After a 28-year wait, a 28th-minute goal to announce their return. Scotland are back in the World Cup 2026, creating history with both their presence and their victory and making a nation dream again. It may have entailed a deflected goal, an unconvincing performance, a struggle to beat a Haiti side officially only the 83rd best in the global game, but this was still a day – if not necessarily a display – for Scotland to savour.
And a league table that, in their long exile from this stage, would have required a stretch of the imagination. From top spot in Group C, Scotland can stare down at the five-time winners Brazil in the standings; the 2022 semi-finalists Morocco, too. It may only last for a few days, but this team are positioned to go where no previous Scotland side has: to the knockout stages in a major competition, to the extra game that seemed almost mythical.
Steve Clarke had called for them to do something special. In the context of Scotland’s past, they already have. In the context of their capabilities as a team, they definitely did not here. But this was just Scotland’s fifth World Cup win. Haiti rank alongside Zaire, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden in an eclectic group. Often slow starters to tournaments, they ground out a victory: their first in a major competition since Ally McCoist downed Switzerland in 1996, in a World Cup since 1990.
For that, they can thank John McGinn, who is enjoying a spectacular summer. A Europa League-winning skipper on the banks of the Bosphorus, a World Cup goalscorer rather nearer to Cape Cod, it has been a fabulous few weeks for Scotland’s cult hero. The Aston Villa midfielder underachieved in Euro 2024. He has already achieved in this World Cup, doing something no other Scotsman has mustered this millennium.
McGinn got the man-of-the-match award but there was a sense the stars were in the stands, not on the pitch. The Hampden roar was transported across at the Atlantic. This felt like a home game, but in a very different venue. When McGinn scored, the Proclaimers rang around the Gillette Stadium; forget walking 500 miles, the Scotland fans had flown thousands for this. Forget the New England Patriots, these were the Old Scotland Patriots.
Approaching the 250th anniversary of the United States’ Declaration of Independence, Boston’s historic freedom trail was invaded by a foreign force: the Tartan Army, the kilted warriors congregating in front of Faneuil Hall. They hired hosts of Massachusetts’ yellow school buses to transport themselves to Foxborough.
An NFL ground became a sea of salmon, Scotland’s away kit, often paired with aspects of the country’s more traditional garb. Their manager had referred to his family as the Clarke clan and they were here to see it: for Clarke, in his third tournament in charge, a maiden victory. A fraught, nervy, disjointed one.
But Scotland have struggled as favourites in World Cups before. The knowledge they have Morocco and Brazil to come meant victory was paramount, that anything else might almost guarantee a swift return home. They found a way with a goal that combined the beautiful with the scrappy.
There was a delectable touch by Che Adams to take Grant Hanley’s pass out of the air. It preceded a cross from Ben Gannon-Doak and a close-range shot from Adams that Johny Placide blocked. There was McGinn, following up. His shot took a sizeable deflection off Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, but it was McGinn’s goal, the first any Scot had scored on this stage since Craig Burley in 1998.
That honour had almost gone to Scott McTominay when he whipped a shot against the post. The fact Scotland had sat out seven World Cups – after playing in six of the previous seven – meant everything became a milestone. McTominay became the first Scot to strike the woodwork in a World Cup since Graeme Souness in 1982. As a nation, they have been nearly men too often.
But not this time; or not yet, anyway. McGinn could have had a second, dragging a shot just wide, but Haiti are entitled to think they deserved a point, something they have never mustered in a World Cup. They had more possession, more shots, a threat on the counter-attack but, crucially, not enough incision.
They were quick on the break, sharp on the flanks, but only had two shots on target. The first drew an error of sorts. Angus Gunn spilled Ruben Providence’s effort, Jack Hendry excelling to stop Wilson Isidor from scoring the rebound. The substitute Frantzdy Pierrot flashed a header inches wide of the post and spurned a 93rd-minute chance to level, shooting straight at Gunn.
McTominay distinguished himself with his defensive contributions, Hanley too. But when the final whistle went, they could celebrate. No Scotland, no party? The party had begun far earlier, on the streets of Boston. But it took on a new feel. And yes, sir, they could boogie.
