Today, Emma and I along with Moises and Daniel went to a soccer game in Mexico City. It was Cruz Azul http://www.cruz-azul.com.mx%20visiting/ visiting the UNAM Pumas http://www.pumasunam.com.mx/ (Emma's favorite team) at Estadio Olimpico Universitario. http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pictures/north_america/mexico/central_mexico/mexico_city_olimpico.shtml .
UNAM stands for Universidad Autonoma de México. In Mexico's premier soccer league, the university teams play along with other pro teams. It was a very interesting experience. We took a series of buses and the subway to the stadium and what I saw when we arrived was more than I expected. As we exited the subway, we were frisked and had our bags checked by the police. We walked to the stadium where there were more a lot more police including mounted police, hundreds of riot police, three police helicopters hovering above, and scores of police cars, motorcycles and about a dozen prisoner buses. I wondered what I was doing taking my nine year old to this game. At the gate we presented our tickets and walked through a gauntlet of police 20 deep on each side where we were frisked by several of the police and had a metal detector scan us. We then quickly found our seats and then I was not sure if we were in a sporting facility or a Mexican prison. From our seats on the 18 yard line in the northwest part of the stadium, I saw riot police surrounding the entire field of this stadium that seats over 74,000 people. Between the police and us was a deep moat, a small metal fence with with knife points on the ends and then a taller chainlink fence. In an area reserved for the opposing teams fans was a chain link fence that kept them in and riot police surrounded that area, shoulder to shoulder.
Eventually, there was a game that took place and it was fairly good. Mexicans have a unique style of play that is very fast and exciting to watch. The fans were very boisterous, constantly cheering and yelling in unison favorite fight songs. However, when the home team scored, the boisterousness became collective stupidity. People threw items from the top tier onto the bottom tier, beer was flying everywhere and a few times I wondered if fights were going to break out. A couple times I put Emma in front of me to protect her from the debris. Moises did not like the atmosphere of this stadium and I have to agree. He says other stadiums and fans are lot more sophisticated. He and his family recently saw a game in Toluca (a smaller city an hour and a half drive from here) and said it had a much more family like atmosphere. As much as I liked to be watching a live soccer game for the first time in about 20 years after the NASL (North American Soccer League) folded, I think next time I'll go to one of the other stadiums and enjoy watching the game and not the side show. Oh yeah, Cruz Azul won 2-1.
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