After attending the Mexico-Croatia match in Recife, we decided that the Mexican fans took the prize for loudest and largest group of supporters outside of the South American nations. The pageantry and colors were apparent from the moment we got on our flight to Recife.
We learned later that around 3,500 fans were staying on a cruise ship that had been moving from city to city following the team (note: all three of Mexico’s matches were conveniently on the coast and not far apart).
The Arena Pernambuco was at least 70% green and red and loudly supportive of the last entrant from CONCACAF. While FIFA may not approve of all of their chants, the fans have a great time and don’t care what others think of them for the most part. This includes doing the same infamous chant just outside the stadium, on the bus, and other places.
I know some of my friends back at home were rooting against our regional rival, but our group enjoyed seeing El Tri advance to the second round by defeating Croatia. If nothing else, the celebration was great to witness, and we were hopefully going to experience something similar later in the week with the U.S. team at the same stadium.