After all the aggro about ticket prices, all the outrage about the cost of travel and accommodation, finally a feeling that money can’t buy. A World Cup summer carnival — and, for the first time in 28 years, Scotland are part of it.
The Tartan Army have travelled in their thousands to Boston for Saturday night’s opening clash with Haiti. Some have remortgaged the house, some have sold an organ, others have maxed all their credit cards and dipped into the kids’ inheritance.
Some may even have done all four.
Yet, whatever means they have used to raise the necessary funds, every Scotland supporter who has made the journey will feel that the chance to watch their team on football’s grandest stage is simply priceless. Such is the intoxicating beauty of football, and, specifically, a World Cup.
It all gets underway this evening when Mexico take on South Africa in the cavernous surroundings of The Azteca, a stadium which has the World Cup in its blood and images of Diego Maradona etched into its fabric.
Over the course of the next month, the normal rhythm of daily life will continue against the backdrop of the greatest show on earth taking centre stage in 16 host cities across America, Mexico and Canada.
Scotland skipper Andy Robertson was in high spirits as he led a training session in Charlotte
A new expanded format will see 48 teams battle it out over 104 matches in a bid to crown the winner by the time we reach the final in New York on July 19.
This is when football escapes its normal constituencies and becomes the focal point of all public life. Watching three or four games on TV becomes the normal daily routine.
When the knockout stages arrive and we are confronted by that first day of having no football to watch, we are left feeling hollow and nursing withdrawal symptoms.
Pubs will be bursting at the seams, and, given the kick-off times, will be open into the wee small hours. There will be garden parties, there will be saltires, and there will be sickies. Lots of sickies.
No matter how much they may wish to make the tournament about themselves, this is when the politicians and the blazers become an irrelevance.
With the World Cup, the football does the talking. It always does. All the noise and controversy that has mired the build-up to this year’s tournament will stop, even if only temporarily, come 8pm tonight.
The first of three opening ceremonies — one for each host nation — will see Shakira perform at The Azteca in Mexico City.
Michael Buble, presumably wheeled out of Christmas cold storage, and Alanis Morissette will headline when Canada take on Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto tomorrow night.
Scotland fans acclimatise over a cold beer in Boston as they get ready for the Haiti clash
Katy Perry will then do likewise at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles when the USA kick-off their campaign against Paraguay on Saturday.
Spain come into the tournament as slight favourites ahead of France. With the mesmeric talents of Lamine Yamal to the fore, the Spanish are well-fancied to go back-to-back after winning Euro 2024.
France have an embarrassment of riches throughout their squad, but especially in attack, and they will once again be led by Kylian Mbappe.
Even at 18 years old, Lamal is already a superstar. He has won three La Liga titles with Barcelona to sit alongside the Euros triumph with Spain.
Yet, even still, there is a feeling that this World Cup could be to Yamal what the 2018 tournament was to Mbappe, then a teenage prodigy with France.
England are not far behind the top two in the betting markets. Their form may be patchy, and their squad selection certainly raised a few eyebrows, but England have the best striker on the planet in Harry Kane.
Of the other contenders, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Holland all have their merits. But it’s Spain and France who will start as the teams to beat.
This will be a World Cup where we will bid farewell to two all-time greats in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, two players who have defined a generation.
Global sensation Shakira will star at one of THREE opening ceremonies for the tournament
Messi will turn 39 next week and Argentina’s chances of winning back-to-back World Cups will hinge on their ability to get the best out of their little magician.
Likewise Portugal and Ronaldo. Now 41 years of age, he remains the figurehead of what is a star-studded Portuguese side under the management of Roberto Martinez.
Luka Modric is another golden oldie who, at the age of 40, will surely call time on a quite magnificent career with Croatia after the conclusion of this World Cup.
In terms of the expanded format, the doors have been flung open wider than ever before. In come the likes of Haiti, Curacao, Iran, New Zealand, Iraq and Jordan among others.
What do you mean do you don’t fancy staying up till 2am to watch DR Congo’s win-or-bust clash with Uzbekistan? What’s wrong with you? Give yourself a shake…
Okay, so some of the fixtures maybe don’t quite set the pulse racing at first glance. But that’s because we don’t know a huge amount about some of these teams.
Did many people know much about Senegal when they beat reigning world champions France in the first match of the 2002 World Cup?
What about Cameroon when they beat reigning champions Argentina at Italia 90? What about South Korea when they beat Italy in 2002?
The Gillette Stadium in Foxborough will play host to Scotland’s return to the global stage
This is the beauty of a World Cup. There’s always a story. You get to watch players and teams who would never otherwise have crossed your radar. New heroes emerge.
Could the expanded format dilute the quality and drama before the real theatre of the knockout stages begins? Yeah, possibly, but let’s not talk it down before a ball has even been kicked.
This is a special moment on the football calendar, one which only comes around once every four years. Or, in Scotland’s case, once every 28 years.
Enjoy it. Drink it in. If you haven’t spent all your money on travelling to the States, spend it on packs of stickers helping the kids or grandkids complete their World Cup sticker album.
Domestic football is faster, richer and more demanding than ever before. But it can’t match the emotional significance of a World Cup.
What unfolds over these next few weeks will create memories to last a lifetime, be it good or bad. Steve Clarke and his players carry the hopes and dreams of a nation.
Their campaign will begin in Foxborough, just outside of Boston, against the little-known minnows of Haiti, in a stadium that is home to the New England Patriots in the NFL.
It is a stadium which Tom Brady made his own personal playground for the best part of two decades; year after year of relentless brilliance from the most decorated quarterback ever to play America’s national sport.
This will be a whole new ball game. The part that nobody can ever script. A feast of football, with Scotland dining at the top table once again. Let the games begin.
