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Thousands of people took to the El Angel de la Independencia Monument to celebrate Mexico’s victory over South Korea on Saturday, but a rare combination had Mexico City’s LGBT Pride Parade happening at the same time in a larger than usual turnout. Mexico faced South Korea in a tough match that was seen a must win for months, especially since most expected Mexico to lose their opener against Germany.
El Tri’s victory rose Mexicans’ spirit and plenty of fans were expected in El Angel de Independencia, with the big difference being that Mexico’s game was going to happen the same day Mexico City was having it’s LGBT Pride Parade. The parade organizers expected this and there was a campaign to celebrate both LGBT Pride and Mexico’s win, something that would have been a huge letdown had another result occurred in Rostov. As expected, there was a huge response, with some figures in the 200,00 range and with a lot of LGBT attendees wearing Mexico national team jerseys. While there were some incidents with the famous chant, for the most part it was a big gathering that showed the unity that this national team has brought to Mexico.
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In terms of the national team fans, the attendance seemed a lot smaller once the parade went past El Angel, which shows that not as many people were there just to celebrate a victory over South Korea. This is understandable because of the fact that beating Germany is to be considered the biggest win in a group stage of all the World Cups while South Korea had already been beaten. That said, it was still a very large presence, which is a big indication of how much fans have taken to the team since they started in Russia. Mexico went from a national team that had been booed in their goodbye game in Azteca to one that goes to El Angel over a win with South Korea. Although the celebrations turned bittersweet with news of Germany’s last minute victory, it still hasn’t diminished the feeling of pride fans have for their national team.