Sunderland’s new training ground is only a five-minute drive from their old
stadium. In its carefully-contrived modernity, though, the Academy of Light
seems a million miles from Roker Park, where the icy wind from the North Sea
used to blow across the pitch, chilling the bones of even the hardiest
players. There was a bite in the breeze early on Friday morning, too, but it
was braved by a large press turnout, who almost always find Roy Keane
worthwhile and convivial company. You get none of the expletives here which
flow freely over at Newcastle where Joe Kin-near, the incumbent manager, has
already been christened “JFK” because of his penchant for a certain
four-letter word.
Slipping in quietly at his manager’s back, after breakfast and a promise to
return promptly for training, is Craig Gordon. His face, as always, is
serene. Keane liked this aura of calmness so much that he was prepared to
pay Hearts £7m down in the summer of 2007, with £2m to come. The haggling
with Hearts was so protracted it perhaps explains the grey flecks which show
when Keane grows a beard.
Scotland’s goalkeeper may look over at Newcastle, the neighbours, and think it
is nothing compared to the rows which used to go on in his home when it was
Tynecastle. He has long since perfected the wry smile and knowing shake of
the head that comes with the words, “nothing surprises you in football”.
These days the shocks are much milder. What dreadful gear will Djibril Cisse
and El Hadji Diouf be wearing this morning? “Maybe I should dye my hair red
or something,” muses Gordon. “Red and white stripes, just to keep up.”
Gordon could never be accused of being flash. When he was given the choice of
a blue or yellow jersey last season, he chose the former because it was less
garish. Yet the chances of remaining inconspicuous as a Premier League
goalkeeper are remote. Gordon notes the “30 cameras” waiting to capture any
mistakes then brutally analyse them in detail and that, outside of the top
four, clean sheets are often hard to come by.
In the whirl of transfers which has been Keane’s policy at the club, Gordon
has managed to be as close as you get to a constant. He was dropped for
three weeks last season, after the 7-1 defeat at Everton, but answered his
manager’s implied challenge to quickly reclaim his place. Keane keeps a
certain distance from his players, says Gordon, so he can be ruthless but
also treats them like adults. In Keane’s autobiography he bemoaned the
ludicrous tradition of players rooming together like children on a
school-trip. When Sunderland face an overnight stay, players are permitted
their own space.
The club has certainly come a long way in a short time since Keane’s
appointment just over two years ago. “From the bottom of the Championship to
where we are now is a big difference and it probably needed the turnover of
players and the money that’s come in to achieve that in such a short space
of time,” says Gordon. The downside is the defence in front of him has yet
to settle into a familiar unit.
Last season was one of adjustment, for both player and club, to their new
surroundings. “It was always going to be a difficult first year. We had to
survive in the league, while I was coming down to new surroundings, new ways
of doing things and having to settle into a new style of football as well.
Now, I am more settled in the team and in the league and I know what is
expected from me. I think it has definitely improved me as a player.”
Yesterday he faced up to Arsenal, last week it was Aston Villa, when John
Carew scored against him. This Saturday, they will again be pitted against
each other but for their countries in a World Cup qualifier at Hampden
rather than their clubs. Gordon was just establishing himself in Berti
Vogts’s team four years ago when Norway came to Hampden and won a World Cup
tie, and he does not want a repeat. “It’s never nice getting beat,
especially at home, and it was a game we probably shouldn’t have been beaten
in. Looking back we came close to qualification at the end, but that was
probably a big result and reason why we didn’t manage to make it.”
It remains to be established if Scotland have come as far from that day as
some supporters think. It was assumed running France and Italy close for a
place at Euro 2008 constituted a significant advance, until their
performances at the finals undermined that notion. Gordon addresses this
issue with intelligence, saying the players must deal with raised
expectations but fans must also accept the defensive methods which improved
Scotland cannot be ditched.
“The expectations have risen and it is up to us to deal with that and get on
with it and produce the results. We’re still not a team with any stars, we
have to grind everything out and work hard for our victories. We did that in
Iceland and we’ll need to do that against Norway. The manager got his
tactics absolutely spot on [in Iceland] and he was brave as well, bringing
in a few players, playing Scott Brown in a slightly deeper role, and it
worked really well. People have been calling out for that for years when we
were maybe scraping results here and there and not playing very well. He is
going to go that way and be a bit more attacking, but for different games
you have to adapt. There are still going to be times when we will have to
set up very defensively and there are games, especially at home, where we
will need to be able to go and win.”
He admits the squad expected and deserved criticism for the defeat in
Macedonia which preceded the victory in Iceland, but were disappointed some
of it strayed from analysis of performance, team selection and tactics to
personal attacks on George Burley. He expects a different kind of onslaught
on Saturday, with Norway aiming crosses, corners, free-kicks and even
throw-ins at the formidable and inform Carew. He is unsure yet how he will
handle it. A goalkeeper, he stresses, cannot enter a game with a plan but
merely respond to the situations which develop in it and hope his decisions
prove sound.
“It’s going to be a difficult one. I faced John Carew at the weekend and he
scored. He’s going to be a big threat. He’s up there at the top of the
goalscoring charts, I think he’s got four Premier League goals already. He
is a big threat, and not only his size, flicking balls on. He also brings it
down and other people into play and he can score goals as well. For the
British style of game Villa play, he’s a great guy for them to have. He’s
not that quick, not lightning, but can hold his own.
“They do have a variety of ways to get the ball in the box, especially with
those type of guys that are so good in the air. It could be difficult and
the defenders and myself will all need to stand up and be counted. The ideal
thing would be to come for the first one and put them off but it doesn’t
always work like that. You have to deal with each situation as it comes.
Over the next week we’ll have a lot of discussions about that and a lot of
meetings on how we are going to deal with that. The defenders will have to
be strong. Davie Weir is coming back into the squad and is good in the air
as well so there are options for the manager to try and stop that threat.”
The 23-year-old clearly relishes international football, particularly the
moments before kick-off when he gets a chance to look round Hampden and
remember this is a childhood dream come true. “It’s a great feeling to stand
there and sing your national anthem with your family up in the stand and all
the flags going at either end,” he concludes. “It’s what you dream of as a
young boy and to be able to do that is brilliant.” This is a rare case of
Gordon revealing some of the fire which burns beneath his calm exterior.
Fjord focus: the key men for Norway
JOHN CAREW The square-set centre-forward has started the season in
ominously good form for Aston Villa, with five goals already to his name,
including one against Sunderland and Scotland keeper Craig Gordon last
weekend. His physical threat is obvious but finds a complement in genuine
football ability. This impressive package meant Andy Webster and Russell
Anderson had a torrid time when Scotland were defeated 1-0 at Hampden in
October 2004, so Davie Weir and Gary Caldwell should brace themselves
STEFFEN IVERSEN Scored twice against Iceland on the first weekend of
qualifying. If he can overcome injury worries, he is an awkward, persistent
customer who is particularly strong in the air, and Norway try to disguise
his menace these days by launching it from deep. Not as impressive at Spurs
and Wolves as he has always been for Rosenborg, the Trondheim club with whom
he has won four championships. Hit the penalty winner in Glasgow four years
ago
THORSTEIN HELSTAD Another to top six foot and a threat alongside Carew
in attack, with Iversen sitting behind. After starting out at Brann Bergen,
he helped Austria Vienna win the league before an ill-fated move to
Rosenborg took him back to Brann in 2006. His return of 27 goals in a season
and a half earned a €2m (£1.6m) move to Le Mans in the summer,
and the 31-year-old has struck four times for the French Ligue 1 club. Has a
healthy return of nine goals in 31 caps to his name
JOHN ARNE RIISE A passionate, articulate individual, Riise moved from
Liverpool to Roma in the summer as Fabio Aurelio and Andrea Dossena began to
clog up the left-back queue. has endured a slow start to life in Italy, but
looked surer against Atalanta last Sunday and is always likely to produce
devastating delivery when the moment demands. Better going forward, Scotland
will look to get in behind him
BREDE HANGELAND
A central defender who breaks the mould with his accomplished play on the
ball, Hangeland was linked with a host of English clubs before opting for a
£2.5m move to Fulham last January. Scored his first goal for the London club
back in August, securing a 1-0 victory over Arsenal at Craven Cottage. Began
his career at Viking then moved to Denmark and helped FC Copenhagen into the
Champions League, where they faced Celtic two seasons ago. Stands to win his
47th cap at Hampden, the 27-year-old having taken over the captaincy of his
country ahead of this World Cup qualifying campaign
MORTEN GAMST PEDERSEN The second part of an impressive tag-team down
the left with Riise, the pair are picture above tackling Ireland’s Glenn
Whelan at the same time, with Pedersen on the left. Direct, athletic and
pacey, the 42-cap wideman has been an eye-catching Premiership performer for
Blackburn over the last four years since joining from Tromso for £1.5m and
will seek to hem in Kirk Broadfoot. A frequent scorer from midfield for his
club, he is known back home as “Van Gamsten” after a spectacular volley
against Hungary in 2006 that bore close resemblance to Marco van Basten’s in
the final of the 1988 European championships. Frontman of The Players, a
boyband featuring four other footballers
Denis Law, Jim Baxter, Ian St John ... your boys took one hell of a beating
It’s the perfect pub quiz puzzler: When did Denis Law score a hat-trick for
his country and end up on the losing side? Scotland have played Norway 15
times, with only two wins for the Scandinavians, but that first victory 45
years ago was historic as their all-amateur side snatched a 4-3 triumph. It
happened in the same week of June 1963 as the biggest political sex scandal
of the last century, when government minister John Profumo resigned in
disgrace. Yet not even that sensation could completely overshadow the shock
of the Scotland result when a team packed with legends of the sixties - Jim
Baxter, Ian St John, Dave Mackay Willie Henderson, Davy Wilson and Law -
were beaten in Bergen in 1963
Scotland went into the game after famously beating England 2-1 at Wembley
despite playing with 10 men after skipper Eric Caldow was carried off with a
broken leg. They then built up a 4-1 lead over Austria at Hampden in a game
which was eventually to be abandoned following mayhem by the visitors. So
Ian McColl’s side set off on a three-nation summer tour against Norway, the
Republic of Ireland and Spain although in those days the selectors, not the
manager, picked the side
The Norwegians hired a piper to make the Scots at home but by the end Hugh
Taylor in the Daily Record was scathing: ‘On a picturesque little ground
more suited to a village fair, Scotland turned out to be the prize yokels.’
The locals scored first then Law struck with a double for a 2-1 lead at
half-time. Norway equalised before Law put the visitors ahead again only for
a late home double to secure a memorable triumph.
Allegations of conceitedness were thrown at Scotland and Baxter confessed: ‘I
was wrong in my approach to the game. I was too big-headed, it won’t happen
again.’ But his Rangers teammate, Wilson, recalls now: ‘When was Jim not
big-headed about his play?’ Baxter then had a row with the all-powerful SFA
secretary Willie Allan and threatened to walk out, but was persuaded by his
pal, Celtic captain Billy McNeill, to stay. He then spent the rest of the
evening carousing and the next day vomited on the team bus
Scotland went on to lose 1-0 in Dublin and then trounced Spain, who the
following year were crowned European champions, 6-2 in the Bernabeu. ‘There
were six different scorers,” adds Wilson. ‘It showed again we always did
better against the big sides’
