“Guys, I’ve just seen Brazil holding hands. They’re shitting themselves!””
Craig Brown’s final rallying cry from the bowels of the Stade de France was certainly optimistic. The world champions had the likes of Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo and Ronaldo in their ranks and were expected to retain their title at France 98.
And they were certainly expected to swat aside Scotland in the opening game. But their manager had a plan.
“I spoke to Bobby Robson, who had Ronaldo at PSV,” Brown told the BBC last year. “I asked how we stop him, and he said: ‘You don’t, just don’t let him get the ball’.
“Most of his passes came from Cafu at right-back, so I told Christian Dailly, ‘If Cafu crosses the halfway line and passes to Ronaldo, you’ll be sitting beside me on the bench.’”
While Ronaldo was kept quiet, Scotland fell to an unfortunate 2-1 defeat. It was the start of what is, to date, the last World Cup graced by the Tartan Army.
Different era
June 1998 was a different world; C’est La Vie by B*witched was at number one, there was no Scottish Parliament and neither Google nor smartphones existed.
And Scotland were gearing up for their eighth finals appearance with a training session with Rod Stewart and a phone call from Sean Connery.
It wasn’t ideal preparation for a side that had never progressed beyond the group stages and things took another turn when goalkeeper Andy Goram left their training camp in New Jersey.
“To his credit, he spoke to me and sent me a lovely letter saying he had to go for personal reasons,” Brown remembered. “I still have it to this day.
“It was a big story but we were in America and were going to a World Cup. We had been before and it could be a bit of a star-studded affair.
“Two years earlier [before Euro 96], Rod Stewart invited us to his concert at Madison Square Garden. About 5,000 outside couldn’t get in, meanwhile, our boys were up on the stage.
“He visited us again and we had him take part in…
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