Watching the Tartan Army drink Boston dry and belt out anthems at the 2026 World Cup has put our nostalgia into overdrive. Photo: AFP
The Scots pulled into Boston Stadium, proud and chest-puffing, to deliver a vocal-cord-busting rendition of Flower of Scotland this past week, and it put my nostalgia into overdrive.
The invasion of Beantown, as the capital of Massachusetts is known, by the Tartan Army has been quite spectacular. Before their opening match against Haiti, which they won 1-0, the rendition of Flower of Scotland was an ear-splitting 125 decibels. That is, for many, the absolute limit of the human hearing pain threshold.
Now, I don’t care what anyone says: of the four Home Nations, Flower of Scotland is the best. I dig Ireland’s Call, and there is no doubt that the Welsh can belt out beautiful renditions of Land of My Fathers. God Save the King is okay, I guess, but Flower of Scotland just hits differently.
The Scots have brought something special to this World Cup. They took over Fenway Park to actually make baseball tolerable, they sang through the streets of Boston, and they drank the city dry. “There is only Bud Light left,” one Scotsman said incredulously in recent weeks.
