Mexico And The 1970 World Cup

If one is looking for a different experience in Mexico, perhaps give their national sport a try. Mexico may be more known for its beaches, food and music, but the real love of the people is their soccer. No matter where one is staying, there is bound to be a stadium nearby with a local professional team, so don't miss the chance to experience the beauty of and culture of a soccer game in Mexico.

The World Cup of 1970, which was hosted by Mexico, is widely considered to be the most entertaining World Cup of all time. This was the first time Mexico would host the World Cup, but not the last. In 1986 they hosted yet another memorable tournament that has gone down in history as an all time classic.

When a country hosts a World Cup, they need to have an establish infrastructure to handle all the games. Mexico had no shortage of stadiums to use, so this was a non-issue for the soccer-crazy country. The tournament in 1970 only had sixteen teams, today's version of the tournament is now double that number. For the 1970 tournament, Mexico supplied five stadiums for the games in five different cities. The host cities were: Puebla, Leon, Toluca, Guadalajara and Mexico City.

The games hosted in Mexico City were played at the holy ground of Mexican soccer, the Azteca Stadium. This monolithic stadium was built between 1961 and 1966, and has a capacity of over 110,000 people. Another unique feature of this stadium is that it is perched at 2,240 meters (7, 340 ft) above sea level. The locale of this stadium, due to the rarefied air, gave the Mexican national team a huge advantage over their opponents. Among the most difficult stadiums in the world in which to play, The Aztec is certainly ranked high on the list. Games are often played during mid-day in sweltering heat, to also help the home-team advantage. Add to that the rabid fans and it is enough to put doubt into the minds of even the most seasoned professionals.

Mexico did not get the start to the 1970 world cup that everyone expected. They tied a very good team from the Soviet Union in their opening game. Their next opening round game yielded a much better result, but this could do more with the attitude of the El Salvadorian players. The qualification process for El Salvador to get to the World Cup result in a war between them and neighboring rivals, Honduras. The conflict between the two countries was only resolved after eleven years. Next up for Mexico was Belgium. It was a very close game, but Mexico managed to come out 1-0 winners. Confidence in their national team was not high after the opening round as Mexican fans expected a more dominant performance. Mexico ended up in second place, behind the Soviet Union, and as a result lost their home field advantage at the Azteca.

Like the next World Cup Mexico would host, the quarter finals would again be their stumbling block. Germany managed in 1986, to their great credit, to make it to overtime and to beat Mexico with penalty kicks. The reason for Mexico's loss to the Italian finalists in 1970, is pretty clear. Mexico was off to a strong start and was up 1-0 at the beginning of the game. Alas, Italy were a far superior team and fired four unanswered goals past the hapless Mexicans. Some consolation for the Mexicans could be found in the fact that Brazil beat the Italians by the same 4-1 margin in the final of the tournament.

Mexico did its best in 1970, but the tournament really belong to Brazil, who were unstoppable in the tournament. Perhaps it was best to lose earlier than to have to face what is considered the greatest Brazilian team of all time. Pele was the star of the tournament, which was to be his last. Brazil, though, were far from a one man team. It was truly a team of superstars, the like of which may never be seen again.

Hopefully Mexico will get the opportunity to host a World Cup for a third time. With their recent improved performance on the world stage, one would have to assume that this time they would get it all right. There is a very good chance that within the next twenty years that Mexico will get the chance again to raise the World Cup on home soil. Until then, the world will have to wait to watch them play in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Source: http://www.artipot.com/articles/1312318/mexico-and-the-1970-world-cup.htm

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