In Los Angeles, Mexico fans make every World Cup game their own

LOS ANGELES, June 23 : Father‑and‑daughter soccer fans Jose Roman and Jacqueline Damian were among a stream of supporters in green Mexico shirts pouring into Los Angeles Stadium for a recent World Cup match, passing Spanish‑speaking vendors selling Mexican beer, flags and hats and grills smoking with bacon‑wrapped street dogs.

The only thing missing was the Mexico team - the game was Switzerland versus Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Even with Mexico playing all their matches on home soil in a World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada, their supporters are a constant presence at games in Los Angeles, effectively a de facto third team in a county home to nearly 5 million Latinos, the largest such community in the U.S.

"It doesn't matter what team is playing here, there are always Mexican fans," said Damian, 26, who lives in Anaheim, home to Disneyland, and works as an analyst at Northgate Market, a U.S.-Mexican grocery store chain.

Even at the U.S. team’s opening game, Mexico shirts rivalled Team USA colours at the 70,000-seat stadium, though many Mexico supporters also wore U.S. hats, scarves and other symbols to signal solidarity.

The effect extends across America’s second-largest city, home to generations of Mexico fans, from U.S.-born descendants to Mexican-born immigrants and others living in the U.S., who are determined to play host to all World Cup fans.

WATCH PARTY

At a Mexico watch party in Boyle Heights, a historically Latino neighbourhood east of downtown Los Angeles, Mexican fans mingled with dozens of Koreans and Korean Americans. Mexico fans waved small Korean flags, a nod to the 2018 World Cup, when South Korea’s win over Germany helped Mexico advance.

"We love the Koreans!" said Andrew Gomez, a 20‑year‑old born