America and Pachuca: The show must continue (even if no one can see it)
In a move that already smacks of absurd tradition, like taking out the Christmas lights in September, América receives tonight the Tuzos del Pachuca at the Ciudad de los Deportes stadium. The activity corresponds to Day 7 of the Apertura 2025 tournament, and I say “activity” because calling it a “match” may be too generous for what it really is: a training session with a VIP audience of zero people.
Unfortunately, and using “unfortunately” with all the irony I can muster, the Aguilas will not be able to count on the support of their fans. The reason? A brilliant decision by Mayor Benito Juárez who decided that the best place for a soccer game is a closed property. Because nothing says “exemplary public management” like preventing people from watching live sports.
That’s right, dear azulcremas fans. Get ready for another chapter in the saga: “América vs Pachuca: The match that no one saw.” A tradition that has become as recurring as the memes of the national team, having already happened in the Apertura 2024 and Clausura 2025 tournaments. Could it be that the authorities don’t like football? Or do they simply want to protect fans from the disappointment of watching their team play? Who knows.
The forced move: Sports tourism or divine punishment?
This whole circus began in November 2024, when the mayor of Benito Juárez, Luis Alberto Mendoza, in a fit of regulatory zeal, decided to close the Ciudad de los Deportes stadium and the Plaza México. Imagine the scene: an official with a judge’s gavel, banging on the table and declaring that the show must end. Pure drama!
The result was an emergency move that would have made any college student blush when changing apartments at midnight. America had to move its match against Pachuca to the Cuauhtémoc stadium, because what better way to solve a problem than by exporting it to another state? The Águilas, for a change, beat the Tuzos 2-1 at the home of La Franja. Ironically, they received better treatment from the Puebla fans than from their own rulers. Don’t you think it’s deliciously contradictory?
The ghost game: When television also abandons us
But wait, the tragicomedy doesn’t end there. For Clausura 2025, Pachuca received América on Day 14 in a show that only those present at the Hidalgo stadium enjoyed. Because? Because the legal issues that the Tuzos had with Fox Sports prevented the meeting from being broadcast on any network or social network. That is, not even those who stayed at home could see it. Isn’t it wonderful? We pay for streaming services that don’t stream, and for tickets to games that are played behind closed doors.
That commitment was won by Bella Airosa by the minimum difference. Of course, because winning by a landslide would be too much happiness for a game that no one saw. Do you remember those dreams where you fight a monster but you can’t scream? This is what it must have felt like for the players: all that emotion, all that effort, and the only sound was the echo of their own footsteps in the empty stadium.
In short, we have a team that cannot play at home, a fan that cannot watch the games, and a television network that cannot broadcast. Does anyone else see the pattern here? It seems that the destiny of America and Pachuca is to find themselves in an alternate reality where soccer exists only as an abstract concept. Meanwhile, fans are left hoping that one day the authorities will decide that football is a sport that deserves to be seen and not an urban nuisance that should be hidden.
What lessons can we draw from all this? First, that bureaucracy is as predictable as a penalty missed by America in the finals. Second, that the patience of the Mexican fans is worthy of scientific study. And third, that perhaps we should seriously consider moving all matches to virtual metaverses. At least there we wouldn’t have to deal with mayoral permits.
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