England held by Ghana, Scotland holding on. A night to forget for Steve Clarke’s men after defeat by Brazil. An agonising wait to see if they are still in the competition at the start of next week. That and some big transfer news. Issue 110. Go.

When you are facing a side of Brazil’s quality, the message must be something along the lines of “opening 10 minutes, let’s do nothing stupid”. Adhere to that and you can then get a foothold in the game.

Unfortunately for Steve Clarke and his Scotland coaching staff, defender Scott McKenna failed to listen to that message. A stupid pass across the face of goal and moments later, Vinicius Jr has put Brazil ahead.

A poor start to an awful showing against Carlo Ancelotti’s men and with Brazil showing their ability to go up through the gears in each of their three group stage matches, Scotland have instead gone in reverse.

Before Wednesday’s meeting in Miami, Scotland were not only sitting third in Group C but also had a comfortable margin of error when it came to finishing in the top eight sides in the ranking table.

12 third-place finishers, eight moving to the Round of 32. All Scotland had to do was make sure that margin of error was not eroded at the hands of Brazil. That margin of error has now been eroded by errors on the field of play.

Scotland sinking like a stone in terms of teams that are placed third in their group, they start Friday morning sitting eighth with four nations below still yet to play their final encounter of this phase.

A prognosis that does not look good for those who have spent thousands of pounds or dollars to watch Scotland in North America. Nothing really learned after failure in Germany two years ago. Steve Clarke’s new four-year deal looking questionable.

While Clarke’s decision to give a 20-second interview to the BBC straight after Scotland’s 3-0 defeat was also questionable. Yes, the subject matter would have been raw but he still has a duty to those who support the Tartan Army.

He himself has negotiated a power move in getting a four-year deal before the tournament had even got underway. The benefit of hindsight suggesting that this may be of little benefit to Scotland long-term.

In the short-term, Scotland’s supporters now need a combination of outcomes to go their way. If they can tick off four of the list below, then there will be salvation in the form of Round of 32 qualification:

Tonight

Group I: Senegal and Iraq to draw.

Or Iraq to beat Senegal by no more than two goals.

Group H: Uruguay to lose to Spain.

Group G: Iran to lose to Egypt.

Tomorrow

Group L: Croatia to lose to Ghana by at least three goals.

Group K: DR Congo v Uzbekistan to be a draw.

Or Uzbekistan to win by no more than three goals.

Group J: Austria and Algeria are on three points and a draw would send both through.

Scotland need Algeria to lose by two or more goals, or Austria to be beaten by at least four goals.

Those who have the data modelling available suggest that Scotland have approximately a 5% chance of moving on. That is a 1 in 20 chance in layman’s terms. In football terms, they may well be getting on the next available flight home.

One of the more agonising elements of Scotland’s wait to see if they make it through to the Round of 32 is the fact that they have such a long wait to find out the actual outcome. It is not just agony, it’s torture.

The wait comes with the final set of group stage games being stretched over a few days, nothing new there as this is the case with any major international tournament that has had 24 teams - now the wait is slightly longer.

12 groups instead of six in this scenario, the schedule stretched slightly longer to accommodate the extra fixtures. Those nations such as Scotland who have played their third game first now sitting around for longer and watching results go against them.

To the point that everything that could go against them has gone against them:

Five outcomes post Scotland defeat, all landing the wrong way up as far as they are concerned. But the advantage for each of those five is they knew exactly what was needed and subsequently delivered.

Admittedly the trio of South Africa, Bosnia and Ecuador had to go out and earn their wins but they did exactly that knowing what was at stake. The more pertinent issues are the two games that ended in stalemate.

Paraguay and Australia fully aware that risk may not equal reward and this showed in the encounter between the two and although Sweden versus Japan was far more livelier, Graham Potter’s men certainly played with the handbrake on for most of the game.

But what can you do to avoid this solution?

The only thing I could recommend is that all 24 games kickoff at the same time on the final day of the group stage in a similar way to how the Champions League league phase comes to an end.

Yes it would be chaos and I am not sure how it would work, but I am just an ideas man. I will leave it to others to try and implement the procedure. At least if it was in place, it would iron out the kinks that come with having a 48-team tournament.

One of the other kinks that comes with a 48-team World Cup is that such a party is too big for one host and with a lightning of the load across North America, there is the issue of what happens when all the hosts make the Round of 32.

Because although they are all hosts, the added advantage of playing on home soil is not guaranteed due to the split of matches across the United States, Mexico and Canada and it is the latter that will feel hard done by when looking at the knockout bracket.

After securing safe passage to the Round of 32, Canada have been handed a tie with South Africa. One that will certainly feel winnable for Jesse Marsch’s side but not one played at a Canadian host venue.

Instead, this one will be taking place in California and should they advance further, then all of Canada’s outings will be on U.S. soil instead. Poor scheduling or just a quirk of the draw?

Some are saying that Canada should have been given some form of home protection in the sense of if they were to move to the Round of 32, they were given the Vancouver fixture slot that fellow Group B side Switzerland have been handed.

Of course, Switzerland were given this by virtue of winning Group B, so it is not really bad planning, maybe an overexpectation that Canada were going to win the group and then play in Vancouver.

Fundamentally, it is a by-product of there being too many World Cup hosts. What else can you do? Bad news for Canadian supporters but there is no doubt they will still be travelling in their droves for the upcoming clash with South Africa.

In all the madness that was taking place when Ecuador went ahead against Germany, Manchester City thought they would sneak in some record-breaking transfer news when nobody was looking.

Their pursuit of Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson now coming to an end, it has taken a deal worth £130m to change allegiance - Newcastle supporters fuming that the club never put a sell-on clause after he left for the City Ground.

Some quarters will say that this is a very astute purchase, especially considering there is no permanent successor to Pep Guardiola yet. Others will point to Kalvin Phillips and say history will soon repeat itself.

If I was to counter any Phillips MK II thoughts, I would suggest that this City midfield is now in a far greater state of transition and the path to regular first-team football is nowhere near as blocked off as before.

This is now a City team with no De Bruyne, Gundogan or Bernardo Silva, there are also question marks around the fitness of Rodri as injuries keep halting the momentum of the Spanish international.

If there was ever a time to get Anderson, then I would argue the time is now. For the simple reason that you could build the midfield around the 23-year-old. He is not there to make up the numbers, he will be producing big numbers at the Etihad.

England were still largely chaotic in their second group stage game against Ghana, but that chaos did not lead to anything in the way of attacking endeavour - especially in the first 45 minutes.

A performance that was a combination of largely frustrating and something of a wake up call to Thomas Tuchel and his players. Although if you were to bet on anyone firing home a rebounded effort off the bar late on, it would have been Harry Kane.

His effort is still in orbit after Nico O’Reilly’s effort cannoned off the woodwork. His head in his hands after wondering just how the ball had not nestled in between the posts. Still, at least it shows he’s human if nothing else.

Panama to follow tomorrow night. Win that and the bore draw against Ghana will quickly be forgotten.

That’s the end of Issue 110 as the World Cup now feels firmly part of the daily routine and the heatwave is still gripping the UK.

If you’ve read this far, you’re clearly in early. So if you know someone who’d enjoy football viewed a bit differently, send it their way. That’s what keeps this growing.

This isn’t a newsletter that follows the crowd. It filters the game through a different lens and more than 220 subscribers are already reading it that way.

Issue 111 lands Tuesday. Another round of distortions as football does what it always does: speeds up and makes less sense.

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