Can a bit of James McFadden plus some Archie Gemmill produce an Erin Cuthbert greatest Scottish goal ever?

The balance between defensive discipline and individual creativity has been very heavily on the former in Scotland Women’s first two games.

The matches against England and Japan were both lost 1-2, a fact that gives Scotland a reasonable chance of qualification should they beat Argentina tonight by any margin.

Striker Erin Cuthbert had obviously been thinking about how the third game will be different by the time she addressed the Scottish media on the eve of the game:

“I think Argentina’s going to be a different game I think than the first two games.

“We’ve had to be more defensively structured and you have to be mindful of your defensive roles or else teams are going to hurt you but Argentina pose a different threat where they may have to open up and we might be able to create more space for us.

“As forward players and midfielders we might have better openings and we might be able to pick pockets out better as well.”

On FIFA rankings, Scotland enter tonight’s game as favourites, something that Cuthbert recognised would change Scotland’s approach:

“Probably quite a lot, I think. Being labelled as underdogs we have had to sit back and be a bit more defensively structured.

“At the same time we know we can hurt them. We know that if we bring our A Game then Argentina won’t be able to cope with us, but it’s all about us players performing on the night.

“You can have all the tactics you want but it’ll come down to small margins and individual brilliance to break them down.”

In Cuthbert and Kim Little, Scotland have two proven goalscorers at the highest level who are yet to make their make the scoresheet here as Claire Emslie and Lana Clelland, who did score from some distance, have done.

Cuthbert scored from 25 yards against Jamaica at Hampden in Scotland’s last warm-up game. Now she returns to the stadium where James McFadden famously scored for Scotland from long range.

If she could repeat one of the most famous goals in Scotland football history, but do it in a World Cup finals like Archie Gemmill, scorer of perhaps the most famous goal in Scottish football history (in rather than against Argentina); she would combine two of the most famous moments in a nation’s sporting history with the swing of just one boot.

“I wish it was that easy. I just would want anyone to score the goal,” she added unselfishly when asked about the possibility.