Estadio Azteca is one of the stranger, better and more terrifying places on earth to watch a soccer game. And maybe to watch anything, actually. Two Azteca veterans compare notes on one of soccer's holy, and wholly weird, sites.
Lucha libre, part slapstick and part morality tale, hardly resembles its American wrestling counterparts. But what lucha libre lacks in familiarity, it makes up for in spectacle.
It took 75 years, but the U.S. Men's Soccer team finally won a game in Mexico thanks to a 1-0 win in a skeleton-crew friendly on Wednesday night at Estadio Azteca. The result was about as meaningful as meaningless games get.
Getting old and moving out of the top flight of club play isn't an exclusively Mexican phenomenon, but coming back home has a uniquely bittersweet taste for Mexican players.
Old-timers' games aren't traditionally the place to find heated competition. But this weekend's Legends Challenge benefit game between the United States and Mexico isn't your average old-timer's game—mostly because, even for players who have been off the field for a decade or more, this isn't your average rivalry.
Santos Laguna represents the troubled, fascinating city of Torreón in Mexican soccer's Primera División, at times a little too well and a little too closely for comfort. Luckily, though, the only game in town is a pretty entertaining one.
An exultant Juan Manuel Marquez raised his hands in triumph while Manny Pacquiao prayed somberly in the corner. Then, after it was announced that Marquez had lost by a narrow majority decision, he stormed from the ring as the arena of Mexican partisans and outraged boxing fans rained boos on the winner.
.jpg "Santo and Blue Demon, retired lucha libre enthusiasts")
