Forget The Big Apple, the excitement for us at this World Cup is arriving in The Big Taco: Mexico City.
Despite massive growth elsewhere in India and China, the metropolitan area is still one of the largest in the world by population at 25.6 million. That’s not much less than Australia’s entire population of 27.2 million…in one city.
Or in Tasmanian terms, the entire population of the island could be accommodated here 46 times. (But what about the pademelons?!)
It feels like a world city, because it is. Being Sunday there’s a ‘ciclovia’ where certain roads are closed off to enable extra walking, cycling and exercise space in the downtown areas.
The World Cup is very much the talk of the town. One local TV station has a countdown timer to Mexico’s game in the elimination round against Ecuador. As we settled into our hotel room last night and watched a bit of telly it was 68 hours 42 minutes and 15 seconds, thank you very much.
Frankly politics is one of the reasons Mexico is going hard hard hard. Donald Trump has been a ‘difficult’ neighbour and a lot of his histrionics-cum-policies have cast Mexico in a negative light.
The country sees this as a chance to one-up the USA (and Canada) and be the best World Cup host of the three.
Well if you have crazy intense football passion and a culture with plenty to offer and a zest for partying, you’re playing to your strengths anyway.
We’ve see quite a few billboards proclaiming Mexico as ‘the best World Cup host’ and most of the people we have met have bought into that. Lots of Mexicans just want to chat and enjoy their moment in the world spotlight. All have been scrupulously polite and friendly.
About the one dissenting note I can recall is this sticker I spotted on a bit of the downtown signage in Guadalajara.
Grumpy sticker guy is grumpy.
For what it’s worth the QR code just links to an old song called Frijolero and not some hotbed site inciting social uprising. The lyrics seem to have an issue with American racism. The irony is that those of us ‘foreigners here for the circus’ are here to appreciate and enjoy Mexican culture and hope to develop a relationship with and respect for the Mexican people. So I’m keeping my clown nose on.
We sat down to watch the only game of the day, South Africa v Canada in California, in the hotel’s Cafe Reforma. Or so we thought. No the cafe is not showing the game, you’ll have to go to the bar. Do they have coffee there? No. Can we get a takeaway coffee and drink it there? No. Mind you the cafe and the bar are like 30 metres apart and owned by the same hotel, so you would think…The problem appeared to be the bar/hotel has taken on a sponsorship from beer company Michelob for the duration of the World Cup and presumably it’s against the rules of that deal.
Three mostly-unwanted lemonades later we watched the South Africans put up a good show and come pretty close to snatching the game or sending it to extra-time. Sadly for the Bafana a very late Canadian goal sent the Maples through to the round of 16 (highlights here). After being the first host country to play outside their own country in the history of World Cup finals, they’re going to be doing it at least twice. They will now have a date in Houston on 5 July against the winner of Netherlands v Morocco.
Overall it’s been a day for us to draw breath, do some washing, re-orient ourselves to a new hotel and city and in general just prepare ourselves for a busy week ahead. One thing we didn’t have to do was acclimatise to the altitude of Mexico City at 2240 metres above sea level. Despite the thin air the three of us have been in Bogota for at least a few months and the air there at 2600 metres is even skimpier. So we feel fine. On the grapevine we heard that Ecuador flew in as early as they could do give their squad time to acclimatise.
There have been Mexican waves at the three games we have been to. It doesn’t always go according to plan.
On the flip-side a lost wallet was returned after fans starting chanting the name of the owner until he came to collect it.
Another fun moment was when Croatian fans invaded a wedding photoshoot.
And the Iranian dad who created a tactile football pitch out of cardboard so he could help his blind son follow the games.
To round things off with some noise, here are the Argentine fans. I remember being in a similar situation under the grandstand for the Argentina v Germany quarter-final in 2010 in Cape Town and frankly it was the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in a sports stadium.
Things ramp back up on Monday in the Americas with Brazil v Japan, Germany v Paraguay and Netherlands v Morocco.
Enjoy the football and have fun!
ELIMINATED TEAMS NOW MARINATING IN THE QUAGMIRE OF PUNGENT SADNESS
Now that we are at the stage where teams are being eliminated I am keeping a running list of them and also doing a brief summary of how they went. The list will be in three groups: Overachieved, About As Expected, Underachieved. Newly-addeds are higher-up and in bold.
Overachieved – Curacao, Haiti, South Africa
South Africa – after making history in 2010 as the first host nation to not pass the group stage, the Bafana Bafana had a point to prove here. No-one was confident of that after their opening round shocker losing 2-0 to Mexico with two players sent off. A come-from-behind draw against Czechia gave them a sniff before they did the business with a historic 1-0 win over Korea. The Saffers pushed Canada all the way with a respectable 58% possession in the round of 32 game but lacked punch up front. Overall the tournament was a big learning experience and a marker of progress for South African football.
Curacao – the smallest nation at the tournament, and from their first appearance they will go home with a goal and a point. The entire squad will be legends in the nation’s footballing history.
Haiti – not the worst, and if they had got something out of their first game to Scotland instead of a 1-0 loss maybe things could have been different. They put a couple of goals on the board against decent teams in Morocco and Brazil and overall put up a better showing than their only previous World Cup appearance in 1974.
About As Expected – Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Panama, Iran, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Scotland
Saudi Arabia – the team struggled in qualifying and is clearly going through a generational change. I expected them to slot into third at best and in the end they were stonewalled by the brave Cape Verde unit.
Tunisia – before this tournament Tunisia had qualified for the World Cup finals six times and failed to progress beyond the group six times. Make that seven and seven. Sacking the manager after game 1 smacked of chaos in the camp. They have a major goalkeeping problem with Chamakh rating 2.9 for the first game loss against the Netherlands, one of the lowest I have ever seen on Flashscore.
Panama – only their second appearance at the finals, they lucked out with a difficult group. They drew three teams that have been at the quarter-finals or better since 2010 and all still with decent pedigree. Unsurprisingly they went down to straight losses, although all quite competitive. Better luck with the lotto ball sorting next time.
Iran – on paper a good side but war and US immigration hard-ball was against them. Their travelling fans being denied entry and having their tickets revoked also didn’t help. I expected the dramas to be a bit much to handle and they were.
Uzbekistan – first time at the Big Dance for the Uzbeks. They certainly boasted a star coach in former WC winner Fabio Cannavaro, but still lack a bit of quality on the field. Some impressive moments and they will not be too disappointed in the end.
Jordan – another debutante who copped a group with very experienced opponents including of course reigning champions Argentina. Three defeats was in the tarot and thus it was.
Scotland – ‘as expected’ as this is their first appearance at a Finals since 1998 and they clearly lack major tournament know how. That said, with the classy McTominay and other players from the Serie A and Premier League this is a somewhat golden generation that were very impressive in qualifying. After a win against Haiti the lack of any points against Morocco or Brail left them flapping in the third-place repechage. I think they’ll go on from here and Scots fans can look forward to next European Championship with a positive mood.
Underachieved – New Zealand, Qatar, Uruguay, Czech Republic, Turkey, Iraq, Korea Republic
New Zealand – the All Whites dared to dream after a promising 2-2 draw to start and fine team goals. That was as good as it got with Egypt and then Belgium showing the gap in quality that is still to be bridged. I think third in the group was gettable so it feels like an underachievement to head home with another wooden spoon to add to that of 1982.
Qatar – playing their second World Cup in a row, and in hot conditions, and presumably with a generation coming through that was inspired by hosting the tournament in 2022, I thought the Qataris might have been competitive. A 1-1 with Switzerland must have given hope of qualifying, but a 6-0 reverse to Canada flipped the script. Another loss to Bosnia and the departure lounge it is.
Uruguay – trying to find something polite to say. Failing. Uruguay fans expect better than third place in the group and a miserable two points. As coach Marcelo Bielsa admitted, he failed to get the best out of the squad he had available. No excuses, their tournament was a disaster.
Czech Republic – have players playing in top leagues but did not put it together as a team. Just disappointing all round and the side looked strangely intimidated by the atmosphere and conditions.
Turkey – they were a bit full of themselves prior to the tournament and paid the penalty. Their very expensive forward line failed to hit the target in the first two games and by then it was too late. Personally I think they were flattered by their ranking of 22 in the world and it will perhaps fall back to a more realistic 30-something after this tournament.
Iraq – 1-4, 0-3 and 0-5, the Iraqis leaked goals to everybody. The Lions of Mesopotamia (spoiler: there are no lions and never have been in Mesopotamia) are renowned as a steely side and it just vanished here. See ya! As a caution to Australia, some of the Asian sides that have been caned at the World Cup will be licking their wounds and determined for a better showing in the Asian Cup in early 2027.
Korea Republic – a shock 1-0 loss to South Africa in the final game left them on only three points. The Koreans generally put themselves about pretty well in World Cup group stages and this is definitely a fail by their standards. Breaking: coach Hong Myung Bo sacked the day after their exit was confirmed. Aaaand South Korea president Lee Jae Myung says he is “utterly baffled” at the national team’s World Cup group-stage exit and called for the country’s sports ministry to investigate. Taking it well then…
Alan Whykes is a Tasmania-based writer and an ex- too many things to list.
This blog is the start of a new section called Tas At Large which showcases stories of Tasmanian diaspora let loose upon the world.
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