“Mexico City is hosting only five games in this year’s World Cup, but you wouldn’t know it from walking the streets, which are awash in soccer paraphernalia. Everyone seems to be wearing a green Mexico jersey, thanks to corner vendors hawking unlicensed merch for as little as $15, much to the chagrin of FIFA, whose official shirts often cost upward of $100. On game days, fans swarm the city’s main avenues, turning paved roads into dance floors, spraying bucketloads of foam and hurling one another into the air. El Tri, as Mexico’s team is known, has had a generational run this year, winning four games in a row without conceding a single goal — a streak that will be tested on Sunday night against England, where I’m originally from, in the last game at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca. The team’s triumphant performance has united millions of fans in jubilation at a tense political moment for Mexico, amid rising violence, political polarization and an anticartel pressure campaign on the part of the United States, one of the other World Cup hosts. Even cartel-related bloodshed has seen a lull during the tournament. I’m enjoying the moment. I cover the draining issue of crime and violence here and, like everyone else, have welcomed the chance to obsessively follow the beautiful game for a few weeks. In my quarter-century living in Mexico City, I had never witnessed the level of euphoria that this tournament has unleashed. The games themselves are packed, sky-high ticket prices notwithstanding, and free official fan fests are filled to the breaking point. In barrios across the city, people have crowded around televisions in street stalls to watch the action together and create their own sprawling fiestas, leaving FIFA again struggling to cash in on public viewings. The noise of loud watch parties echoes around apartment blocks. Drink deals by enterprising street vendors have beer and tequila shots going for just a couple of dollars, ignoring government efforts to limit alcohol consumption ahead of potentially riotous celebrations. … Mexico’s problems are not forgotten. The country is deeply scarred by years of staggering homicide rates and disappearances, many of them wrought by cartel gunmen. President Claudia Sheinbaum remains popular, but her governing party has faced a rash of corruption allegations in recent months implicating several high-profile public servants in cartel crime. …”
NY Times