Scotland’s World Cup journey is teetering on the edge, with Steve Clarke’s side needing multiple favourable results to advance from Group C.
The devastating 3-0 defeat to Brazil left supporters stunned, and the bad news did not stop there for travelling fans still making their way from the stadium.
South Africa’s shock victory over South Korea in Group A compounded Scotland’s misery, leaving the Koreans third on three points but with a superior goal difference to Clarke’s men.
With eight third-place finishers advancing to the round of 32, Scotland currently sit seventh among those third-place sides with only three of the 12 groups completed.
Unlikely? Absolutely. Impossible? Not quite, and that slim thread of hope is keeping the Tartan Army from booking their flights home just yet.
Should Scotland somehow squeeze through, they face three possible destinations, including a return to Boston to meet the likely Group E winners on Monday, 29 June.
A second route would take them to Mexico City to face the host nation at 02:00 BST on Wednesday, 1 July, while a third option could see them play at the New York/New Jersey Stadium on Tuesday, 30 June.
Dave Watson, a presenter on the No Scotland No Party podcast, had originally booked a flight home after the final, but has now shifted his plan to head to New York on Thursday to await Scotland’s fate.
Callum from Linwood captured the spirit of the travelling support perfectly, saying: “My dad’s got a flight home on Friday. He’s away back to work, but I chucked my job and sold my car to come here, so I’m not going home now. I’ll stay and see what happens.”
Alan Horsburgh faces a more complicated logistical puzzle, explaining: “I am going from Orlando to Reykjavik then home to Copenhagen where I live. I have a five-hour bus journey from Miami up to Orlando tomorrow and on that five-hour bus journey I will be looking at the eight million different permutations to try to work out if we’re going to get through and where we might play.”
Horsburgh added: “I would do one of two things which is decide to get my flight home and then go home or look at options to book for my wife to fly back out. I can get her with air miles some really cheap flights to Boston which would be absolutely perfect, not so perfect if we end up playing in Mexico City.”
For those staying on, the cheapest flight from Miami to Boston is £261 including luggage, while a trip to New York’s JFK airport can be found for just £17.
Mexico City is the most expensive option, with a direct three-hour-and-thirty-minute flight costing £433, compared to a cheaper but gruelling 13-hour connection through Denver.
Leslie Higgins, who lives in Connecticut, said: “If we do get through, it’ll be very difficult not to fly out, especially if it’s in Boston. Our whole family was in Boston, I don’t think we’d all be able to go back, the credit card had been crunched.”
Scotland fans are already familiar with Boston, having watched their side’s first two Group C games against Haiti and Morocco at the 64,000-seater stadium around an hour outside the city centre.
Mexico City would offer the iconic Azteca Stadium, expanded to 83,000 capacity for the tournament and forever associated with Maradona’s “hand of god” and classic finals in 1970 and 1986.
New York would be the most expensive option for the Tartan Army, with a round trip from Penn Station to the MetLife Stadium alone costing a whopping $98.
Ian Greenwell from Bathgate summed up the mood simply: “We’re home tomorrow but we’ll be keeping an eye on the scores. If we get through, we’ll be back.”
All of it remains deeply hypothetical for now, but the Tartan Army, as ever, is not quite ready to give up the ghost.
