{"id":1863,"date":"2026-06-07T09:03:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T09:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=1863"},"modified":"2026-06-07T09:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T09:03:28","slug":"world-cup-scotlands-steve-clarke-has-decisions-to-make-for-haiti-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=1863","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: Scotland’s Steve Clarke has ‘decisions to make’ for Haiti opener"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

To think that four-goal first-half performance didn’t even involve John McGinn.<\/p>\n

A traditional 4-4-2 brought the best out of Scott McTominay, if that’s even more possible. Although we all know the Napoli star’s position was never in any doubt.<\/p>\n

Bologna’s Lewis Ferguson, who captain Robertson said “turned into a man” , external<\/span><\/a>during the qualification campaign, again showed his maturity and ability to dictate play in the middle of the park. Cultured, some might say.<\/p>\n

But, in truth, the first half was dominated by the work done down the wings by Bournemouth pair Ben Gannon-Doak and Ryan Christie.<\/p>\n

Long before he was even in the squad, Gannon-Doak excited supporters. He was the Billy Gilmour of the Euro 2024 team, picking up an injury before the squad jetted off to Germany.<\/p>\n

Since then, he’s reminded everyone what they missed with his absence. The epitome of a Duracell Bunny, the 20-year-old dazzled on Saturday.<\/p>\n

At times, his end-product has been his downfall, but it wasn’t of concern stateside.<\/p>\n

“Ben did himself the power of good today,” Clarke acknowledged. “We know what he can give us.” <\/p>\n

Clarke also knows what Christie can provide. In many positions. He was lively down the left, with an instinct to cut in and create. <\/p>\n

Many were crying out for Findlay Curtis to start, given his first international goal last weekend, but its hard to make a case for Christie not starting somewhere on Sunday.<\/p>\n

It’s perhaps the biggest head-scratcher of them all for Clarke, but what a problem to have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To think that four-goal first-half performance didn’t even involve John McGinn. A traditional 4-4-2 brought the best out of Scott…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}