Scotland haven't just come to the 2026 World Cup. They've taken over an entire city.
On Sunday night, the Tartan Army descended on Fenway Park for the Red Sox's Scottish Heritage Night — marching to the stadium in masse, playing traditional music in the streets, and then doing what Scottish fans do best: turning a random mid-June baseball game into a full-throated European football atmosphere. The Red Sox lost 6-4 and sit at 29-40 on the season. Nobody in a tartan jersey cared.
New England's adopted nation
It started before a ball was kicked. Scotland's national anthem bouncing around Boston Stadium ahead of their opening fixture against Haiti set the tone. Then they went and won it 1-0, which did nothing to calm things down.
Fan Susan Swindells put it simply: "I think Boston's really taking us into their hearts. We've got a really friendly welcome here, which is fantastic." That's not a one-off sentiment — it's been the running theme of Scotland's entire presence in the region.
What makes the Fenway scene genuinely worth noting is the cultural collision. Scottish supporters didn't just show up to a baseball game they barely understand. They performed at it — songs, scarves, the full matchday ritual transplanted into a completely foreign sporting context. That kind of fan culture doesn't translate through a TV screen. It has to be experienced in person, and Boston got the full version.
What it says about this World Cup
Before the tournament, the noise was all about what could go wrong — immigration policy concerns, doubts about whether NFL stadiums could generate a real football atmosphere, questions about whether American crowds would even show up properly. Those arguments are looking increasingly hollow.
Los Angeles moved Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimović. New York-New Jersey delivered Brazil vs Morocco. And Boston has the Tartan Army turning Fenway Park into something between a ceilidh and a Hampden roar.
Scotland's odds of progressing from their group just got a lot of neutral support behind them. When a fanbase can make an entire American city adopt them inside a week, the football usually follows the energy.
