The passage of the Mexican soccer team to the round of 32 phase of the 2026 FIFA World Cup was the occasion of a party of typical Jalisco dances, mariachi music and at the end, the “Rodeo Clown” dance by the group Caballo Dorado with Mexicans and a few Koreans.

"Mexico defeated South Korea, 1-0, with a score by Luis Romo, after a huge mistake by goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu, who collided in a false start with Lee Han-beom, a central defender who plays for the Danish club FC Midtjylland."

“Phenomenal,” said Elia González, from Pachuca, Hidalgo, who never tired of encouraging the crowd gathered in the plastic grass patio of the Plaza de la Cultura y Arte, adjacent to La Placita Olvera.

“Mexico's goal and the play where goalkeeper José Raúl Rangel Aguilar, “Tala” Rangel, avoided the tie was majestic,” the woman added. “Mexico has grown enormously with this victory.”

After leaving behind their triumphant debut 2-0 against South Africa, Mexico arrived in Guadalajara with the obligation to win, according to the fans, although the second day was not so simple.

“Mexico played very slowly in the first half and had no attack,” criticized Julio Bravo, a security agent born in Mexico City, who was wearing an Octagón mask. “There are many who avoid talking about the obligation to win so as not to put pressure on the players,” he added.

“My argument is that Mexico plays at home, in front of its fans and has a better team than South Korea and other teams.”

The atmosphere in the Plaza de la Cultura y Arte was a complete party, with the presence of a botarga of the famous “Doctor Simi”, who is the character and official face of Farmacias Similares, a popular Mexican medicine chain.

"A photo! A photo!" Xitlalli Ramírez asked the iconic character, who corresponds to Víctor González Torres, a Mexican businessman and philanthropist.

For José Lagunas, from Mexicali, Baja California, the fact that the Mexican team had only one arrival of real danger, through Julián Quiñones, was the reason that he was facing a rival with fast players for the brand.

“Mexico did not feel comfortable because Korea did an excellent defensive job,” he told La Opinión. “I think the boys are feeling too much psychological pressure because we all expect them to win, but they did need to regain control of the ball, especially in the last 15 minutes of the first half.”

“I am already Mexican”

Among the most nervous fans in the crowd was a 22-year-old Afro-Mexican young man, who arrived at the scene from Woodland Hills, accompanied by his Oaxacan mother.

“I'm already Mexican,” said Krishna Coltrane, son of an African-American father and a Mexican mother, proudly while sitting on the synthetic grass where the game between Mexico and South Korea was screened.

And how do you know that you are already Mexican?

“Because my mother told me that if they don't give you a slap when you're little, you're not Mexican, and she hit me on the buttocks several times with the belt,” he explained, causing his mother, Otilia Coltrane, to laugh.

Like Mexicans, there are no other cultures that celebrate everything and for everything.

“Express our identity”

“Football, more than a sport, is part of the identity and traditions that encapsulate our Mexicanness,” said literature professor Gustavo Ponce, originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, who enjoyed northern music in Placita Olvera, before the match. “The passion that is experienced in soccer is the passion that Mexicans live with every day…it is more than anything the folklore that defines us in our community experience.”

The Consul General of Mexico in Los Angeles, Carlos González Gutiérrez told La Opinión that the Mexicanness expressed through soccer is unique because there is no other event where people of so many nationalities come together with the enthusiasm and energy to proudly express their identity.

"That, deep down, is what the Soccer World Cup is giving us. It is an opportunity to express our identity in the way we want, in the most strident way around a soccer match," said Javier Aguirre's number one Tri fan in Los Angeles.

“I am struck by the diversity of attacks they throw at Mexico, because unlike other countries, it is not only about the immigrants who live here or the tourists who come from their country of origin,” he added. “Here the many Mexicos come together: that of immigrants, of Mexican Americans, the Mexico of Latinos, of blacks and that of people who consider themselves very close to us regardless of whether they are not of Mexican nationality or of Mexican origin.”

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