PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti held its breath for nearly two hours as its troubles seemed to fade with the promise of its first World Cup qualification since 1974.
Forgotten ever so briefly was the violence, hunger and homelessness after Louicius Deedson scored nine minutes into Tuesday’s game against Nicaragua, and Ruben Providence followed up with a header just before halftime in a 2-0 win to send Haiti to the World Cup for just the second time in the country’s history.
Shouts in Haitian Creole of “Grenadye, alaso!” filled the country’s streets, homes and makeshift shelters as fans urged their team, the Grenadiers, to attack.
Haiti didn’t just need a win over Nicaragua; it wanted to prove that despite the multiple crises weighing the country down, it could still pull through and hold its head high like it has throughout its troubled history.
“It means more than just a win. It is hope, it is unity at a time when the country faces so many challenges,” said Pierre Jean-Jacques, a 25-year-old mechanic who watched the game at home. “I was fully focused. My heart was racing.”
After the match, he joined thousands of fans who bounced late into the night through streets normally empty at that hour out of fear of being killed or kidnapped.
“This victory brings a moment of joy,” he said. “I’m proud. I believe we can rise together.”
Tuesday night’s win coincided with the 222nd anniversary of the historic Battle of Vertières, which helped Haiti become the world’s first Black republic.
“They couldn’t have chosen a better date for our warriors to go to the World Cup,” said Vladimir Dorvale, 18, who had a small Haitian flag tied around his neck and was walking briskly to a friend’s house to talk about the game.
But the odds were against Haiti, where euphoria remained high on Wednesday.
The team played all their home games in the tiny Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao because it was too dangerous to do so in Haiti, where armed gangs control up to 90% of its capital, Port-au-Prince.
Their coach, Sébastien Migné, told France Football magazine that he remotely managed certain players who were in Haiti. He couldn’t fly to the country where gang violence has shut down the main international airport several times.
When Deedson knocked the first ball in, gunfire erupted in André Michaud’s neighborhood, startling the 23-year-old student who watched the game at a bar near his house because it had a generator and the power was out again.
“I didn’t know if the gangs had invaded,” he said, adding that he settled down after realizing it was celebratory.
“All my life, I’ve been supporting other teams in the World Cup: Brazil, Argentina,” he said. “Now, I can finally support my country. I’m hopeful that Haiti can go far.”
Shortly after the victory, a joyful crowd marched through the narrow streets of one neighborhood under the rain, playing music and chanting, “Haiti has qualified! We don’t have a state!” in reference to the deep political instability rocking Haiti.
Thousands of other fans danced through the streets of Pétionville late into the night. When gunfire erupted briefly during the celebration, the crowd raised its hands and cheered. Such noise normally scatters people in a country where more than 4,300 were killed from January to September.
“I hope you guys are going to enjoy it. It’s not finished. It’s just the start,” forward Duckens Nazon said after the game in a video posted online. “There are many people who didn’t believe in us, but us, we believe in us.”
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