World Cup 2026: Scotland’s love affair with Boston is for the ages

But the love affair here goes beyond baseball, it’s been a glorious embrace of two cultures. A point underlined by news Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced a sister city application with Glasgow.

Fittingly, he did it in a Scottish pub wearing a Scotland football jersey.

Thousands of soccer fans flocking to a city for a major tournament is nothing new, but it’s the mode of celebration here that sets it apart.

At the time of writing, not a single Scotland fan had been arrested in Boston or Providence, another nearby stronghold of the Tartan Army.

The groundwork for this Boston bash was laid two years ago in Bavaria. At the last European Championships, Marienplatz seemed to hold more Scots than Motherwell.

Again, Scotland fans were praised for their behaviour, generosity and patter.

Alas, football did its best to destroy the team.

That’s perhaps a key difference to this shindig, apart from the obvious step up from the Euros to their first World Cup in 28 years.

We will never know what mood the Tartan Army would have been in had the opener against Haiti turned out to be a disaster. Although, I would say it won’t make a dent.

The team on the pitch did their bit to keep the party going and a point against Morocco on Friday could start a tidal wave of celebrations back in Boston that night the likes of which they have never seen.

The best way to describe it is the trip of a lifetime for people who are still in their 20s. There is genuine appreciation from Scotland fans that they have waited so long to see their team at the World Cup, it could be another three decades before it happens again.

And, even if it does, there’s nothing Miami can do to rival the week they just had in Boston.

For about a week, Scotland had the city to itself. Now it has become a tapestry of nations settling in one of the warmest, most welcoming places on the Charles River they could hope to visit.

Who knows, they might come back here if they are the best third-placed team.

What will be the Tartan Army’s Boston legacy as the sporrans are soon packed and online check-in begins for flights to Miami?

Their generosity? Their good spirits? Is the World Cup happening despite warning some locals about their capabilities?

Probably all of the above. Not just a haggis dinner.