If Zaire were the expected outsiders in Group 2, Scotland was entirely different matter. Faviourites they were not… so far, Scotland played only twice at the World Cup finals, both times failing to go beyond the round robin phase. Universally, the Scots were considered the second best among the British teams, and with England unable to qualify for the finals, what good the tartan boys could be? True, the team had a good number of well known players, particularly the bunch from Leeds United. But there was a ‘but’ – some stars were considered already too old (Dennis Law) and some – too young. Promissing players, yet, not ‘fully developed’ (Joe Jordan, Kenny Dalglish). The team depended on three Manchester United players – Holton, Buchan, and Morgan – and with the club freshly finishing at the bottom and relegated to the Second Division… well, what hope could be in players plumetting to lower division? Suspect team… evaluated tough enough to fight for second place in the group with Yugoslavia, but the Yugoslavs were deemed the better team. At the end, the Scots were ranked modestly and not expected neither to fail, nor to become a sensation. To my mind, the selection was good – a better one than the team of 1978, for instance – and I rooted for them without hoping much, considering the chances of Yugoslavia better in comformity with the prevalent opinion.
As trivia goes, Peter Lorimer was the players with the strongest kick in the world – the ball was flying with almost 100 km per hour after his kick. So proved the little contest which took place during the early days of the World Cup.
Head coach: Willie Ormond
No. Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Club
1 GK David Harvey 7 February 1948 (aged 26) 7 Leeds United
2 DF Sandy Jardine 31 December 1948 (aged 25) 16 Rangers
3 DF Danny McGrain 1 May 1950 (aged 24) 12 Celtic
4 MF Billy Bremner 9 December 1942 (aged 31) 48 Leeds United
5 DF Jim Holton 11 April 1951 (aged 23) 11 Manchester United
6 DF John Blackley 12 May 1948 (aged 26) 3 Hibernian
7 MF Jimmy Johnstone 30 September 1944 (aged 29) 21 Celtic
8 FW Kenny Dalglish 4 March 1951 (aged 23) 19 Celtic
9 FW Joe Jordan 15 December 1951 (aged 22) 11 Leeds United
10 MF David Hay 29 January 1948 (aged 26) 24 Celtic
11 FW Peter Lorimer 14 December 1946 (aged 27) 14 Leeds United
12 GK Thomson Allan 5 October 1946 (aged 27) 2 Dundee
13 GK Jim Stewart 9 March 1954 (aged 20) 0 Kilmarnock
14 DF Martin Buchan 6 March 1949 (aged 25) 13 Manchester United
15 MF Peter Cormack 17 July 1946 (aged 27) 9 Liverpool
16 DF Willie Donachie 5 October 1951 (aged 22) 11 Manchester City
17 MF Donald Ford 25 October 1944 (aged 29) 3 Hearts
18 MF Tommy Hutchison 22 September 1947 (aged 26) 8 Coventry City
19 FW Denis Law 24 February 1940 (aged 34) 54 Manchester City
20 FW Willie Morgan 2 October 1944 (aged 29) 19 Manchester United
21 DF Gordon McQueen 26 June 1952 (aged 21) 1 Leeds United
22 DF Erich Schaedler 6 August 1949 (aged 24) 1 Hibernian

Against West Germany in 1973, left to right: Bremner – captain, Harvey, Jardine, Smith, Connely, Dalglish, Hutchinson, Law, Morgan, Holton, Jordan.
Smith and Connely did not make the final squad, the others did. At the end, Scotland featured the most ‘foreign based’ players – 12 played for Englsih clubs. If England is considered foreign country in this case…