El Tri

This year's Mexican entry in the World Cup in South Africa is going to be really exciting. And the team's fan base in the US is enormous. It includes me.

Today's New York Times in an article called, "Most Popular Soccer Team In the U.S.: Mexico," writes:

Mexico’s trips to the United States, including Friday night’s sold-out exhibition against Ecuador at the new 75,000-seat stadium in the Meadowlands in New Jersey, are big business.

Mexico will play Senegal at Soldier Field in Chicago on Monday and Angola at Reliant Stadium in Houston on Thursday. By the end of the tour, which is to prepare Mexico’s players for the World Cup, the team known as El Tricolor will have played six games in the United States in less than three months, almost all before capacity crowds.

When Mexico played New Zealand at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., in March, the only game in which European-based players performed, 90,000 packed the Rose Bowl on a Wednesday night. It was easy to see what brings Mexico back.

Not just the sheer numbers of fans, many of whom paid more than $40 for tickets — about double what tickets would cost in Mexico — but also in the hours leading up to the game, the bustling fiesta that surrounded the stadium had the air of a carnival with face painting, lucha libre acts, bands and games.

Of course. What can be more fun than watching Mexico's first rate national team play other not so first rate national teams so close to home? I'm delighted that Mexico has started doing this. I hope they continue. I only wish I had a ticket for tonight's fiesta in New Jersey.