World Cup TV host Amy Irons would bet her house on Scotland getting out of the group stages for the first time in history.
The football-mad TV presenter arrives in Boston on Wednesday as BBC Scotland prepares to cover the national team’s return to the biggest sporting event on Earth after a 28-year absence.
Amy, from Dumfries, said: “There is so much talk about whether the national team can progress beyond the first round of the competition and heal the hurt of missing football’s biggest stage since 1998.
View 4 ImagesAmy and co-presenter Steven Mill will front special editions of The Saturday Show on radio this Saturday ahead of the Haiti match at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.(Image: Handout)
“I’ve just bought a house and I’m going to put my house on it that Scotland get out of the group.
“I often get laughed at for my never-fading optimism when it comes to Scotland but I think there is a togetherness and depth to this squad that is really going to come to fruition.
“The team were a bit overawed by the occasion in Germany but I’m seeing players with more tournament experience who won’t let the occasion pass them by.
“A win could be enough, but a win and a draw should guarantee it. They’ll beat Haiti, get a draw against Morocco and they might get beaten by Brazil, but you never know.
“Scott McTominay is becoming a Scottish icon. He’s on a banknote and a mural. He could produce another wonder goal against Brazil.”
As well as being on TV, Amy and co-presenter Steven Mill will front special editions of The Saturday Show on radio this Saturday ahead of the Haiti match at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The duo’s programme will also air for the June 19 clash against Morocco before the Tartan Army heads south for the highly-anticipated final group game against Brazil on June 24 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
Amy, who presents BBC Scotland’s Hogmanay show as well as Reporting Scotland and News at Seven, will appear on three hour-long Reporting Scotland specials.
And she is confident Scotland will make it a party America never forgets after seeing first-hand the power of the Tartan Army while reporting on the national team during Euro 2020.
She said: “I still remember getting off the train at Euston in London and hearing Flower of Scotland.
“I walked around the corner and there was just this sea of dark blue shirts and kilts. It felt like the whole of London had stopped to watch the Scotland fans arriving.”
View 4 ImagesAmy and co-presenter Steven Mill (Image: Handout)
Amy was also at Euro 2024 in Germany but nothing compares to the anticipation she and the rest of Scotland feel about finally being back at a World Cup.
She was born in 1991, a year after the 1990 World Cup in Italy, where Scotland finished third in their group and failed to qualify for the knockout stages. She was seven in 1998 and still has memories of France.
Amy, 35, said: “I remember Colin Hendry’s hair and how intimidating the whole Brazil team looked in those yellow shirts.
“I would never have imagined we’d have to wait so long before getting back to another World Cup.”
The presenter is hoping her football-mad dad Davie, who played for Dunfermline, Partick Thistle and St Johnstone, will join the Tartan Army in America.
She said: “I’m trying to tempt my old dad out to Miami.
“I can’t promise him a ticket but there will be so many fans there, just like we saw in Germany, without tickets who simply want to soak up the atmosphere.
“He’s delighted I’ll be part of it.
“I was so young when my dad was playing his best football.
“The number of people who have said to me, ‘Your dad was a great footballer and should have had a call-up to the national squad,’ is incredible.
“None of his children inherited any footballing ability, but at least my brother Lewis, who is a sports news presenter, and I will have been to a World Cup, even if it’s not as players.”
View 4 ImagesScotland fans(Image: PA)
As both a sports fan and a reporter, Amy has attended countless Scotland games but her favourite moment came against Denmark in November.
She said: “There have been amazing goals, like Archie Gemmill’s strike against the Netherlands at the 1978 World Cup, but you weren’t there.
“I was there for three of the best goals in Scotland’s history. It’s never going to be topped.
“My favourite was Kieran Tierney’s, just because of where I was sitting in the stand.”
The 4-2 victory was also special because it was Amy’s first Scotland game with boyfriend Elliot, who she started dating towards the end of last year.
Amy said: “The plan is for him to come out to America after I finish work and then we’ll take a trip.
“I don’t know where yet because it depends on how Scotland do, but it could be Mexico. Purely for research, of course.”
Amy also reckons there could be a new recruit to the Tartan Army when Scotland begin their World Cup campaign – Donald John Trump.
The US President is half-Scottish as his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis before emigrating to New York.
Trump also lives in Florida and his main home, Mar-a-Lago, is an hour’s drive from Miami Gardens, where Scotland face Brazil on June 24.
Amy said: “You could see Trump turning up at the Haiti game waving a Saltire and wearing a kilt.
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“But despite that, I think the Tartan Army will be the focal point. In Germany at Euro 2024 they made an incredible impression and I think America is going to be another level.
“Americans have such a love of Scotland, whether it’s our whisky, golf or a distant relative.”
● Amy is presenting special editions of Reporting Scotland from the World Cup and co-hosting The Saturday Show on BBC Radio Scotland with Steven Mill. The first programme airs on Saturday at 9am.