Scotland’s quest to make history came to a crunching end on Sunday and with it, opens the door for Lewis Morgan to return to the New York Red Bulls.
Needing a victory in the final match of Group A play to keep their hopes alive of qualifying as a third-place group finisher at Euro 2024, Scotland saw a golden opportunity to score blocked during extra time only for Hungary to storm down the field 15 seconds later and score the winner to knock the Tartan Army out of the competition.
In 12 major tournament appearances dating back to 1954, Scotland has never made it past the group stage.
For Morgan, the end of his current spell with Scotland is bittersweet. Due to injuries, manager Steve Clarke called the 27-year-old attacker into the national team camp just one week before the start of the Euros — the first time Morgan was called up to a national team camp since 2019 thanks to a torrid start to the 2024 MLS season in which he recorded nine goals in 16 matches.
As a depth player for Scotland, he spent the first two matches on the bench — a blowout loss to Germany and a 1-1 draw to Switzerland — before being called on as an attacking option in the 89th minute of Sunday’s match against Hungary.
With it, he became just the third player in Red Bulls franchise history to appear in a European Championship match, joining Lothar Matthaus (Germany, 2000) and Roberto Donadoni (Italy, 1996).
Needing just a single goal to concrete their standing as a legitimate third-place qualifier with four points, Morgan nearly sparked Scotland to a winner in the final moments. He was played down the right wing where he delivered a cross that found Manchester United’s Scott McTominay in front of goal, but he skied the chance although it would not have counted due to the linesman deeming the play offside.
Pushing numbers forward, Scotland was left open at the back for a Hungarian counter-attack in the 100th minute. In desperation, Morgan was one of three Scots who scrambled their way back in desperate defense and found himself in front of Hungary’s Kevin Csoboth, who received a low, cut-back cross in front of Scotland’s goal.
Morgan lunged at the shot, but it narrowly evaded the sprawling attacker-turned-defender as it whizzed into the back of the net to break Scottish hearts.
With his Euros now complete, Morgan is free to rejoin the Red Bulls, though the team has yet to confirm if he will be available for their next match on Saturday against DC United.
Regardless, his return provides a massive reinforcement for a club that had been shorthanded ever since the calendar flipped to June. Emil Forsberg picked up a foot injury after international duty with Sweden while starting goalkeeper Carlos Coronel is with Paraguay for Copa America 2024.
New York managed to win just one of the four matches it played without Morgan while scoring just five goals — three of which came during Saturday’s win over Toronto FC.
