The Tartan Army found a new home in Boston, and it was everything they didn't know they needed.
When Scotland's women's national football team touched down in the American Northeast for their first-ever World Cup campaign, the city that houses the Red Sox, the Celtics, and the New England Patriots opened its arms to a different kind of football fever entirely. By the time they walked off the pitch at Boston's TD Garden after a historic 2-0 victory over Haiti, the city had fallen completely under their spell. Locals who had never given soccer a second thought were suddenly asking where they could get their hands on the team's distinctive pink shirts — "It's salmon, lads," the Scots good-naturedly corrected — and Scottish flags were poking out of car windows and drooping down hotel balconies across the city. The Tartan Army had done it again: built a party wherever they landed.
The win over Haiti was more than three points in Group C. It was the culmination of a 36-year wait for Scotland to win a match on the world's biggest footballing stage. Generations of fans who had grown up hearing about past disappointments finally had their own moment — and they shared it with an entire city that couldn't quite believe its luck. Billboards appeared celebrating the possibility of owning a professional Scottish club. Boston Common became the central meeting point. Night after night, the Scots packed out venues and turned strangers into lifelong admirers.
For the players, the work is far from finished. After a short stopover in Charlotte, North Carolina, the squad returns to Florida — this time to Miami, where they'll face Brazil on Wednesday. It's a formidable opponent: Scotland has never defeated Brazil in 10 previous encounters. But there's a chance they could find themselves back in Boston by month's end, facing Germany in what would be a reunion with the city that embraced them so warmly. Two years ago, the Tartan Army conquered Cologne at Euro 2024. Boston, they discovered, has other ideas about being topped.
"Know your audience," the article notes wryly of the Miami trip — but the truth is, that audience has already found them, wherever they go.