For the love of it
Both the Scotland men's and women's football sides will be travelling abroad on international duty this week, but the manner in which they'll do so emphasises the gulf in status which separates the squads.
While Alex McLeish and his players will jet out of Glasgow on a chartered flight to Vienna on Tuesday for the following night's friendly against Austria, Anna Signeul and her squad face an altogether more arduous journey.
It's not just that, unlike the men, they have a competitive match on the same Wednesday night. Nor that Ukraine will be formidable opponents in the 2009 Uefa Women's Championship qualifier. No, the reality of life for the Scots is that they will set off from Edinburgh at 7pm this evening and not reach their destination until about 1am on Tuesday. No chartered flight for Signeul's Scots, but instead a hop down to Heathrow for an overnight stay followed by a flight to Kiev and another to Donetsk. Then it's a three-hour bus journey to the match venue of Mariupol.
In other walks of life, that would be no way to treat a lady. But, while it will be a wearying trip and hardly the ideal preparation for such an important tie, there will be no complaints from the Scots, who are a pragmatic bunch and play the game for love rather than money.
Even so, Signeul and her squad deserved better than the apathy they met when the opening Group Five match, against Portugal, was played at McDiarmid Park earlier this month.
Roadworks affecting traffic arriving from the east and the south meant there were barely 300 spectators in the ground when the Sunday afternoon international kicked off. Some 30 minutes later this had "swelled" to the official attendance of 800.
This, remember, is a side which contains Julie Fleeting, who is a considerable figure in her own sport. The following day the Scotland captain helped
Arsenal Ladies to an FA Cup final victory over Charlton at neutral Nottingham. The crowd was 20,000.
If the Perth attendance was pitiful, just as poor was the attitude of Scotland's media. With the honourable exception of the local evening paper there wasn't a single working journalist on the premises to report on the proceedings of this Uefa Championship match.
While women's football, in comparative terms, is still in its infancy in this country, the McDiarmid Park experience was an insult to an incredibly hard working group of players and their coaches. It's not anybody's fault, as such, and the SFA are supportive of the women's game, but perhaps there are better venues than Perth and maybe the marketing budget should be increased.
In the event, the game should have been over as a contest by the time the latecomers finally beat the traffic. Despite the complete lack of atmosphere, Scotland could have been four up after 25 minutes, by which time they had struck the bar twice and the ball appeared to have crossed the line once.
The early failure to close the match out was to prove costly. Portugal grew in confidence and in the second half Scotland goalkeeper Gemma Fay had to make two fine saves to prevent a scoreline worse than the 0-0 result.
Even so, the draw was a big blow to Signeul and the Scots who had given themselves a target of at least four points from the opening two games. To achieve that now will require a win in Ukraine - and judging by that country's 4-0 away defeat of Slovakia in their opening match it's going to be a tall order.
Scottish hopes of a win will depend primarily on Fleeting finding the net, but against Portugal - a match which was sandwiched between
Arsenal's Uefa Cup and FA Cup final triumphs - the striker looked jaded at the end of a long season. Fleeting is also carrying a groin injury which needs rest.
The biggest plus for Scotland at McDiarmid Park was the outstanding performance of 16-year-old Aberdeen schoolgirl Kim Little on her competitive debut. Easily the best player on either side, Little has boundless energy, wonderful balance and a finely-tuned football brain.
Such is her precocious talent that the attacking midfielder would have been a key player for the Scots in Ukraine. However, while remaining in the squad, Little's chances of playing have been seriously jeopardised by a knee injury she incurred while helping her club, Hibs, win the Amicus Scottish Cup final last Sunday.
Ukraine went straight to the top of Group Five following the trouncing of Slovakia and are ranked 17th in the world to Scotland's 26th. The pool favourites, Denmark, have yet to get their campaign underway.
With Uefa having increased the number of finalists from eight to 12 for the 2009 championships, there is a chance for the second-placed group teams, and even four of the third-placed teams, to qualify for Finland via the play-offs. With the group draw also being kind to Scotland, the opportunity to increase public interest is there if Signeul and her players can grasp it.
