Mexico plays England tonight in the World Cup and I will be rooting for Mexico. Which is interesting considering that Harry Kane is one of my favorite global players to watch and Mexico, for most of my life, as been the primary rival for the US Men’s National Team (who play Monday night against Belgium, another household dilemma since my wife used to run a Belgian restaurant).
I could go on about this, but Ryan Rosenblatt covers it ably. The rivalry was fun so long as it stayed on the pitch. After 12 years of racist political rhetoric about Mexico and Mexicans, it’s no fun to root against them. Combined with the fact that the team plays genuinely enjoyable soccer (relative to the broad standard of international soccer, which I am contractually obligated to note is aesthetically inferior to 95% of club soccer), I would love to see Mexican soccer fans collectively lose their minds advancing deep in the tournament.
There is a broader theme this World Cup of wonder and awe at the sense of camaderie amongt fans from 48 different countries and the communities hosting them. Which is wonderful and the World Cup as an institution deserves a lot of credit (the Cup itself, mind you, not FIFA- they’re as corrupt as they come), but honestly I think this is the result of just a lot of people coordinating to travel at the same time.
The reality is and always has been that most people don’t carry any (or, at least, much) nationalistic hate in their hearts, and certaintly not the ones willing to the incur the discomfort of flying to a different part of the world. The hate isn’t real. It’s mostly a fugazi, a masquerade carried out because it’s materially and politically profitable for a few hundred and the only source of identity and pride for a few thousand. The World Cup, by comparison, is a collective endeavor of a few million, and once you get to those numbers, it’s mostly folk who like having a good time with other folk.
Economist Writing Every Day 