[Thread About Ex Player]

 

http://www.rsssf.com/tablesk/kirin06.html

 

Bulgaria lineup. RSSSF is text-only so I've googled the starting XI. Players with an * were in the Euro 2004 squad. The player with ** would have been there but for injury.

 

*Stoyan Kolev - Lokomotiv Plovdiv - 16 caps (2002-2012)

Stanislav Angelov - Levski Sofia - 39 caps (2006-2011)

Elin Topuzakov - Levski Sofia - 27 caps (2000-2008)

*Rosen Kirilov - Litex Lovech - 51 caps (1998-2006)

Asen Karaslavov - Slavia Sofia - 10 caps (2004-2008)

Lucio Wagner - Levski Sofia - 15 caps (2006-2008)

*Martin Petrov - Atletico Madrid - 90 caps (1999-2011)

Dimitar Telkiyski - Levski Sofia - 22 caps (2004-2009)

Yordan Todorov - CSKA Sofia - 9 caps (2006-2009)

**Svetslav Todorov - Portsmouth - 41 caps (1998-2007)

Valeri Domovchiyski - Levski Sofia - 13 caps (2006-2011)

 

So not exactly an all-star lineup, but far from weak or second-string either. I can't pretend to know much about the domestic-based players at the time, but Martin Petrov is of course very well-known and had a better career than the Scotland lineup, with the exception of Darren Fletcher. S. Todorov would probably rank similar to Boyd, but certainly above the likes of "Gary Teale".

 

Maybe just one of those games.

I remember watching the Scotland v Bulgaria game live. The tournament was set up to favour Japan as the first game was Japan v Bulgaria, then Scotland played Bulgaria 2 days later, then Japan played Scotland 2 days after that. Japan had 4 days rest between their fixtures while Scotland and Bulgaria had 2 days rest between each of their fixtures. Bulgaria had beaten Japan with an injury time winner 2 days before they played Scotland and they were clearly still knackered when they had to play Scotland. Scotland ran rings around them all over the park. It was nice to see Scotland totally outclass another national team but the fairly obvious reason for it was Bulgaria's tiredness rather than Scotland's superior quality of player from what I remember. Scotland's game against Japan 2 days later was a backs-to-the-wall defensive performance to grind out a 0-0 draw and win the cup. Scotland's lack of energy compared to Japan was also obvious but they did what was required, if I remember correctly.

 

A quick check on Wikipedia and the links to the match reports from each game confirms Bulgaria only made 3 changes to their starting line up for the game against Scotland. Scotland then only made 1 change before facing Japan, curiously, but maybe the 5-1 cakewalk took less out of them than Bulgaria's hard fought injury time victory over Japan took out of their players.

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