Scotland's totems must turn up to thwart dynamic Morocco

The midfield head-to-head between Scott McTominay and Ayyoub Bouaddi could be vital

Last weekend in Boston, Scotland played their most important game of international football in 28 years, a walk on the wildside against Haiti, a game that put the heart sideways in every Scot but, ultimately, sparked the party to end all parties in the city they called Beantown.

More like Beanotown, more like Scotland, Massachusetts. For almost four decades there was a character in the DC Thomson comic called Ball Boy, a wee football-obsessed lad who couldn't kick a can down a street without thinking he'd scored the winner in a World Cup final.

Boston has been overtaken by Ball Boys, full-time dreamers and relentless ambassadors for their country. There isn't a cop in the city who hasn't been charmed by them, nor a local business that hasn't benefitted hugely from the Tartan Army dollar.

They've been a happy whirlwind, a force of nature that will be missed when it blows out of town in the coming days.

Before the exodus, though, there's a job to be done. Such is the rarefied air they're breathing at this World Cup, what we said in previewing Haiti can be said again in looking forward to Morocco.

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After the big one comes the ever bigger one. Bigly, as somebody once said.

This one, if it goes well, could be the greatest of them all, not just in 28 years but, arguably, in the 154 years since Scotland played England at the West of Scotland Cricket Club in the first international match ever played.

Then, as now, Scotland were captained by a man with firm roots at Queen's Park. A 0-0 draw then would go down a storm now.

Stalemate against Morocco would almost certainly send Steve Clarke's boys into the promised land of knockout football for the first time in the nation's history. Even a narrow defeat would be good news given the way the permutations are shaking up for the best third-placed qualifiers.

Robert Gardner was the man who led Scotland in that pioneering contest of 1872. A full Victorian moustache and well-groomed beard, it's nice to imagine him up there in football heaven, his whiskers twitching as he watches the action from the Boston Stadium, a little bit of a step-up from the arenas he'd have been used to.

Summoning up history is appropriate because even before Scotland set foot in the States they were doing it themselves, manager and players laying it on the line about what their target was - becoming the first of their kind to make it out of a group in a major championship.

It was hairy against Haiti; a deflected winner, a Grant Hanley handball in the box not deemed a penalty, a magnificent Hanley block denying a near-certain goal, a late Frantzdy Pierrot header that went just wide instead of going where many thought it was going - into the back of Angus Gunn's goal.

Scotland had their moments, too, of course, but it was a sticky effort and none of the players are arguing otherwise. A brilliant victory in a pressure-filled, must-win game, but a performance that was beneath them.

These players are capable of more than they delivered against Haiti. And now is the time to prove it.

At various points in qualification, good fortune shone brightly on Scotland, but luck always runs out in the end. The likelihood of Morocco, ranked the sixth best international side in the world, being held or beaten on the back of big breaks going the way of the underdogs is a dream too far.

Scotland are going to have to be resilient, organised and inspired to get a draw or even a one-goal loss. To win, they need to put in the best display we've seen from them since Clarke took over.

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Anything below par and Morocco, with their speed and creativity, will give them a rough night. The jeopardy is intoxicating.

In their 1-1 draw with Brazil on Saturday, Morocco bossed the show early on. They ran rings round the South Americans for a spell.

In the first 30 minutes, they had 12 shots on goal. When they scored, it was a microcosm of their class, a lethal moment of accuracy and brilliance.

Brahim Diaz's pass was threaded between Gabriel, Premier League winner with Arsenal, and Marquinhos, double Champions League winner with Paris St-Germain. Ismael Saibari's lobbed finish was gorgeous and too much for Liverpool's Alisson.