Mexican football fans celebrated their team’s World Cup win against Germany so exuberantly they set off earthquake detectors in Mexico City.
Thousands of supporters took to the streets on Sunday to cheer their national team’s long-shot win against the World Cup holders in Mexico’s first match of the 2018 tournament.
The 1-0 stunner, with Hirving Lozano scoring the winning goal, has given Mexicans hope that their team might win the tournament for the first time.
Mexico has competed in the Fifa World Cup since the sporting event kicked off in 1930, but the highest they have ever advanced is to the quarter-finals in 1986 and 1970.
Lozano’s goal set off such a commotion that seismic detectors in the capital registered a false earthquake, which the geological institute said may have been generated by “massive jumps” across the city.
Spectators who had gathered to watch the match on a big TV screen in the central Zocalo square screamed with joy after the goal.
After the match, throngs of fans dressed in green converged around the famous Angel of Independence monument, bouncing with joy and waving the Mexican flag.
Groups chanted, car horns blared, whistles were blown and drums beat for hours after the match.
“We aspire to win a World Cup this time,” said Miguel Paez, a 31-year-old who donned a Mexican wrestling mask in the colours of the national flag as he celebrated on Mexico City’s main avenue, Paseo de la Reforma.
He described the game as a welcome distraction from Mexico’s upcoming July 1 presidential election. “Mexico needs a break. Mexico needs to shout,” he said, jumping up and down.
The win has also helped Mexican fans move beyond the team’s recent indiscretions after the squad entered the tournament under a cloud of scandal.
The problems began last year when the US Treasury Department accused team captain Rafael Marquez of being a front man for a drug kingpin. The accusation cost Marquez sponsorships and called into question whether he would play in the tournament.
He took to the field as a substitute towards the end of the match against Germany, notching an appearance in a fifth World Cup.
Also, earlier in June, gossip magazine TVNotas reported that nine members of the squad indulged in an all-night party with 30 female escorts following their farewell match against Scotland in Mexico City.
Commentators worried that family tensions could distract the players from their goal of winning World Cup matches.
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