Where Steve Clarke and Lindsey Mac differ is she doesn’t think she’ll be going home. Not yet. She’s already five grand into this trip and, as the phrase goes, in for a penny, in for a pound.‘We’ll keep the faith a while and see how it goes,’ was her rationalisation on Thursday morning at the Kimpton Epic Hotel, one of the many hubs of Scottish consolation around Miami after the disappointments of the night before.To follow Clarke’s words in the wake of the 3-0 drubbing against Brazil, it’s probably all over. No Scotland, no party? We might soon find out, once the complexities of this absurd, bloated format determine which of the third-placed teams get a pass to the knockouts.Before that axe falls, an expensive dilemma is in play, because do you stick or twist? Do you carry on paying a minimum of $300 a night on hotels based on the hope, saying nothing for the astonishing bills in the United States for food and transport? It might be Saturday or Sunday before anyone knows if Scotland have sneaked through and, if they have, the cost of waiting will snowball into the scramble for securing more tickets.‘Let’s wait and see,’ Lindsey says. ‘You never know, they might creep through and you wouldn’t want to miss it.’She is here with her teenage son, Conner, and their tickets to the Brazil match were $2000 for the pair, but how often are Scotland at the World Cup? Lindsey was in the school year below Billy Gilmour’s parents in North Ayrshire, so she isn’t sure whether it’s tangential loyalty or an incurable optimism that is binding them to the cause at this point. But it’s been a blast – they all say that. The Scottish fans have made quite the impression over in America – but at a price Scotland look set to crash out of the World Cup after winning just one of their group gamesWe spoke to around 15 or so facing the same decision and most are heading for home after joyriding for a fortnight. For John and Elizabeth Docherty, the cost has been £10,000 across Boston and Miami. He thought about staying; she thought that was daft. She won.But some are leaning the other way. John, a lawyer from Glasgow, is among them. He won’t give his surname and maybe there’s a reason for that – he flew into Boston on June 12 and reckons he is in for north of £15,000 by now. He says his wife is ‘tolerant’, but she also isn’t aware of the exact details of his bill, so time will tell.‘I’ve spent the morning looking at the options for where to go next,’ he says. ‘I’m caught between heading to New York or Boston, because they might be back there for the last-32 and Boston has a flight to Mexico if that’s where we end up. I could go to Chicago because that’s also a good hub for getting around.‘I was at the last World Cup we got to, France in 98, and it doesn’t happen often, right? You just want to see a bit more on the pitch and I don’t like Steve Clarke making excuses. Have some accountability.’There’s a beauty to this kind of spirit, to that unbending, bonkers willingness to tolerate FIFA’s larceny in the name of a good time. Clarke’s Scotland have served up some utter dross, but the supporters who followed them from Boston to Miami did not turn. Without doubt, their collective humour has raised more smiles than the men they came to watch.Those fans have made their choices and set their own budgets, of course, but FIFA’s fleecing of their affections is the disgraceful footnote to this waiting game. Under previous formats, you’d know after the third game if it was time for home; under this head-scratching structure, another £1000 is the very least you would expect to spend if you were minded to give it another three days to find out.‘Robbing b******s and you can quote me on that,’ says David McLachlan, a short distance from South Beach. He and his wife Linda made it over to Miami on Tuesday and paid £1000 for each of their tickets to the Brazil game. ‘We got a pizza, coke and crisps each at the ground and it came to $60. That’s not right, but we know what these guys are about.’ Some fans paid more than $1,000 to see the Scots lose 3-0 to Brazil in Miami on Wednesday What to do now… stay in America hoping Scotland make it through, or just head home?He was feeling a little flat on Thursday morning – he and his wife were among the many preparing to fly home. ‘I had a little thought of staying on if they’d got something last night,’ David says, but every obsession has its limits.Same goes for Sam Gemmell, an older boy from Glasgow, who paid $565 for his Brazil ticket.‘This is my third World Cup,’ Sam says. ‘My first was in 1982. We haven’t been up to much here, have we? But we’ve had a great time. Time to get back home, though.‘We spoke to a few lads who are thinking about staying on, or flying home and then back for the next game, but the costs of it are crazy. The things we do…’Yes indeed. There’s a kind of magic in that. Just as there is something filthy about FIFA choosing to exploit it in each way imaginable.Have you paid attention to the action so far? Try our World Cup quiz HERE.