FootBiz newsletter #180: Azteca showdown promises a World Cup epic

It was back in December, in a boardroom a few hundred miles from the Azteca, that it dawned on me that this fixture that I had never previously given a second’s thought to could actually happen.

England, the country I am from and which made me fall in love with football, versus Mexico, the place I now work and have channelled my football obsession. Dozens of friends and colleagues of mine are Mexican and all we do is talk football all day, be it about our club, Queretaro, or the wider league, trends in global football, or set piece designs….

But there was always such a long way to go to even get to this point. It didn’t feel real.

Not only were there no guarantees that England — famously unreliable in major tournaments — would win their group but what of Mexico? Having been to a fair few Mexico games over the last year or two, it only ever felt pretty remote that they’d also win their group — particularly after that 4-0 humping by Colombia in Dallas last October that made them look like group stage disappointments.

It just seemed so unlikely.

Alright, so then both teams ended up making it through the group stage undefeated. Credit where it’s due.

Knockout football isn’t easy, though. Mexico have to get through Ecuador, a team many people (including me) felt could be dark horses after an impressive qualifying campaign. England could also come unstuck against DR Congo. They nearly did.

And yet here we are.

Flying back from Atlanta after Wednesday’s game it truly hit me that the game I had equally dreamed of and feared, that I had hypothesised and theorised about, was finally coming to pass.

Oh, and it’s at the Azteca. A cathedral of sport and the most significant stadium in World Cup history. If football and its rich culture is art, then this is its greatest canvas. A steepling cauldron where, on Sunday, that famous history will meet high-stakes present, backed by a raucously partisan soundtrack and played out under lights that will make those deep green and brilliant white shirts pop like technicolour memories of old.

Am I nervous? Yes.

I would very much like England to win a World Cup in my lifetime and if they could oblige by doing so this year then I’d really appreciate it. To do that, you have to pass some pretty stern tests and Sunday will be about as stern as they come. I don’t really care how you play against Ghana or DR Congo, where you win the World Cup is beating Mexico behind enemy lines, or Brazil in Miami.

Losing is almost unthinkable.

For one, I would never hear the end of it.

There aren’t a ton of Englishmen in the Mexican football sphere, and as such you can imagine the level of piss-taking that would ensue and from how many directions. Not only would the World Cup dream be over, but I’d be hearing about it from everyone.

Then there’s the duration. That isn’t something that lasts a few hours. Nor days. If we’re still talking about Argentina and Germany as formative scar tissue as England fans then you’d better believe that getting swallowed up by the Azteca on Sunday night is something that will still be talked about in decades.

So the stakes just feel really damn high, and when you add in that the game falls four days before the due date of our baby, even the logistics of just going to Mexico City and back (knowing there may be a need for an urgent about-turn and race home by any means necessary at any given second) multiplies the stress.

There was one word I used when mapping out the tournament all the way back in December and realising that this match could be happening: “Biblical”

The weight of the fixture, the level of expectation in Mexico, the personal stakes, the logistical nightmare and the wondering ‘what if?’ are all swirling together right now to turn my World Cup fever into a nervous disorder.

But what a night in store for this tournament….

Table of Contents

• PL clubs hit with UEFA fines

• Juve hit with UEFA sanctions

• Forest stun Pereira, hire Glasner

• Saudi FA president resigns

• Portugal finally agrees to centralise rights

• Ipswich owners buy Serie A club

• Gasol leads Liga F investment

• Real Madrid decline Liga F money

• Everton secure new front of shirt sponsor

Note: as mentioned above, due to impending baby, there is a small chance one edition of FootBiz gets skipped next week but normal service will resume straight after. Thanks for your understanding.