Erin Cuthbert may have been on the losing side twice in this World Cup but there is no doubt from her reaction after the Japan game that it hurts.<\/h3>\n

Her post-game analysis sounded eerily similar to the conclusions drawn from the England game:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I think we have to take a lot from the second half performance, we\u2019ve done well, and we\u2019ve ran them really close but at the end of the day you cannot let a team like that go 2-0 up in the first half.<\/p>\n

“Again, we have gave ourselves a mountain to climb like we did in the first game and we have nearly got there, so we credit to ourselves for the performance, but we need to be better.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Her last memory of club football was a European Cup semi-final second leg in which her Chelsea side narrowly failed to take the continent’s best side Lyon to extra time.<\/a><\/p>\n

These are big games and Cuthbert was in no doubt that she was one for the big occasions, notwithstanding that they brought a greater likelihood of disappointment in the scoreline:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Yeah, I am really enjoying like playing in the big games. I relish the big occasion.<\/p>\n

“I really enjoy it but that is what every footballer wants – to play on the biggest stage.<\/p>\n

“I am lucky enough that I get to do that for my country so hopefully I can take these experiences back to club, when I go back to Chelsea and hopefully we can push on for domestic trophies.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cuthbert is still 20 and is experiencing some heady days and nights at a very early stage of her career. Yet, in her maturity, she is taking nothing for granted:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Of course it is nice to do it young, but you have to focus on the process and what\u2019s the here and now.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t want to think too far ahead and not enjoy the experience I am having right now because you don\u2019t know what could happen.<\/p>\n

“Scotland might not ever be in a World Cup again, so I am just enjoying every single moment that I am here and relishing the opportunity of playing for Scotland at a major stage.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given that the men last qualified the year she was born, she is wise to take nothing for granted.<\/p>\n

Her side meet Argentina at the Parc des Princes on June 19th, with a win likely but not definite to see her side through to the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

If France as expected beat Nigeria, any Scotland win will take them above Nigeria’s record.<\/p>\n

Then it’s a matter of one other third-place team falling below their record. The best chance of that comes on June 20th in Group E when two sides still on zero points New Zealand and Cameroon meet.<\/p>\n

Either would need to win by a minimum of a goal more than Scotland to over take the Dark Blues. Chile who play Thailand in Group F would have to win by three more.<\/p>\n

[columns]
\n[column size=”1\/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”839″ heading=”Scotland Women” heading_type=”timeline” \/][\/column]
\n[column size=”1\/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”211″ heading=”Women’s World Cup” heading_type=”timeline” \/][\/column]
\n[\/columns]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erin Cuthbert spoke to media after the Japan game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":217068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,14,301,1072,2,81,839,34,211],"tags":[1599,905],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}