Haiti loses 3-0 in match to Brazil in FIFA World Cup. Game still historic, fans say
They waited more than a half century for this moment: To see Haiti return to soccer’s biggest stage.
But despite their vociferous chants of “Ayti, Ayiti,” and the waving of Haitian flags amid a sea of yellow-and-green-clad Brazil supporters at Philadelphia Stadium on Friday, Haiti fans could not rally their beloved national team to victory.
After losing its opener to Scotland in a challenging Group C, Haiti faced five-time world champion Brazil before a final group-stage match against Morocco on Wednesday in Atlanta.
Scotland was supposed to be the more manageable of the three. Brazil, a country long admired by Haitian fans and players, the toughest. The latter showed why it’s one of the sport’s powerhouses, taking advantage of several Haiti tactical mistakes. In the end, Haiti became the first team in the 48-country tournament to be eliminated, with no way to advance mathematically.
For Brazilian fan Hugo Alves, who traveled from Connecticut, the win was thrilling because he was “live in the game,” but still not title material.
“As far as performance, I think we need to do a little bit better,” he said. “I don’t think the team right now can win it.”
Brazil led 3-0 at halftime after dominating possession, 62 percent to Haiti’s 38 percent, while recording five shots on goal to Haiti zero. In the second half, Haiti was more competitive. But Brazil still controlled possession, 57 percent to Haiti’s 43 percent, while Haiti had three shots on the goal.
“We are still missing that final connection in the final third,” Alves said. “We need to get somebody in who can score goals.”
Alves, who has several friends who are Haitians, was not expecting a blowout. He knows what the sport means to Haitians and how hard the men’s national team had fought to return to the World Cup since its first appearance in 1974.
“I thought it would be 2-1. I am surprised it was actually 3-0, so I am glad that we came up with a win, but I didn’t think it was going to be a blowout,” he said.
Haiti supporter Geurino Pierre-Louis, who lives in Philadelphia, said “it was still a beautiful match.”
“It’s soccer,” he said of Haiti’s lost. “But we could have done better.”
Most of the Brazil’s goals, said Pierre-Louis, 45, were the result of errors. “We’ve lost the second match; we now just need to see what happens in the third match, to see if we can do better.”
Defeat doesn’t diminish fans’ views
Even with the lost, fans say Haiti has proven it deserves to be at the World Cup.
“Playing a team like Brazil that game could have easily ended up” with seven goals in favor of Brazil, said Haiti national team player Derrick Etienne Jr. “We saw what Germany did to Curaçao, ; you saw what the U.S. was able to do. I think we were able to sit there and still be resilient and fight. Yeah, we did miss chances, but we showed that we can be dangerous.”
The team, he said, isn’t giving up and looking forward to Morocco.
Haitian supporters, while outnumbered by Brazilian fans, had come from all over the United States and even Haiti. Their nation’s return to the World Cup after 52 years, some said, had awakened a sense of national pride they did not know they had.
“Today is the realization of a dream that I didn’t t even knew I had, coming to support my country at the World Cup” said Yoikenson Jean-Baptiste, 34, who drive 10 hours from Indiana. “I am asking myself if the way I am feeling at this moment, very proud, is the way you’re supposed to feel when a country is in the World Cup.”
Jean-Baptiste, who held up a Haitian flag as he waited for the stadium’s gates to open, said Brazilian fans had approached him asking to take a photo.
“Haiti will also remain attached to Brazil,” he said.
Like many Haitian soccer fans, Jean-Baptiste was a fan of Brazil soccer. But Haiti qualifying for the World Cup demanded a change of loyalties.
“It’s today I realize what it feels like when you have your flag in hand, and you’ve come to support your country,” he said. “Imagine today, I would have been here with a Brazilian flag, but Haiti made it so that I am here with my own flag.”
It would not be Haiti’s day. Nevertheless, it was historic.
“This is a once in a lifetime World Cup in the United States,” said Oz Valbrun, who traveled from Colorado to attend the match with his younger brother Mario who lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
The brothers also grew up supporting Brazil. But on Friday, there was no doubt about where their loyalties lay. Mario wore the jersey banned by FIFA, featuring the imagery paying homage to the Battle of Vertières, the significant battle in the Haitian revolution that led to Haiti becoming the first Black independent nation and the day, Nov. 18, 2025, in which the team qualified for the World Cup.
Oz, who believed Haiti had a winning chance, was hoping for at least a draw.
If there was a common thread that ran through the day, it was the affection that many Haitians had for Brazil and their setting aside their admiration for the five-time World Champion in order to support their own.
Inside Philadelphia Stadium, Haiti’s blue and red-clad supporters made their presence felt throughout the game. From welcoming the team when the players took to the field to the popular Haitian-Creole Carnavalesque tune “Ke M Pa Sote” by the Grammy-nominated group Boukman Eksperyans to the singing of their national anthem.
But as Brazil scored its third goal and forward Vinicius Junior was hoisted into the air by his Brazilian teammates, Haiti supporters fell silent. The Brazilians, meanwhile, erupted in celebration.
Haiti vs Brazil, more than a soccer game
Despite the final result, the significance of the match extended beyond soccer.
The game attracted not only fans willing to spend upwards of $2,700 on tickets, but also prominent figures from Haiti and its diaspora, including fashion designer Jovana Louis and Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who traveled with several government ministers.
The night before the match, supporters and dignitaries gathered at a reception at the W Hotel. Sponsored by Haiti’s New York Consulate, the event drew former government officials, business leaders and influential Haitian Americans. Among them was actor Jimmy Jean-Louis, a fan of soccer but also a player of the game.
He noted the significance of not just the history making moment – Haiti returning after 52 years and playing Brazil – but of the date itself, June 19.
Friday was Juneteenth, a day that commemorates Black liberation in the United States. Haiti is the world’s first Black independent republic after African slaves defeated Napoleon’s army and broke the shackles of slavery. Brazil, meanwhile, has welcomed hundreds of thousands of Haitians after the Caribbean nation’s devastating 2010 earthquake, and has the largest population of African descent in Latin America.
“It is a lot more than a football game,” Jean-Louis said. “It’s history in the making, and it’s really trying to realize what we’re living and what we stand for as well. Now we’re going to have to stand back and look at the state of both nations; specifically Haiti right now.”
For South Florida artist Laurenee Gauvin, who traveled to Philadelphia for the game after searching for an authentic Haiti team jersey to wear to the match, Friday’s game represented “a moment of pride.”
Haiti may have been the underdog, she added, “but Haitians have always turned challenges into opportunities.
“Seeing Haiti share the world stage with Brazil reminds the world that our strength, our resilience and spirit can never be underestimated,” she said.
Miami Herald sportswriter Michelle Kaufman contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 20, 2026 at 8:50 AM.
