Now the moment is almost upon them, the unpalatable reality of what Scotland ’s players are about to confront begins to bite.
A match they have waited all their lives to win, set against a blood-stained backdrop of human suffering that renders the very idea of victory so hollow it might even seem like an act of callous inhumanity.
A pathway to the pinnacle of their childhood dreams, blocked by the ultimate no-win scenario of attempting to give the proud people of Ukraine a reason to feel ever so slightly worse about their current, unimaginable predicament.
Put it this way, when someone as patriotic and as fiercely competitive as Graeme Souness admits he’d rather sit this one out, it does beg the question about the conflicting emotions in the hearts and minds of those who must carry the burden of pulling on those dark blue shirts.
In his own days Souness would have shoulder-charged his own granny to the ground to win a kickabout down the local park.
But now a man who represented Scotland at three World Cup finals can’t bring himself to wish more ill will upon a nation that has been so ravaged and brutalised by Vladimir Putin’s war machine over these past three months.
But, while it’s difficult, bordering on impossible, to put together any kind of counter argument without appearing utterly heartless, the fact remains Steve Clarke and his players have been dealt with this hospital pass and they have no choice now but to get on with it.
Like the rest of us, most may have suspected deep down this eliminator would never actually take place from the moment Russia’s tanks rolled in across Ukraine’s borders.
Clarke stressed back then, if or when the play-off semi final did get the go ahead, it would mean the situation on the ground had improved to such an extent life would surely be returning to somewhere much nearer to normality.
The reality? Yesterday, Luhansk’s regional governor confirmed the Kremlin’s forces had advanced into the city of Severodonetsk and talked of the ‘stench of corpses’ engulfing the air, while in Mariupol it was claimed Russian soldiers have been dumping the decomposing bodies of civilians ‘like garbage’ in a supermarket.
It beggars belief Ukraine’s players have been asked to pull their boots on and make their way to Hampden when their homeland is being mangled so mercilessly behind them.
If there was so much as an ounce of compassion left inside the salubrious headquarters of FIFA and UEFA this match would surely not have to be played at all.
Instead, an open invite to the finals would have been sent to Kyiv asking them to send a team only if they feel they wish to compete there at the end of the year.
Granted, that act of kindness might have messed up the numbers or complicated the TV scheduling. But surely none of these paltry issues would have been insurmountable for the money men in charge of raking it in from our game?
It would also have allowed Clarke and his players to head straight to Cardiff for a straight win-or-bust tie with Wales and spare them from the emotional distress of having to attempt to deny the people of Ukraine with a sense of respite and a ray of sporting hope.
But Scotland are not the bad guys in all of this, even if they might end up being booed in and out of the desert if they should make it all the way to Qatar to compete in a World Cup finals for the first time in more than 24 years.
They have been shoehorned into this position as the planet’s biggest pantomime villains by a bunch of thoughtless blowhards in blazers who struggle to put on a decent cup final without having thousands of fans tear-gassed or dehydrated in the process.
Be in no doubt, they should be the ones placed at the centre of this latest abomination of a decision. But while they take cover inside their Swiss offices, lighting cigars with 50 euro notes, it’ll be left to Clarke and his team to front this one up and get on about the business of making the numbers work – one way or the other.
The Ukrainians might be completely undercooked for a match of this size but their will to win coupled with their sense of national pride could add up to a superhuman effort that Scotland will have to find a way of overcoming.
And let’s get another thing straight where this game is concerned.
Rather than indulge in any naval-gazing, Scotland has no reason to feel anything but immense pride in how far this group of young men have already come under Clarke’s guidance and how much further they may yet still travel together over these next few days.
In fact they have been a credit to the country over these past couple of years and their growth as a team has made for compelling viewing.
Having already ended decades spent in the wilderness to lead us to one major tournament, now it is time for the next momentous step in their development.
They can be held no more responsible for Putin’s despotic bloodlust than they can for FIFA’s appalling lack of empathy and self-awareness.
On the contrary, Clarke and his players have been forced into intruding upon Ukraine’s grief.
It’s now a matter of extricating themselves from this mess as expertly as possible and moving on to their next big challenge – be that in Cardiff or elsewhere. Most of all, and more importantly than ever, may the better team win.
