All of a sudden, a simple football game between the Stars and Stripes and El Tri could escalate into something not so funny.
The first game of CONCACAF's World Cup Qualifiers will feature Mexico visiting the United States just three days after Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the U.S.' presidential race. It wouldn't matter if the recently concluded campaign didn't have Mexico as one of the key talking points in Trump's campaign, with most of his comments being a bit...controversial, to say the least.
Labelling Mexicans as "rapists" and "drug dealers" didn't go down well on both sides of the border, and that tension could reflect on what happens next Friday at Mapfre Stadium.
Here are some of Trump's remarks just as he kicked off his campaign a few months ago.
What makes matter worse for this match is the fact that the Mexican National Team hasn't been able to defeat the USMNT in a WCQ match held in Columbus, Ohio. Each and every time El Tri has played at Mapfre Stadium, the Stars and Stripes have walked away with the win, all of them with similar score lines of 2-0, or "Dos A Cero", as the United States' supporters mockingly chant.
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Both teams enter this match with an unbeaten streak of four games, but the USMNT wasn't able to end the previous Qualifying round without a loss. Both teams' fans should consider the recent events before making any remarks that could infuriate the opposition, especially considering that Mexican fans will be massively outnumbered both inside and outside the stadium.
All we can hope for is that all the talk after the game comes from what happened on the pitch. Hopefully, fans will understand that this football match won't change the course of history, and this will give them an opportunity to build bridges between their countries, and not walls, just like someone in the U.S. promised during his presidential campaign.
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