The Tartan Army looks to build on their earlier 'friendly' 2-0 home win back on 18 December. Cook and Grant scored for Scotland in that game, Fleeting didn't play. http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/index.cfm?news_id=1041
The SFA use the word 'astonishing' for this victory. Aaron Heifitz announced the score (and Fleeting's 5 goal total) at the Spirit season ticket holders party today, and everyone let out a loud cheer! http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/index.cfm?news_id=1046
I have to agree on that. Portugal is a second tier team that is going up in some respects. But Fleets has been on fire of late with the Spirit and Scotland.
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/WOCO/fixturesresults/round=1655/match=70841/Report=RP.html Six goals for Fleets!
http://www.fpf.pt/noticias/ver_noticia.jsp?n_id=4255 More likely to be five goals. Several sources conflicted.
Portugal 1 Scotland 8 Goals: 0-1 Brown 7, 0-2 Brown 13, 0-3 Brown 22, 0-4 Fleeting 30, 0-5 Fleeting 33, 0-6 Fleeting 43, 1-6 Ines Silva 64, 1-7 Fleeting 68, 1-8 Fleeting 75. Estadio Municipal de Nelas, Nelas Scotland: Gemma Fay, Julie Smith (sub Suzy Robertson 79), Stacey Cook, Amanda Burns, Michelle Barr, Megan Sneddon, Joanne Love, Mhairi Gilmour (sub Kirsty McBride 55), Suzanne Grant (sub Pauline Hamill 73), Julie Fleeting, Linda Brown. Five goals. Not too shabby.
"Julie Fleeting scored five goals in Scotland's 8-1 destruction of Portugal on Saturday. UEFA.com reported that the San Diego Spirit striker netted a six-pack, but Fleeting says she only scored five. Linda Brown scored the other three. ... " You know you're doing okay when you people aren't sure how many goals you've scored in a game.
Looks like they took pity on Portugal, as they were leading 6-0 after 43'. Maybe they can still qualify for the finals, if they can overturn the result against Germany in the return match. But it looks like they are improving very rapidly. I think the thing that has really helped in the last year is the development of a proper amateur league. This has helped to develop some of the players. Hibs and Kilmarnock have particularly strong teams, and much of the national players are drawn from this. Put an outstanding striker like Fleeting on top of this and you have a decent team.
Yes and Hibs just won the cup which stopped Kilmarnock from getting the treble. So right there, it shows that the league doesn't just have one great team unlike some leagues where one team wins all of it.