Fifteen minutes before Scotland began taking Bolivia to the cleaners at the Sports Illustrated Stadium, a weather warning was issued by New Jersey's department of environmental protection. Code Orange – an air quality alert for pollution central. The temperature had just hit 32.7 degrees, a potential problem for those with respiratory conditions, for elderly folk, and – we feared – for Scottish footballers and for those sweaty foot soldiers following them.
Bolivia, we knew, were no great shakes. Their weak attempt to qualify for the World Cup was enough evidence of that. But suffocating conditions should be an advantage to a side that play home games in Tarija, 6,000 feet above sea level, and in the city in the sky that is El Alto at 13,600 feet. They beat Chile last June and Brazil last September in the latter. The problem for Bolivia was not the heat that mother nature was inflicting on them – it was the heat they were getting from Scotland, who were patient, precise and clinical.
“Scotland thrash Bolivia 4-0 in a World Cup warm-up, showing patience and clinical finishing.”
As an opponent, the South Americans were a perfect match, a useful punchbag in boxing parlance, but this was a pleasing victory and another four goals to whet the appetite before the truly big stuff starts to happen next Saturday night.
It might be argued that Scotland did not learn much about themselves against such moderate opponents, but Scotland don't need to learn any more about themselves that they do not already know. Save for the odd position, they are settled and vastly experienced. This was not intended as a journey of discovery; it was a game to get their spirits up ahead of the main work ahead and that is exactly what it became. Unlike last weekend there were no injuries. Another plus.
Scotland picked their moments to strike and were pretty ruthless when they did. Bolivia posed no threat. No World Cup to give them an edge, no players with much about them, no real answer to Scotland's focus. You can caveat the hell out of this if you wish – and restraint is no bad thing – but scoring the number of goals Steve Clarke's side did, creating the number of the chances they did, and adapting to the temperatures with relative ease was impressive and heartening before Haiti (Sunday, 14 June – 02:00 BST, live on the BBC). Haiti will be more physical, more athletic, more pacy and more threatening, but Scotland will have gained a lot of confidence from this performance.