Behind the Border

My fifth USMNT game was my first away game:

August 12, 2009
Estadio Azteca
Mexico City, Mexico
2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifier: Mexico v USA

Yeah, this was the big one. My friend AJ doubted me when I declared three years prior that I would be going to Azteca with him. Three years later, there I was.

I arrived on Saturday in the late afternoon after an interesting layover in Houston. I ended up taking a cab from the Airport after not being able to find the Metro stop; turns out that it was in the other terminal. On the ride to my hotel, I took in the sights around me. Traffic was insane. The city is massive. When we got to the Zócalo, there was a big event of some sort happening; security included soldiers with really large guns.

I'm not gonna lie: I freaked out.

Once I got checked into the hotel, I laid on the bed and wondered what the hell I had been thinking. I'd read all the warnings about how dangerous Mexico City is; that didn't really prepare me for what I'd already seen.

After an hour or so, I connected with the Demko brothers, who'd arrived much earlier in the day; they'd gotten a bit of the lay of the land already. We went to dinner, then got some drinks; over the course of the evening, I relaxed immensely.

Since the rest of the Minnesota crew was arriving on Sunday, we'd made plans for Sunday: take in a Mexican league game in Toluca. Finding the big bus station was an adventure. Once we discovered that it was MXP 39 each way for the bus; for those playing along at home, that's USD 3.50. Once we got to Toluca, we met up with our friend Sasha from San Diego, who'd flown into Toluca from Tijuana. Outside the bus stop, I got introduced to the most important food item education of the entire trip: tacos al pastor. Trust the fat guy on this.

We then headed to the game: Toluca v Pumas UNAM. We had a great time; the atmosphere was terrific and the play was great. We returned back to Mexico City and met up with the rest of the Minnesota gang. After drinking a hostel bar dry, we headed off for dinner.

Monday was a group trip to Teotihuacan; Tuesday we all did our own thing, so I checked out the nearby Palacio National.

Wednesday was game day.

Rather than take the posh bus, we met up with a number of our US comrades at a hotel in Zona Rosa and took the Metro to the game. My estimate was around one hundred US fans in the convoy, and it was one fun ride filled with singing and camaraderie.

We arrived at the Azteca around noon and enjoyed the festive atmosphere outside the outer stadium gates. Plenty of vendors—and good food—as well as Mexican fans. Things were generally friendly, with some good singing and banter between sides.

After we went inside the gates, the mood definitely changed.

We were escorted by police in riot gear to the inner gates. After going through security there, we were escorted to our section in the top tier of the stadium. The section and corresponding concourse area were blocked by police... and partially by a fence topped with barbed wire.

Tension mounted towards kickoff as the stadium filled up to near capacity. The count of US fans in our section was roughly three hundred; the stadium holds over one hundred thousand.

Once Charlie Davies gave the US its first ever lead in Mexico, we definitely felt the anger of the throngs of El Tri supporters through taunts and thrown objects: beer, ice, coins, plastic horns, etc. By the end—a 2-1 Mexican win—I was wearing much more beer than I drank.

At the final whistle, the authorities decided to move us out of the stadium. I'm still not sure why, given that we had to walk down the ramps and take the brunt of the Mexican fans from above. Eventually we got outside and were marched inside of a police cordon across the parking lot to the posh buses. Of course, quite a few of us hadn't taken the buses, so this presented an issue. Security huddled a bit, then started marching us in a different direction; we eventually ended up at our rides away from the stadium: a paddy wagon and a police bus.

I ended up on the bus, which looked a lot more comfortable than the paddy wagon. They drove us to the end of a different Metro line and sent us on our way. The subways were packed, but I didn't notice any issues.

The rest of the week involved more touristy stuff, like Xochimilco and Templo Mayor. We also stopped in at Azteca on Thursday and took the stadium tour. It was neat to be at ground level and see just how massive that place really is.

As we left Azteca, we were stopped at the security outpost; it seemed that the woman who gave us the tour recognized a few of us from a picture in one of the local papers. I don't know if any of us got a copy of the paper, but it was cool to see.

All in all, it was an amazing trip; I would definitely suggest that any serious USMNT fan go at least once. Mexico City is a massive, interesting city with a lot to see and experience.