How Scotland found their base camp for 'travelling' World Cup
An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman were waiting at the door of Charlotte FC's training ground for Steve Clarke's arrival. On his search for Scotland's World Cup base camp, the head coach found the one in North Carolina, with a wee hand from a few familiar faces. MLS side Charlotte are coached by Dean Smith, the former Aston Villa manager and pal of Clarke, his assistant is the Scotland boss' former Kilmarnock player, Gary Dicker and the club's technical director is Clarke's ex-St Mirren team-mate, Tommy Smith.
They say it's not what you know, but who you know. A few other nations checked out the Atrium Health Performance Park, while the Scots searched "most of the East Coast", but Charlotte will be their home from home when they compete in their first World Cup since 1998 - against Haiti and Morocco in Boston and Brazil in Miami. With both cities around a two-hour flight away, Clarke said he is hopeful the "top" facilities will provide his side with the "best possible conditions" as they make their long-awaited return to the biggest stage of them all.
With the help of Charlotte assistant Dicker and Scotland assistant Steven Naismith, BBC Scotland gets the lowdown on "one of the best facilities in the MLS" and the national team's summer set-up. Unsurprisingly, a lot of conversations and a lot of checking places out. Fifa offers a selection of available facilities but each nation will naturally have their own plans and priorities.
For Scotland, Naismith admitted getting it right for "travel and humidity" was paramount. "It's a travelling World Cup," the assistant coach and Sportscene pundit said. "We've got two games in Boston, one in Miami, but there's only a limited amount of facilities around Boston.
"That was probably the biggest challenge. We've done a lot of work seeing a lot of training bases - there's a lot on offer - but we're delighted with Charlotte. " Clarke's former Killie midfielder Dicker agreed it's "a really good central base" with flights to both Scotland's match cities only a couple of hours.