Scotsmaxxing hits Ocean Drive as Tartan Army’s World Cup party goes on

“It’s hot, too hot. Very, very hot,” says Clark from Dalkeith, who is standing on a sidewalk in Miami. “I want a wee Arctic blast for about half an hour to calm down.”

We’re outside the Auld Dubliner in downtown, where a number of Scots have gathered to watch the England game and apparently not for reasons of schadenfreude (at least not initially). The mood is upbeat, there are locals arriving to share the vibe, and nobody appears to have tired of drinking just yet.

“Everybody loves the Scots,” says Clark’s friend Graeme, from Perth, who seemed to be of the impression that any number of local women had fallen for his accent since he arrived. “You know our reputation is global. It’s well deserved. We’re good guys.” He whispers: “It’s just the English that people don’t like.”

Florida is the new base of the Tartan Army, after they decamped en masse from Boston last weekend for Wednesday’s climactic Group C contest with Brazil. A frenzy of attention has followed them, from the media and public alike. Floridians appear determined to have their moment of fun and seize adoption rights to the Tartan Army from Bostonians who, in turn, are still bemoaning their departure and noting that the arriving English just aren’t quite as fun.

On Monday night, the baseball match between the Florida Marlins and Texas Rangers became a mass event for the Scots, who brought to the LoanDepot Park the same energy and songbook they had to Fenway Park 10 days previously. The difference this time was that everyone knew it was going to happen in advance. TV coverage had one camera constantly fixed on the stands, while the crowd got an additional bump from locals looking to capture the occasion for posterity.

Scotsmaxxing has become something of an American pastime. Local politicians were on hand to welcome the Tartan Army to Ocean Drive for a formal march along the boardwalk. Bars, in desperate competition for travelling custom, are sticking signs in their windows that read “we’ve got beer”, in reference to the legend of the Tartan Army drinking Boston dry. It’s not all good news, though, as someone has also taken it upon themselves to remix “No Scotland, no party” in the style of Pitbull.

A lot of the fascination seems to say as much about America as it does the Scots. Locals are thriving off the curiosity being shown towards their country by travelling fans. They also seem genuinely jazzed to be around people whose priority is to have a good time. The Boston consensus appeared to be that the city centre hadn’t been so lively in years. Miami, more renowned as a party town, has its turn now.

Miami is quite different to Boston, though, and not just because of its tropical climate. Sitting outside the Auld Dubliner, Chris from Glasgow said he was missing New England. “I like Boston better because everything was closer,” he says. “The beach is great but it’s quite far away. The people are just as nice as in Boston but they’re all from Colombia and Argentina and they’re difficult to understand.”

With around 24 hours until kick-off, there were plans for a return to the Marlins where a bond had been formed with the team’s combustible pitcher Tyler Philips (on Monday night, he said he could feel the energy from the stands “in my chest”). Every bar is likely to be packed, meanwhile, with two-hour queues to enter the fanzone as everyone looks to get a piece of the tartan action.

There’s also the small matter of the Seleçao coming to town too. Clark says any Brazilians he has met have been “great craic”, though others said they’d only bumped into the rival fanbase at their hotel. The expectation is for a showstopping gathering of the clans sometime before the match, with videos to surely follow shortly afterwards.

As for the game and the prospects of Scotland making it beyond the group stage for the first time in their World Cup history, there was no crack in the self-confidence that has characterised the travelling fanbase to this point. “My heart says 1-0 Scotland, my head says 1-1,” says Graeme, either of which would be good enough to progress. For Clark: “I think Brazil will win, but I’m very hopeful that Scotland will still qualify. If we keep it to a 1-0 defeat, we’ll go through.”

With that, it was time to return to the bar, where the game was restarting and someone had just placed a traffic cone amid a pile of empty glasses.