By William Schomberg
BOSTON, Massachusetts, June 13 (Reuters) - Haiti fans brought their Carnival groove to downtown Boston on Saturday ahead of their team's first World Cup match since 1974, competing with the bagpipes of Scotland's Tartan Army which has set up camp in the city.
A traditional rara band of bamboo trumpeters and thumping percussion players struck up a beat in Copley Square in the centre of Boston, home to the third-biggest Haitian community in the United States.
"We're going to pull
it off tonight, no disrespect," yelled Lovely Patrick, leaping around in excitement. She left the Caribbean island when she was 14 to move to the United States and was joined on Saturday by her 19-year-old son.
Haiti, ranked 83rd in the world by FIFA, more than 40 places below Scotland, are hoping to improve on their sole previous appearance at football's global showpiece event 52 years ago when they lost all three of their group games in Germany.
With five-times world champions Brazil and 2022 semi-finalists Morocco also in Group C, Scotland offer the best route to points for "Les Grenadiers" who have bolstered their team with two players of Haitian heritage who have played in England's Premier League.
The competition also provides a chance for Haiti's fans - both at home and among the diaspora - to put aside temporarily their worries about the deep problems besetting the Caribbean island where more than 1.4 million people have been displaced by violence and instability, according to the International Organization for Migration.
In the United States, the hardline anti-immigration stance of President Donald Trump's administration has created further concerns. On Friday, a Pennsylvania medical examiner said a Haitian woman's death from hypothermia after her release by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March was a homicide.
Ruthzee Louijeune, a member of the Boston City Council and the daughter of Haitian immigrants, said the political backdrop was weighing on the community's ability to celebrate the World Cup fully while a U.S. travel ban on people entering the country from Haiti had prevented some fans from attending the matches.
"Has it put a dampener on the mood? Yes. But is it going to stop us? Absolutely not," Louijeune said. "We are still here. We are still joyous. We are still going to root for our team."
(Writing by William SchombergEditing by Christian Radnedge)
