Scotland vs Brazil had a crowd before kickoff, and it was not in the stands alone. Up to 10,000 British people were in Florida for Wednesday’s World Cup match at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, while Scottish supporters filled the city in kilts, boats and organized walks.
Stewart, a Scottish fan, said: “Crescemos vendo os jogos do Brasil. Claro que, depois da Escócia, nunca vamos torcer para a Inglaterra. Queremos que os sul-americanos ganhem sempre. Em 2002, Ronaldo era igual a um super-herói. Renasceu das cinzas. A partida contra o Brasil será duríssima para a Escócia. Mas é uma grande vitória para o país estar nesta condição. Queremos, então, beber e aproveitar este momento. Só isso”
Tartan Army in Miami
The Tartan Army moved through Miami as a visible traveling block. About 150 Scotland supporters rented a boat in Miami Beach to celebrate the possibility of their team qualifying for a World Cup for the first time, and other fans had already filled a baseball game and organized walks in the city.
One Scottish fan wore a Brazil shirt and a hairstyle inspired by Ronaldo Fenômeno from the 2002 World Cup final. Another wore Scotland’s 1998 national team uniform with the name Taffarel on the back. The group’s look was loud, but the report described its behavior in the United States as orderly, with no incidents recorded.
Boston and Florida travel
The trip did not start in Miami. On Tuesday, reporters counted 30 uniformed Scotland supporters on a flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale, and the previous week in Boston, British fans exhausted the stock of beer in local pubs. The pattern points to a fan base that was already moving city to city before it reached Florida.
Scotland entered the match with three points, one win against Haiti and one loss to Morocco, after 28 years away from the World Cup. That left the Brazil game as the sharp edge of the group stage for supporters who had turned the Florida trip into more than a single-day visit.
What comes after the Brazil match is the part this report does not settle, and that is the only real cutoff for readers following the trip: the fans were already there, organized and visible, but the match itself would decide whether the celebration of Scotland’s return kept its shape.
