NEW YORK — There were 52 years between Haiti’s last two World Cup goals and the two they scored against Morocco on Wednesday. For 52-year-old Muriel Lodoville, the wait lasted a lifetime.
She was one of many spectators watching from the pockets of New York’s Little Haiti. There, bars and restaurants fell silent while fans watched the match unfold on screens, before the match erupted into further chaos. A frenetic first half resulted in a tying goal, then a goal, then another tying goal.
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Haiti lost to Scotland and Brazil in Group C, and entered their final group match against Morocco with elimination already determined. Haiti would concede two more goals, but the result did little to reduce Muriel’s chances.
As a birthday present, she bought herself and her 41-year-old sister Barbara Albert tickets to the Haiti vs. Brazil game last week.
“That’s why it was so special for me to have Haiti on this world stage,” she said. “Every moment of this experience was important and regardless of the result, we ended up with two goals.”
Albert said the experience against Brazil highlighted the pride many supporters feel just watching Haiti return to the World Cup stage.
“The representation was really good. We’re proud of the Haitian community. We really showed up for them,” she said.
That sense of pride was on display at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, last Wednesday. The state is home to the second-largest Haitian community in the country, with approximately 113,000 Haitians, according to the 2024 U.S. Census Bureau.
Last week, an hour before Haiti and Brazil played each other, the Haitian flag had already disappeared. The Brazilian flags handed out in rows at the entrance remained half-stacked on the distribution table.
Thousands of people wearing wigs, Haitian jerseys and flags draped over their shoulders filled the nearly full 19,000-seat stadium, including several wearing Brazil’s yellow and green. In the middle of a sea of red and blue, Maude Schwartz danced in the arena with her family, waving the Haitian flag and raising her hands in the air.
The 58-year-old Pilates studio owner, who immigrated to the United States from Haiti on a student visa in 1990, came to get a taste of the World Cup atmosphere. While her twin boys went to the game, she was happy to get a $10 ticket to a watch party.
“Lo and behold, my whole family is here,” she said, gesturing to the crowd around her.
However, not everyone who wanted to come here was able to come here. “I have a niece who has been denied a visa to the United States multiple times,” she said.
Her experience reflects the broader constraints faced by Haiti supporters. Some supporters, including Maud’s niece, were unable to attend because of a travel ban imposed by the Trump administration that began last year and was expanded in January.
The players were also affected. Defensive midfielder Woodensky-Pierre, who lives in Haiti, was unable to travel to the United States to join the national team until 10 days before Haiti’s opening game against Scotland on June 13.
“This is a global event and no one should be denied entry to this country,” said Jean-Marc, 55, a former Long Island Football League player wearing a Haitian jersey and a wig dyed in the country’s colors. Born in the United States to Haitian parents, he spent part of his childhood in Haiti, returning in 1986 after the fall of the Duvalier regime.
He watched the Haiti game in the country he has lived in for decades and called it “a momentous event for all Haitians.”
“I’m afraid of being attacked.”
Back in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood, which many people call Little Haiti, Nadège Fleurimond throws the doors of her Haitian-Caribbean restaurant, Bunnan, wide open for every Haiti game, offering stadium-priced entry to the restaurant.
She came to the United States from Haiti when she was 7 years old and has seen the uncertainty of immigration impact nearly every Haitian family she knows. Watching Haiti compete in the World Cup in the country where she built her life carried so much weight.
“I’m Haitian, but I’m also American,” she said. “The United States has given me opportunity, education, and the ability to start a business and create jobs. Haiti has given me my roots, values, resilience, and culture,” she added.
“This is a reminder that immigrants do not have to choose one identity over the other,” she added.
For Fleurimont, who grew up hearing more stories about what Haiti can’t do than what it can do, just having his team reach the World Cup was enough.
“It was proof that we belonged in rooms and stages where people often exclude us,” she said.
