Anti-Donald Trump sentiment seeps into U.S.-Mexico soccer rivalry

Martin Rogers | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption Mexico City cartoon exhibit depicts Donald Trump as a Nazi Cartoonists from around the world display their unflattering takes on Donald Trump at the Museo de la Caricatura in Mexico City, Mexico.

MEXICO CITY – Any doubt that Sunday’s vital World Cup qualifier between the United States and Mexico here would carry extra edge due to the current political climate was erased even hours before kickoff.

Long before the on-field hostilities at Estadio Azteca began Francisco Cisneros Solano, a passionate Mexico soccer fan, posed for photographs alongside a group of friends at the entrance to the arena.

The message on his T-shirt — “(Expletive) Trump” — left visiting U.S. fans and players with a clear message. Things are a little different this time around.

“I did it just for the humor,” Solano, 27, told USA TODAY Sports. “But this game is the biggest one of all for us (in qualifying).”

Nearby, a small group of traveling U.S. fans amid a sea of green-shirted locals stood behind a police officer carrying a riot shield, waiting to be allowed inside.

Soccer is built on rivalries and this is one of the more impassioned ones. It has been thus for a long time, yet there can be no question that recent political factors upped the ante for this clash.

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To say that there is negative sentiment toward the regime of President Trump here is both obvious and a huge understatement. A few miles from the famed and daunting Azteca, a museum recently hosted an exhibition filled with caricatures mocking Trump.

One featured him as a Nazi, and others as the devil, the Grim Reaper and a Ku Klux Klan sympathizer.

As fans filtered into their seats on Sunday, there was a fair smattering of banners and T-shirts with an anti-U.S. message.

“We have nothing against the American team apart from the fact we want to beat them,” Mexico supporter Hector Rivera said. “But it is nice for us to say something to (Trump).”

Most of the U.S. team has little time for the political rhetoric of Trump. When the side met Mexico in Columbus, Ohio, just days after November’s election, American players suggested a joint “unity” photograph before kickoff.

This time around, head coach Bruce Arena made his political views clear in his pregame media conference.

“I'm ashamed that there's perhaps some discord on the political side,” Arena said. “But believe me I think most Americans appreciate the Mexicans that have come to America to make a better future for themselves and their families and the way they have contributed.

“We have the greatest respect for Mexico, its people, its football team. I live in Los Angeles. I experience on a daily basis people of Mexican heritage. They're wonderful people, they contribute greatly to our society in many ways. We think the world of them.”

As game time closed in, it became clear those conciliatory tones would do nothing to dampen the atmosphere in the Mexican capital. For the U.S., the Azteca — where it has never won a World Cup qualifier — would remain as imposing and parochial as ever.

PHOTOS: American soccer star Christian Pulisic