudi-backed broadcast partner Dazn are glossing up an army of in-house influencers and content-wanglers to generate a wall of approving noise. Is it healthy if these are the only voices at the show? Shouting into a void may have little effect. But you still have to shout. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Second, football does still have a value that steps outside the normal rules of show and spectacle. This is why it is coveted, courted and used like a weapon. Last week these pages carnied a logical, entirely legitimate wider view, written by two academics from City University New York, which concluded that a boycott was not just an option but 'necessary'. At the same time, the article defined the football World Cup as something that basically has no value, 'spectacles of recreation designed to distract people from their day-to-day lives, cultural and political branding opportunities for their hosts. For authoritarians, they have long been used as a tool to distract from or launder stains of human rights violations and corruption.' Which is definitely true. But it also reads like a vision of sport defined by the most joyless version of AI invented. Under this version of events no World Cup or Olympics would have taken place, because they are essentially worthless, home only to malevolent actors, lacking any notion of colour, human spirt, joy, art, beauty or connection. Who knows, maybe this is accurate now. It is undeniably true that the idea of football as a collective people's game is fairly absurd. Fans of football clubs struggle with this state of cognitive dissonance on a daily basis, the contrast of legacy identity and hard commercial reality. Liverpool are a community club owned by a US hedge fund. Manchester City see themselves as outsiders and underdogs, and are also owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family. Football is the enemy these days. But both sides of this are important, because without that emotional connection, without the act of faith that enables the warm, human part, everything becomes diminished, all our institutions toxic shells. To give up is to abandon sport for ever to the dictators and the sales people, to say, yeah, this just belongs to you now. No-platforming something that still means connection and culture and history. Are we ready for that yet? There will be another version of the present at some point. The final point is about the US, a deeply divided and unhappy place right now, and a much-derided host nation, not least by members of its own populace. What has it been like here? The evidence is that an actual World Cup is going to be very hard to negotiate, spread over vast spaces, with baffling travel times, unreliable infrastructure, and a 24-hour attention industry that is already busy gorging on every other spectacle available to the human race. The US has a reputation for peerless razzmatazz around public events. And while this is undeniably true with cultural spectacles it invented – rock'n'roll, presidential races, galactic shopping malls, enormous food, rural tornadoes, its own continental-scale sports – the US's version of other people's specialities, from cheese to professional football, can seem a little mannered. But the fact remains the actual games have been quite good. There has been a European-flavoured focus on tickets and empty seats. But 25,000 people on a weekday to watch Chelsea in an ill-defined game is decent evidence of willingness to stage this thing and develop the market. The dismay at 3,500 turning up to Mamelodi Sundowns v Ulsan HD in Orlando overlooks the upside, the fact that 3,500 people actually turned up to Mamelodi Sundowns v Ulsan HD in Orlando. Sundowns get 9,000-odd even at home. How many of their South African fans can afford to travel for this? Fifa, which uses its faux-benevolence cleverly, will point out an African team received $2m (£1.7m) for winning that game. Do we want to develop something or not? A wider point is that football here is a game beloved of immigrant populations. There is a different kind of warmth, often among people without a platform or the means to make it to the matches so far. The waiter who adores Cristiano Ronaldo. The taxi driver who wants to talk for 40 minutes about Chelsea's wastefulness with academy players. The cop who loves the Colombian national team and is desperate for his son to see them in the flesh. As for the US itself, it still feels like false equivalence to state that this is now an actual dictatorship, a lost land, a place that doesn't deserve this show because of its flaws and structural violence. This has always been a pretty brutal nation, human life as a constant pressure wave, mainlining heat and light into your veins, but also always taking a bite. The opening week in Miami captured this feeling, football's most hungrily transactional event staged on a sunken green peninsula, a place where the sea seems to be punching holes in the land, but which is still constantly throbbing with life and warmth and beautiful things. There is a nostalgic attachment to the idea of the US for people of a certain age, 20th-century holdovers, brought up on its flaws and imperialism, but also its culture and brilliance. But for the visitor America does seem in a worse state than it did 20 years ago. There is an unhappiness, a more obvious underclass, a sense of neglected parts and surfaces. All the things that were supposed to be good – cars, plenitude, markets, voting, empowerment, civil rights, cultural unity, all the Cokes being good and all the Cokes being the same – seem to have gone bad. But this is also a democracy with an elected leader, albeit one with a lust for executive power and some sinister tendencies. Mainly the US seems to have a massive self-loathing problem. Perhaps you can say it is correct in this, that Trump is enacting actual harms. But Trump is also a symptom of that alienation and perceived decline. He's an algorithm-driven apparition. Say his name enough times and this cartoon will appear. America remains a great, messy, dangerous, flawed idea of a place. What else is the world currently offering? This is in any case where football will now live for the next year, an unquestioning supplicant in the form of its own autocratic leader. The game is not an indestructible product. It can be stretched thin and ruined by greed, is already at war with itself in many key places. It will at some point be necessary to pay the ferryman, even as the US is packed away a year from now and the sails set at Fifa House for all corners of the globe and then Saudi Arabia. However stormy the prospects, it is not quite the moment to abandon this ship for good.