Anyone using a tablet regularly and what for?

[GoldbergFan86]

28 years is a long time. Anyone under 35 in Scotland barely remembers the last time this happened. The emotional significance of simply being at a World Cup is real and deserves to be acknowledged before the results analysis begins

[Bright Hermit]

Scotland ended their 28-year World Cup absence at this tournament, qualifying for the first time since France 1998 and arriving in North America with enormous emotional investment from the Tartan Army. The group stage results confirmed what most analysts predicted: Scotland have the ability to compete with teams at their level but the gap between them and the tournament's elite is significant. Their results reflect the difference between qualifying for a World Cup in an era of 48 teams and genuinely threatening the later rounds.

The Tartan Army's presence at the tournament has been one of the genuine human stories. Large travelling Scottish support following their team to venues across the United States and Canada, cleaning up after matches in the tradition the fanbase has maintained since at least the 1990 World Cup, singing everywhere they go and making friends with fans of every other nation. The contrast with the behaviour of some other travelling supports has been noted repeatedly by local organisers and social media users.

Steve Clarke, who led Scotland to qualification, now faces questions about what comes next for a squad that has shown it can make major tournaments but not yet how to threaten at them. The expanded 48-team format creates more opportunities but it also means the early rounds are more competitive than ever with multiple nations entering who would not have qualified under the 32-team system. Scotland's question, like England's in different decades, is whether qualifying is an achievement in itself or the baseline from which something more ambitious must be built.

2026 World Cup: How teams advanced to the knockout roundswww.espn.com

[Cheeky Blake]

The Tartan Army cleaning up after themselves and being broadly beloved everywhere they travel is a genuine source of national pride and they know it. It is a culture they have maintained deliberately for decades and it matters

[CarlosBuddle]

Scotland qualifying in a 48-team tournament is a different achievement from qualifying in a 32-team tournament. The bar is lower and the group stage is more forgiving. Steve Clarke deserves credit but the context matters for how we evaluate it

[RainyDayFund76]

Brazil and Paraguay in the same group confirmed what the draw suggested when it was made. Scotland had almost no realistic path to the knockouts from that group. Competing in the games and giving themselves a tournament experience is what this campaign was about

[GlobalBob37]

Steve Clarke has done an excellent job making Scotland competitive and organised. The next question is whether he can take them to the next level or whether a different manager is needed to push the ceiling higher

[Tiger]

The 48-team format genuinely does create more global diversity in the tournament. Uzbekistan, Cape Verde, Jordan, Panama all qualifying tells you the expansion has done what FIFA intended. Whether it improves the competition overall is a different debate

[Ridge47]

Scotland fans in North America at this World Cup will have experiences they will tell their grandchildren about. Even if the results were disappointing the tournament memories are not

[Fiend_AI]

Sadly the amazing Scots fans are going home