As I described in a previous post, football is a life-long passion of mine (for me football will always refer to soccer, even if I do quite enjoy the Super Bowl spectacle once a year). And as much as I used to love the intensity of 5-a-side kickarounds during work lunch breaks or the excitement of playing half a match (maybe less) for my tiny college team in Oxford on a Saturday morning, these days I'm happy to sit back on the sofa, preferably with cold beer in hand (not too cold of course, I'm not a philistine), and watch the professionals show me how it's supposed to be done.
For the most part, I'm irrationally attached to the English Premier League above all other competitions. I might make the odd exception for El Clasico from Spanish La Liga, but otherwise I'm happier sitting watching Crystal Palace v Stoke City on a rainy Monday evening (at least it's not raining on my sofa) than a top game from Italy, Germany, France or anywhere else. Normally I find it even harder to get excited about international football outside of the buzz of the World Cup or Euros: qualifiers just don't do it for me, friendlies even less so.
So when I realised a couple of weeks ago that club football was about to go on hibernation for the latest international break, my first thought was how I was going to fill the void left behind by my team not playing for a whole 13 days (don't get me started on what's going to happen when the season eventually finishes in May). It was at that point that I noticed out the corner of my eye that the Mexican national team had a fixture against Costa Rica on Friday night. It took several seconds for it to dawn on me: Mexico playing at home...this Friday...in the Estadio Azteca...I'm in Mexico City...I could go to the game! Scratch everything I said 15 seconds ago about international football!
I had actually been to the Azteca once before, three and a bit years ago, to see Club América v Atlante in the Liga MX, the top division in Mexican club football. The third biggest football stadium in the world, behind Barcelona's Nou Camp in second place and the Rungrado May Day stadium in North Korea (learn that one for the pub quiz), the Azteca is home to both América, one of the most popular, successful, and thoroughly hated clubs in Mexico, and the Mexican national team. It is one of only two stadiums in the world to have hosted the World Cup final twice, the other being the Maracanã in Brazil, where back in 2010 I witnessed surely the first 0-0 draw in the history of Brazilian football between Flamengo and Vasco da Gama. The Azteca was also the venue where in 1986 Diego Maradona scored twice in quick succession against poor old England in a World Cup quarter-final: the first "Hand of God" goal being one the most infamous and the second "Goal of the Century" one the most famous in football history.
I was massively keen to return to the Azteca, and pleasantly surprised to realise it was just a short 15-minute ride south from our place. After almost three months here in Mexico City, I'm only now starting to get the vaguest idea of where different parts of the city are in relation to one another. Rosalía and I arrived at the ground with plenty of time to spare before kick-off, enough for me to buy a knock-off classic green Mexican football shirt in order to really feel part of the occasion. Just as we were about to enter the ground, I remembered a peculiar rule at Mexican football stadiums: you're not allowed in with a belt. Luckily, there are dozens of little stalls around the edge of the arena, where as well as selling said merchandise they will look after belts for the duration of the game for the bargain price of 10 pesos (about 40 British pence).
We slowly made our way halfway round the stadium to our seats to find that I had inadvertently chosen the section right next to the away fans. Los Ticos, as the Costa Ricans are affectionately known, were impressive in number and noise-levels, cheering their team wholeheartedly from start to finish, even when it became clear early on that Mexico were dominating proceedings. The remainder of the stadium was a long way from being full; despite the huge numbers of people gathered outside, the sheer size of the place meant that even a crowd of 40-50,000 (I'm guessing) felt somewhat sparse. At other stadiums around the world I've been to they'll often close off certain sections when it's not sold out so the fans are more tightly packed to create a better atmosphere; that wasn't the case here, the Mexican crowd was pretty evenly distributed around the ground.
Similar to our experience at Vive Latino the previous weekend, a wide range of snacks were available without having to move an inch from our seats (yes, even soup again!) thanks to the multitude of waiters wading hazardously through the crowd. Unlike in the UK, alcohol is permitted in the stands, although we were forced to actually get off our asses and hunt the beers down in the bowels of the stadium. In an even greater crime against humanity, the only available beer was Corona.
The match itself was low-key; Mexico scored the crucial opening goal after just 7 minutes through Javier Hernádez, El Chicharito ("Little Pea"), who in the process became Mexico's joint all-time top goalscorer. Chicharito has been a favourite player of mine since he signed for Manchester United in 2010, scoring several crucial goals in Sir Alex Ferguson's final years in charge of the team and always giving 110% (as football commentators love to say); I was particularly sad when he finally left for Bayer Leverkusen in Germany a couple of years ago. It was worth the ticket price to see his special moment alone. Mexico continued to dictate the game, and when they scored on the stroke of half time the contest was effectively over. A further win away against Trinidad and Tobago a few days later puts them in a very strong position to qualify for the World Cup. Fingers crossed for England v Mexico at Russia 2018.
I was massively keen to return to the Azteca, and pleasantly surprised to realise it was just a short 15-minute ride south from our place. After almost three months here in Mexico City, I'm only now starting to get the vaguest idea of where different parts of the city are in relation to one another. Rosalía and I arrived at the ground with plenty of time to spare before kick-off, enough for me to buy a knock-off classic green Mexican football shirt in order to really feel part of the occasion. Just as we were about to enter the ground, I remembered a peculiar rule at Mexican football stadiums: you're not allowed in with a belt. Luckily, there are dozens of little stalls around the edge of the arena, where as well as selling said merchandise they will look after belts for the duration of the game for the bargain price of 10 pesos (about 40 British pence).
Similar to our experience at Vive Latino the previous weekend, a wide range of snacks were available without having to move an inch from our seats (yes, even soup again!) thanks to the multitude of waiters wading hazardously through the crowd. Unlike in the UK, alcohol is permitted in the stands, although we were forced to actually get off our asses and hunt the beers down in the bowels of the stadium. In an even greater crime against humanity, the only available beer was Corona.
The match itself was low-key; Mexico scored the crucial opening goal after just 7 minutes through Javier Hernádez, El Chicharito ("Little Pea"), who in the process became Mexico's joint all-time top goalscorer. Chicharito has been a favourite player of mine since he signed for Manchester United in 2010, scoring several crucial goals in Sir Alex Ferguson's final years in charge of the team and always giving 110% (as football commentators love to say); I was particularly sad when he finally left for Bayer Leverkusen in Germany a couple of years ago. It was worth the ticket price to see his special moment alone. Mexico continued to dictate the game, and when they scored on the stroke of half time the contest was effectively over. A further win away against Trinidad and Tobago a few days later puts them in a very strong position to qualify for the World Cup. Fingers crossed for England v Mexico at Russia 2018.
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