Archive September 6, 2025

Steve Clarke, as usual, spoke up his team’s sincerity and work ethic in a heroic manner, going only so far as to earn a valuable World Cup qualification point against Denmark in Copenhagen.

Clarke occasionally makes praise. He views these situations with suspicion. At a thousand paces, he can sense hype. He applauds his players for their work and pride, but he never seems to have a different perspective when he is present.

He grinned at Scotland’s promising attempt to win their first World Cup since 1998, we believe. He did not discuss the night’s potential psychology, but it was obvious.

One of their two main rivals in the group has been damaged by Scotland, taking a point from the Parken. They have already put Denmark on the back foot in a game that is more of a sprint than a marathon, with six games to go.

The Danes will be underdogs starting on Monday when they travel to Greece. Greece are a young force that defeated Scotland 3-0 at Hampden in March before defeating Bulgaria 4-0 and Slovakia 4-1. On Friday, they hammered Belarus 5-1.

With one point from a possible six, Denmark’s campaign could be in trouble on Monday if Greece maintain their excellent form. If they defeat Belarus in Budapest, Scotland could have four.

There is no harm in projecting here, despite how badly it is. In the upcoming window, Clarke’s team will travel to Greece and Belarus. They will feel good about themselves if they score four out of six in the game. There are reasons to be optimistic, but it’s not necessary.

Scotland and its qualification for the World Cup are not exactly in line with that. Their aspirations have suffered a lot since their last nod in 1998.

One of their first four games were won in order to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Four years earlier, they effectively eliminated themselves from the running with two home draws. After four years, they only won one of their first four games against Macedonia in their opening game.

Clarke never seems too optimistic or pessimistic. Scotland worked like demons and earned their point against a Denmark team that is 26 places above them in the rankings. A strong start against the group’s supposedly best team was a draw on the road.

There would have been a misunderstanding about Lyndon Dykes’ inclusion in his team when it was announced, as he had been incredibly combative throughout the night, and it would have been more of the same anger that accompanies every Scotland team that has Grant Hanley in its defense.

Hanley was outstanding, and Clarke almost always chooses him. An experienced defender who enjoys defending. Former Scotland captain and centre-half Willie Miller described him as “a magnet to the ball” in the BBC Radio Scotland Sportsound studio. And don’t forget to bring your A game if you have any disagreements with the great man.

Many of these Scotland players had difficult season openings, which was admirable. Since last May, Angus Gunn hasn’t played a club game. In Bologna’s two games this season, Lewis Ferguson has been a reserve. With Torino, Che Adams has a mix. One of Birmingham’s six games has been started by Dykes.

After almost two years of being out injured, Aaron Hickey has just returned to play football. Before facing Denmark, he had 77 minutes of action under his belt with Brentford since October 2023. He appeared to have never been away during his 70 minutes with Scotland. He still stands at age 23, which was incredibly impressive and comforting.

Let’s just say that we’ve been in the movie once or twice since Clarke’s appointment more than six years ago because it’s difficult to keep track of how many times he has been criticized as Scotland’s head coach.

Those four games were played, lost, scored, and scored against 13 in those early games. A winless Euros in 2021, a World Cup loss to Ukraine in 2022, and a mind-alteringly subpar 3-0 defeat to a Republic of Ireland team that couldn’t get a win before arriving at Hampden were the disappointments.

Between 2023 and 2024, there were 16 victories and four losses in succession, with Hungary’s utterly pointless defeat at the Euros in Germany being the worst. That summer, calls for Clarke’s departure really reached a crescendo.

Then, when Greece and Iceland defeated Hampden 3-3 and 3-1, the new wave of disbelievers arrived, not to be outdone by their victory margin. Scotland supporters might have responded that they were traveling more optimistically than they were expecting if they had been questioned about the trip to Denmark.

Rene Higuita was inspired by a Colombian child’s television commercial for soda. The goalkeeper instinctively threw both legs behind his back and punted the ball away as he juggled it in the air.

Two years later, having made it his party trick in training and warm-up routines, the stars aligned for Higuita to write his legacy under the hazy Wembley floodlights.

Jamie Redknapp, an England midfielder, was already known for his flamboyant style, who watched it fall over his head before hurling forward and jolting his heels like a scorpion’s tail as he watched it fall.

In his Netflix film “Higuita: The Way of the Scorpion,” Higuita recalls the “perfect ball.” “I thought ‘ no problem’. It was flawless.

Higuita immediately burst into his iconic grin as he broke his fall with two hands on the turf while holding his baggy blue keeper’s jersey in hand halfway up his forearms and sprinkling it with long, black curls.

On commentary for Sky Sports on the night of 6 September 1995 was Martin Tyler, who initially thought the referee’s whistle must have gone – after all, the linesman put his flag up – but play continued.

Tyler tells BBC Sport, “I was perplexed. Why would they do it if no one would do it in real time? It was like there was something mysterious going on. It came out of the blue. He deceived Jamie Redknapp and duped everyone on the gantry”!

Bryan Robson, part of the England coaching team, could be seen laughing on the bench almost in disbelief and there was a similar reaction among the fans, despite just 20, 000 of them filtering into the national stadium for a Wednesday night friendly in an era characterised by low attendances.

Simon Pryde, a host of BBC Radio Newcastle who was present, recalls that there was silence and that “people were just trying to fathom what had just happened.” Then, “Everyone just burst into a mixture of spontaneous laughter and applause.”

England centre-back Steve Howey, who had been tasked by Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan with providing a scout report on the Colombia forward he was marking, one Faustino Asprilla, assumed the game must have stopped.

Higuita used to come out and dribble past forwards and join in play, and he was a total idiot. He wasn’t exactly the kind of person who was incredibly trustworthy. For someone like him, it wasn’t really surprising, says Howey.

“Everybody thought the referee had blown his whistle but as we found out quickly, he hadn’t – if it had gone in it would have counted”.

Fans tried to recreate Higuita’s physics-defying save in parks and playgrounds across the nation after the otherwise forgettable friendly ended goalless.

A commentator glared his eyes in disbelief as a result of Tyler’s observation that “it was just the eccentricity of one particular goalkeeper at a particular moment.” “It’s from a comic book, really. It resembled Roy of the Rovers, a fictional schoolboy.

Higuita admits that some people would refer to him as a clown, while others would describe him as a pioneer. But Higuita had both the bravado and bravery of a child who lost his mother when he was young, growing up with his grandparents in a Medellin neighbourhood gripped by drug feuds and social problems.

He would sneak on the bus to training, sneaking up to play as a striker, scoring goals on the pitches built by drug lord Pablo Escobar, and don gloves only after a teammate got hurt. Before joining Atletico Nacional, he signed for Millonarios and was then paid for a contract.

There is grainy footage of Higuita tackling forwards outside his box, winning headers, playing one-twos and dribbling past players on the halfway line on dusty, worn-out pitches covered in reams of ticker tape and unravelled loo roll thrown from the stands. His touch maps would become a viral phenomenon in the modern game.

El Loco, or “the Madman,” as coach Francisco Maturana dubbed him, played a key role in Atletico Nacional’s victory over Paraguay in a shootout in 1989, saving four penalties and adding one of his own as Atletico beat Paraguayans Club Olimpia 5-4 in the final.

“He was ahead of his time”, says Jorge Campos, legendary Mexico goalkeeper of the same era, in Higuita’s Netflix documentary.

Indeed, Higuita’s heroics were broadcast on a global stage at Italia 90, Colombia’s first World Cup in 28 years, with Maturana serving as the nation’s manager and a desire to use a system inspired by the Netherlands’ Total Football.

“He was a pioneer when it came to his skill with the ball at his feet and in his willingness to take responsibility for situations 40 metres from goal”, South American football expert Tim Vickery told BBC Sport when Higuita retired.

The 5’9″ stopper saved a penalty in the opening game of the UAE against Yugoslavia and was at his best in a fiery draw against West Germany, heading two balls outside his box and juggling another with Jurgen Klinsmann’s hand to win it.

As Colombia made its first appearance in the last 16 of the national newspaper, the headline read, “All for one, Higuita for everyone.”

But in that meeting with Cameroon, Higuita’s penchant for venturing upfield proved costly. When Higuita took a poor pass and took a loose touch that the forward pounced on, scoring a decisive second, Roger Milla already had an advantage in extra time.

Goalkeepers were permitted to pick up the ball after receiving it from their own player up until the 1992 introduction of the backpass rule at the Barcelona Olympics.

Higuita believes that his style, which showed goalkeepers could use their feet effectively, was key to the decision to change the law, as well as Italia 90’s record-breaking 2.2 goals per game.

It became widely known as the ‘ Higuita Rule’.

According to Higuita, “football greats like Pele and Diego Maradona were very good players, but they haven’t altered any rules in Fifa.”

Higuita was a Colombian icon, alongside Carlos Valderrama, one of the most recognisable faces of the national side. He was also a target, though.

Escobar turned himself in to the authorities a year after the World Cup, where he spent the year locked up with his own “personal” prison, La Catedral, as the drug war got worse.

Many footballers would visit, often summoned for kickabouts – it was an invite you could not turn down, though few were as noticeable as Higuita.

The goalkeeper controversially responded that he was a friend of Escobar when questioned by TV reporters outside the mountaintop jail on the outskirts of Medellin.

When Escobar later escaped, Higuita would end up putting him on a harsh sentence for his well-known association with the notorious criminal.

The goalkeeper found himself caught between cartels following the kidnapping of the teenage daughter of Carlos Molina, a rival of Escobar. Both figures invested in Colombian football. Higuita claims that he was hired as an intermediary to pay Molina’s daughter and return her.

The family insisted he take a cash gift for his role but in doing so Higuita broke strict anti-kidnapping laws. He claims that more than just his own case led to his seven-month sentence in which he claims he was questioning about Escobar’s whereabouts.

Higuita was let go without charge after Escobar’s passing in December 1993.

“I acted for humanitarian reasons”, he later told Fifa. I would immediately do it if I were ever required to free someone. I’m a football player, so I had no idea what kidnapping laws were.

Colombia players had continuously campaigned for his release, chanting his name after winning 5-0 in Argentina to qualify for 1994 World Cup. However, Higuita would not be selected to represent the United States.

A few months before that iconic Copa America appearance at Wembley, Higuita admits he feared his party trick had ruined his chances of winning. However, he recovered and made it for the Copa America.

“They always call me a clown and here’s me proving them right”, he said.

He might have done it. Before retiring from international duty in 1999, Higuita would only play six more games for Colombia, which could indicate that his nation was moving along.