Mexico’s Love-Hate Relationship With Argentina Haunts the Team’s World Cup Matchup
MEXICO MALAYSIA
The world is divided into two halves: the one that embraces soccer and the one that despises it. The former tends to view the game as a religion, while the latter insists that it is a mere “sport of nations.”
Perhaps this split stems from the fact that the world loves and hates soccer differently. The former has a penchant for football’s past, while the latter has a weakness for its present.
Which is why there’s a reason Argentina and Mexico are such great rivals. And, quite frankly, it’s hard to find the perfect match. Sure, the teams face off in the Copa América, but that isn’t the best venue for this match-up. The most epic of games occurs in Brazil, where one team is known for dominating the game while the other is known for dominating the sport of soccer. If you’ve ever watched the 1994 World Cup semifinal (Brazil vs. Argentina) or the 2005 Copa América final (Argentina vs. Chile), you’ll understand this analogy.
So in order to find this perfect match, I turned my attention to Mexico’s relationship with Argentina. And the answer was simple: Argentina is a much bigger fan favorite than Mexico.
The Most Popular Football Team In Mexico
It goes without saying that Mexico has one of the biggest fan bases in the world. What it doesn’t have is a soccer team – just like the U.S. doesn’t have a basketball team.
That doesn’t mean that Mexico doesn’t love its team. In fact, it probably has more teams than most countries have football teams. However, it definitely doesn’t have a soccer team. The country has a great team, but not the world’s best.
As of June 2012, Mexico has been playing in the FIFA World Cup for 22 years. During that time, their record has been somewhat impressive. In their first World Cup appearance in 1978, they finished with a 2-0 victory against the mighty hosts of France. The second time around, they took the competition with their 7-1 thrashing of Argentina.
As the World Cup continued to grow in popularity every year,
