Mexico’s Soccer Team Is Planning a US Tour in 2020
2020 will see a huge cross-country sweep of Mexico’s national soccer team coming to play and entertain fans in the US. Games will begin on March 26th at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Mexico has a longstanding love of football and even competed in the kickoff match of the first-ever World Cup in 1930. ©905513/Pixabay
The 18th Annual #MexTour
2020’s cross-country iteration will be the 18th year running that Soccer United Marketing (SUM) has collaborated with the Mexican National Team and Federación Mexicana de Fútbol (FMF) for a tour of the Mexican team throughout the US.
These games are hugely popular for fans in the United States. According to statistics published by #MexTour’s website, Mexico’s soccer team has played close to 85 games in the US as part of their tour, and reached around 63,000 fans per game in 2018.
According to coverage of the upcoming games, Mexico’s soccer team’s trip through the US is great for Mexico’s soccer team to both prepare for big upcoming tournaments like the FIFA World Cup and the Concacaf Gold Cup, but also to reach an enthusiastic US fan base.
As of now, three matches of the 18th annual #MexTour have been announced. This is the kick-off game in Charlotte, North Carolina at the Bank of America Stadium on March 26th, followed shortly after by a match at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on March 29. This will be the eighth time the AT&T Stadium has hosted the Mexico soccer team, and the team’s record at this stadium is 6-1-1.
Tickets for these games are now officially on sale as of December 9.
In between these two games, there will be a live concert and a game between Mexico and a team still to be announced at Dallas City Hall in Dallas, Texas on March 28. The concert will be performed by Intocable, and there will be an opportunity for excited fans of the band to have a meet and greet with the performers. Tickets for this event can be found here.
Fans especially eager to locate fan merchandise can also do so through the #MexTour website, including all-access packages that offer autographed jerseys in addition to meet and greets with former Mexico team players, a VIP experience at the Dallas concert, and a post-game experience on the field after the Arlington game at the AT&T Stadium.
As of now, the opponents that will be playing against Mexico in each of these locations have yet to be announced.
Soccer United Marketing: A Titan in North America’s Soccer World
Soccer United Marketing, or SUM, has established itself over the past 16 years as the leading organization for the soccer industry in North America. In business collaborations with Major League Soccer, the United States Soccer Federation, Concacaf Properties and, of course, Mexico’s National Team (for US market operations), SUM deals with commercializing, marketing, promotions, and operational management for the most prominent soccer-related institutions in North America.
In 2016, the same year SUM signed a deal for handling the management of marketing for Concacaf, they were also assigned management duties for CONMEBOL, also known as the South American Football Confederation. In addition to these, SUM also helps with the North American SuperLiga, the Pan-Pacific Championship, and the Concacaf Gold Cup.
Highlights from #MexTour 2019
Unsurprisingly, this year’s #MexTour was very exciting. The games kicked off on March 22 in San Diego, California, at the SDCCU Stadium. Mexico faced off against Chile. At that time, Mexico had most recently lost to Chile 1-0, but the teams had gone head to head 30 times, with Mexico taking most of the wins.
Next, the team moved onto Santa Clara, California, where Mexico’s team played against Paraguay. At that time, the teams had gone head to head 19 times, with Mexico again taking the majority of the wins (10 out of 19).
Mexico’s team also played at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte in this past year’s tour. The Bank of America stadium is where they will be kicking off next year’s tour. At last year’s game at the Bank of America stadium, Mexico beat Martinique 3-2 in the first round of a Gold Cup match. They played to a massive crowd of 60,000 excited fans.
Mexico’s Soccer Team: A Force to Be Reckoned With
Mexico is widely known for its passion for soccer (or fútbol, as it’s known there). Because of the timing for the 2020 match, organizers have already made clear that teams wishing to compete against Mexico should bring their best roster, as the kick-off matches, in particular, will be during the March FIFA dates.
Over the years, Mexico has qualified to win 16 World Cups. They belong to the CONCACAF, and their head coach is Gerardo Martino. Their captain is Andrés Guardado, who also plays for the Spanish club team Real Betis.
How’s The Team For #MexTour 2020 Looking?
Currently, Mexico’s team ranks 11th on the highly elite FIFA rankings. As of today, the number 1 team on the World FIFA rankings for men’s soccer in Belgium. Number two is France, then Brazil, England, Uruguay, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, and Colombia. This is lower than their peak at number 4 (a status they attained Feb-June 1998 and May-June 2006), but much higher than their lowest at number 40 in July 2015.
Today, the highest scorer of Mexico’s National Team is Javier Hernández, who has 52 goals to his name. He’ll surely be someone for competitors to keep an eye on during #MexTour 2020!
The player on the team who has made the most appearances at international games is Claudio Suárez, who clocks in at a whopping 177 games.
Other players with high “caps” (the casual word used to describe international appearances made by players) and/or goals to keep an eye on will be Héctor Moreno, who plays defense and has 104 caps, 4 goals to his name and forward Raúl Jiménez, who has 81 caps, 24 goals.
Some other players who have been called up to play on the Mexico National Team who are worth keeping an eye on will be midfielders Héctor Herrera and Jonathan dos Santos with 74 caps and 6 goals and with 47 caps, 3 goals, respectively.
