Tempo Reports from Russia: Committed Mexican Fans in World Cup
30 June 2018 14:40 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Two of Mexico`s football fans approached Tempo after exiting the Ploshchad 1905 Goda subway station in the center of Yekaterinburg, one of the locations of the 2018 World Cup.
One of the fans grabbed a phone and a portable battery charger before politely asking; “May I borrow a connection cable to recharge my phone’s battery?” said the fan on Tuesday.
The man that asked to borrow the cable was Pablo who traveled from Mexico City together with his friend Miguel Cruz. Both men visited Russia to support Mexico’s national football team. “We just arrived in Yekaterinburg on Monday night.”
As it turns out, Pablo had lost his phone charger cable in his flight from Saransk. Miguel, on the other hand, managed to keep his own cable charger. Both men said that they brought their portable battery charger while traveling across the city’s downtown area on Tuesday, but did not have a cable to connect it.
Pablo and Miguel are part of a larger group of Mexican supporters that have traveled to Russia to support the Mexican team. They even traveled light by only bringing one backpack and a small suitcase for their clothes. “It isn’t too difficult to look for something to eat here,” said Pablo.
Mexico’s first match was held in Moscow on June 17 where they successfully defeated Germany 1-0. “That was one of the greatest days of my life!” Pablo expressed.
The pair followed their football team to Rostov to face South Korea by a lengthy train travel. However, their journey was paid off by witnessing yet another success where Mexico managed to defeat South Korea 2-1.
It is anticipated that there are 15,000 to 20,000 citizens of Mexico visiting Russia to support their football team. Most of them travel by long journey trains to move city-to-city. The Mexican fans are notably the most attention-grabbing throughout the 2018 World Cup event. “I prefer traveling in a smaller group, but in here, it turns out there are many Mexicans,” Miguel chuckled.
Mexican football fans are truly confident that their team can reach the finals, “We were successful in the first match and we clearly want to return to Moscow,” Miguel continued.
Mexico’s national football team will progress to the last-16 of the World Cup despite the 3-0 loss against Sweden in the last match. Mexico will match up against Brazil on July 2 in Samara.
GABRIEL WAHYU TITIYOGA
