In Mexico, Nothing Rivals Chivas-America

I’ll always remember the moment I became a fan of the Mexican soccer club America. The score was tied late in the second half of a night game in Mexico City when Manuel Camacho, America’s goalkeeper, fouled a player for Chivas, America’s archrival from Guadalajara. Camacho was ejected.

Rookie Lalo Palmer, America’s center forward and a star of the future, substituted for Camacho on the ensuing penalty kick. The fans in Olympic Stadium roared in anticipation. Palmer was small for a goalkeeper, and no one knew if he could stop the point-blank shot.

But he did, America went on to win, and I decided that America was my team, even if it meant getting grief from my father, a lifelong Chivas fan.

The Chivas-America rivalry is like that. It has divided Mexicans for generations. In fact, it is hardly overstatement to say that there are two kinds of Mexicans--those who root for Chivas, with its all-Mexican roster, and those who root for America, whose roster has always been studded with foreign stars.

In popular mythology, Chivas is the team of the common people and America the team of rich Mexico City sophisticates.

In fact, the teams share similar beginnings. Both were founded by people of European origin who happened to be living in Mexico.

In 1906, a Belgian and a Frenchman living in Guadalajara got together with Mexican friends and formed a soccer team they called Union Football Club. Two years later the name was changed to Guadalajara. They chose red and white jerseys to honor the Belgian soccer club Bruges. They wanted to wear green shorts to honor the Mexican flag, but went with blue because they thought it matched better.

America was founded in 1916, by a group of students who had just graduated from the French Marist School Morelos, in Mexico City.

Today the longtime rivals will meet again--Mexican clubs Necaxa and Monterrey will play as well--in the Coliseum in preparation for the new Mexican League season. A large crowd is expected.

An added attraction is the controversy surrounding Ramon Ramirez, arguably the best player in Mexico. He has been Chivas’ star for the last five years but last week was sold, over his protests, to America. He will be playing his former team for the first time.

Now that I live here, I don’t get a chance to watch as many Chivas-America games as I once did. So I am looking forward to today’s game. But I must admit that, as I grow older, my loyalty for America has begun to weaken, and I am sometimes tempted to shift my loyalty back to my father’s team, Chivas.

But before deciding, I want to see how Ramirez does.

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Munoz is a Times editorial writer.