The walk to Estadio Ciudad de México – most fans know it as the Azteca – on Thursday did a pretty good job of laying out the two sides of Mexico as the World Cup kicked off.Flanked by volunteers and channeled towards the stadium by steel barriers, the lucky few to have scored a ticket to the tournament’s opener between Mexico and South Africa chanted, waved the country’s tricolor flag and cracked beers in the middle of the street. The path was flanked with performers, the sound of traditional banda music providing a festive atmosphere.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOn the other side of the fence and a little way down the street, protesters clashed with police, as has often been the case in recent weeks. The crowd of protesters on Thursday was smaller, owing to the fact that Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, very recently reached an agreement with the striking teachers who’ve made up much of that contingent. Some remained, lobbing debris at hundreds of riot police, who took shelter behind their shields.Related: Raúl Jiménez seals Mexico’s win against nine-man South Africa in World Cup openerThere’s been talk in Mexico of the country’s place in the tournament being an afterthought. Most of the tournament’s matches will take place in the United States, which will also host the final. Canada and Mexico have been offered a token share, or as one fan outside the Azteca put it on Thursday, “un pedacito”. A tiny piece.“The other times we had it,” the fan continued. “It was for the people. Not so this time.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt was not this way in 1986, when Diego Maradona’s brilliance and deceit seared the tournament into the collective consciousness, nor in 1970, when Pelé’s triumph did the same. This World Cup has at times felt like a footnote in Mexico. Exorbitant ticket prices haven’t helped. On Thursday, a beer at the Azteca cost about 280 pesos, or $17. Tickets pushed well into the thousands.None of this mattered much in the lead-up to the match, not to the lucky few. The gates to the stadium opened at 9am and fans were pouring through the turnstiles not long after. The Azteca, the closest thing North America has to a football cathedral, has undergone major renovations and it looked resplendent on Thursday, its somewhat charmless, concrete exterior gussied up for the occasion.“I was surprised when we left where we’ve been based,” said midfielder Érik Lira after the match, which ended in a 2-0 victory for the hosts. “There were thousands of people waiting for us with words of encouragement along the route, when we were on the bus. It was beautiful, for me specifically because I grew up in this area. You’d see signs: ‘Mexico united,’ or ‘We love Mexico.’”Inside, the scene was even more vibrant. Fifa did its best to turn the opener of this tournament into a soulless, masturbatory exercise full of enough pomp and circumstance to kill a football traditionali
A thunderous triumph at the Azteca offers respite from strife on Mexico City’s streets
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