Haiti and Scotland enter the field this Saturday (13) carrying an unusual feat by the standards of a World Cup. Combined, the two countries have been absent from the tournament for 96 years for 80 years.
The Group C match will be at 10pm (Brasília time), at Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough (Boston).
Haiti returns to the World Cup after a gap of 52 years. His only participation took place in 1974, in West Germany.
Scotland, in turn, plays its first World Cup match since the 1998 edition, in France, ending a 28-year drought.
The Haitian return takes on even more unusual contours due to the path taken to qualify. During the qualifiers, the team played all of its home matches in Curaçao, without playing on Haitian territory. The security crisis in the country prevented the use of the national stadium throughout the campaign.
The classification placed the Haitians back in a group that directly refers to the last World Cup played by Scotland. In 1998, the Scots faced Brazil, Morocco and Norway. This time, they will meet Brazilians and Moroccans again, but they will have Haiti as a new addition to the bracket.
The Scottish return comes at a time of stability under Steve Clarke. The team arrives in the United States supported by a generation that put the country back in international tournaments and its main references are full-back and captain Andy Robertson (Liverpool) and midfielders John McGinn (Aston Villa) and Scott McTominay (Napoli).
The Napoli player, however, fell ill during the preparation for his debut and became a concern in recent days. He returned to training and is expected to play in the match.
McGinn comes into the tournament as one of the squad’s technical leaders. He ended the European season with the Europa League title with Aston Villa and appears as one of the Scottish team’s main offensive weapons.
If Scotland tries to resume a tradition interrupted since the end of the 1990s, Haiti seeks to write an unprecedented chapter in its history. The Caribbean team has never won a World Cup match.
In 1974, they lost all three group stage matches and ended their participation with two goals scored and 14 conceded.
The two Haitian goals in that campaign were scored by Emmanuel Sanon. Half a century later, the hope of expanding this statistic lies with Duckens Nazon, who plays for Iranian Esteghlal of the Persian Gulf Professional League.
The team’s top scorer in history with 44 goals, he arrives at the tournament as the team’s main offensive reference and could become only the second Haitian player to score in a World Cup.
Qualifying for the World Cup had a decisive role from the striker. During the qualifiers, Nazon considered leaving camp before the match against Costa Rica, in which he would be a reserve, to attend the birth of his daughter.
After talking to the technical committee, he decided to stay. In the game, he scored three Haitian goals in a 3-3 draw, in September 2025. He returned home and was present when Leya arrived.
Against Scotland, it is up to Nazon to lead the effort to make history again by achieving the country’s first victory in a World Cup.
