World Cup fans are doing anything and everything they can do to give their favorite teams an advantage… and Mexico fans took that to a whole other level last night.
While America celebrated its 250th birthday with 4th of July festivities, Mexico fans were also shooting off fireworks, but for a different reason. In the name of whatever the opposite of sportsmanship is, fans of the Mexico World Cup team found out where England’s team was staying near Mexico City and did their best to provide a sleepless night to the visiting team.
England and Mexico are set to kick off in their Round of 16 World Cup game tonight at 8 p.m. EST. England is believed to be the better team and is slightly favored in the matchup, but many are picking Mexico to pull of an upset. Why? Well, the game is taking place in Mexico City at Estadio Azteca, so it’s effectively a home game for the Mexico squad.
There’s all been plenty of conversation predicting that England will have a difficult time adapting to the higher elevation that the soccer stadium sits at. Estadio Azteca was built at around 7,220 feet above sea level, and England only got to Mexico City a day early to try and get acclimated. That could give a slight edge to the Mexico team.
And as if that wasn’t enough, it appears that Mexico’s World Cup team will have the advantage of more peaceful sleep. That’s because fans in Mexico City found out where England’s team was staying (the JW Marriott hotel in Santa Fe), and despite police blockades and security, the fans managed to get close enough to the building and caused plenty of disruptions.
As I mentioned earlier, fans utilized fireworks on the 4th of July in an attempt to keep England players from getting a good night’s rest:
Feels like that should somehow earn the Mexico team a red card, eh?
Fireworks weren’t the only way that the fans made noise. They also brought bands along to play loud music near the hotel. That, in addition to the fireworks all night long, had to have made sleeping close to impossible for the team from England. And the social media world can’t believe the lengths Mexico fans went to try and help their team:
That’s simply a wild scene… and shows you how passionate fans are about the World Cup.
It also shows a lot of commitment, because believe it or not, the fans of Mexico did the same thing to Ecuador’s team this past week. They found out where their hotel was, made tons of noise outside of it, and Mexico went on to win the game 2-0. The Ecuadorian football federation even filed a complaint to organizers because they felt like it led to an unfair advantage for Mexico.
What’s the old saying? If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying? I’m not sure how you (the reader) feels about this practice by Mexico fans, but I’m not a huge fan of it, just from a sportsmanship standpoint. However… if Mexico keeps winning, I’d imagine their followers and faithful will continue to do all they can to “help.”
