CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — More than half a dozen soccer players refused to join the professional team in this border city, where so many tortured and beheaded bodies put fear in visitors and locals alike. Those who do play for the team live in gated areas, with high walls and fences topped with razor wire, to protect them from the turf war between the drug cartels that has left nearly 2,000 people dead over the past 14 months.

Despite the forbidding environment, the team, Indios, advanced last May to the top division in the Mexican League. It soldiers on this season, and so do the team’s fans. On Sunday, even as the police announced the discovery of nine bodies buried outside this border city, the mood for a match at Olimpico Benito Juárez Stadium was one of celebration, not apprehension.

Indios operates in a kind of neutral zone, which takes a lot to maintain. From 250 to 400 municipal police and security guards provide crowd control for each game. Some players said they left home only for training and games and to buy necessary items, sticking to main roads during daylight, restricting travel at night. Their wives are encouraged to travel in groups when taking their children to school.

“I avoid TV news,” Javier Saavedra, a newly acquired defender, said through an interpreter. “It makes me feel more secure.”