USA v Mexico

A few weeks ago I had the chance to attend the USA v MEX World Cup qualifier game. As everyone here probably knows, Mexicans are CRAZY about their fútbol, even more so than *gasp* Buckeye fans are about OSU. So naturally my gringo friends and I were a little nervous about entering the 100,000-person Azteca Stadium where probably 99,900 of fans were not rooting for the red, white and blue. We'd heard stories about people getting batteries, bags of urine and other such gross things thrown on them in additional to emotional injury as well. So, being of ambiguous ethnicity, I wore a green tank top and let a dude outside the stadium paint my face with the Mexican flag to avoid such unpleasantries. Unpatriotic, you might call me. A whimp, you might say. Whatever, my love for USA soccer doesn't run deep enough to suffer through pee bags.

The match had been moved up from the typical evening game to 3 p.m., giving the Mexican team another obvious advantage over Team Gringo. Not only was the game held at 7,000+ feet, but during the afternoon the infamous Mexican smog is at its worst, mixing with the heat to form a truly sweaty and sticky experience. As such, I had to race to the stadium from work, meeting with a group of friends at the Metrobus platform. From there, we grabbed a quick cab ride to the stadium and made it about 10 minutes before the starting kick (with still enough time to grab plastic blue Corona trumpets to squeak into every five seconds). Our tickets were for the general seating section, and since literally every seat was filled, we sat on the steps, leaning left and right to avoid being stomped on by beer, hamburger or Ramen Noodle vendors. The gringo section was across the stadium, with around 100 red-shirted fans standing out amongst the typhoon of green. Looking at pictures of friends who sat in the section, I could see their rows were blocked off by heavily-suited policeman with plastic riot shields and menacing masks. Random objects and liquid were thrown.

Sitting on the steps in the Mexico section, things were relatively tame. When the US scored the game's first goal (USA! USA!) the crowd became unexpectedly silent. I was anticipating Mexicans to foam at the mouth with rage, but everyone just kinda held their breath. When the Mexicans scored, however, everyone went crazy, chucking whatever object was in their hand at the time towards the seats below them. Following both goals I was showered in what I can only hope was beer, conked in the head by empty pizza boxes and rendered deaf by shouts, Corona trumpets and frantic screaming.

On the way out, the gringo fans were offered police escorts, and the rest of us Mexican or wannabe-Mexican fans filed out by the thousands in a painfully slow procession. Don't fret USA fans, our loss at the Azteca didn't disqualify us for the World Cup. And though I still don't care about soccer, I would like to see Mexico shamed in defeat.