Photo gallery in Boston highlights soccer histories of Scotland and Haiti ahead of World Cup matchup in Foxborough

Saturday night’s World Cup match in Foxborough is not one of the tournament’s premier matchups. The first of seven games at Boston Stadium appears to be more of a warm-up act, pitting 42nd-ranked Scotland against 83rd-ranked Haiti, nations that seem to have little in common or World Cup history.

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Renowned Scottish architect John McAsland sees something different — shared stories of resilience, independence, and pride. Scotland is appearing in its first World Cup since 1998, and Haiti since 1974, yet that is not the only link.

“Sport can connect people from everywhere,” McAsland said Friday morning in Boston. “And though the history of Haiti and Scotland are very, very different, there are these amazing connections that the narrative timeline begins to draw.”

McAsland’s firm has completed major worldwide projects — subway stations in Sydney and London, the Sloane Street shopping district in London’s Chelsea neighborhood, and more — yet his latest is a modest photo gallery in the Winthrop Center in Boston.

Titled, “The Beautiful Game Comes to Boston,” McAsland and family members memorialized Saturday’s Scotland-Haiti matchup with photos, stories, and historical timelines connecting the soccer history of the nations. It is displayed next to the food court in the Winthrop Connector between the residences and office buildings, and will likely remain active for most of if not the entire World Cup.

“Even though the game is [Saturday], it’s a really elegant way to tell the story of the World Cup,” said Michael Nichols, president of Downtown Boston Alliance. “It brings communities out that you would just not think of anything in common. And to see a similar lineage play out in their own voices, in their own colors of these two countries, it’s fun, because that’s actually what the World Cup is meant to be about.”

McAsland, 72, is a Glasgow native who fell in love with Haiti about 15 years ago, when his firm rebuilt the Iron Market in Port-au-Prince following the devastating earthquake of 2010. Though a devoted fan of Scotland, McAsland couldn’t help but also develop a rooting interest for “Les Grenadiers,” who qualified for the World Cup despite not playing any qualifying matches at home because political strife. Haiti’s national soccer stadium also still sits in earthquake wreckage.

With a trove of old photos and stories, “The Beautiful Game” traces the soccer roots of each country from humble beginnings to now.

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It includes a photo of a stuffed pig bladder from 1540s Scotland. It tells the stories of little-known heroes such as Constantin Henriquez, the first known person of color to compete in the Olympics who brought soccer to Haiti in 1904 and later became a senator. It explains how famed Scottish football team Celtic FC has become one of the most popular clubs in Haiti after establishing a charitable foundation there in 2015, and investing heavily in the soccer culture.

The exhibit also highlights parallels between Scotland and Haiti — their fierce spirit of independence, their embrace of women’s soccer, and the popularity of the game in the streets. The nations even qualified for the World Cup on the same day, last Nov. 18.

The Downtown Boston Alliance was thrilled when this project came to them a couple of weeks ago. Boston has the third-largest Haitian population in the United States (approximately 80,000) and Scottish tourists are expected to flood the city for two World Cup matches, Saturday and June 19.

“I love that one is overtly a tourist population for our city, and one’s overtly a population that’s here locally with the Haitian population,” Nichols said. “There’s been so much anxiety over budgets and fights and territory and sponsorship and the way FIFA does things. And I think we’ve really tried to capture the upside of what this event means.”

McAsland arrived in Boston on Thursday to attend Saturday’s match. At a social event Thursday night at the British consulate commemorating the match, McAsland told Haitian officials he wants to rebuild the national soccer stadium as his next big project.

“There’s no national stadium they can play in, it’s in ruins, the coach has never been to Haiti, and yet here they are with this amazing achievement,” McAsland said. “It’s a moment of celebration and pride. This is a great moment of pride for the Scots, too, and here they are coming to Boston.”

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