Mexicans Celebrate World Cup Advance
>>>I wish I was there
MEXICO CITY (AP) - With 2,000 riot police standing nearby, thousands of fans with their faces painted in the national colors celebrated Mexico's qualification
Thursday for the second round of the World Cup.
Singing "We proved we could," throngs of teen-agers in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara rejoiced about Mexico's 2-2 tie with the Netherlands,
guaranteeing the team's advancement.
"The next team we play is going to eat Mexican chili! We're spiced up!" gloated Enrique Robles, celebrating at Mexico City's Independence monument with his hair
painted red, green and white.
Even the normally retiring wife of President Ernesto Zedillo made a televised phone call to congratulate the Mexican team.
"Give the players a hug on behalf of all Mexicans," Nilda Patricia Zedillo told Mexican coach Manuel Lapuente.
Lapuente said, "This is a holiday. Why not go out in the streets to celebrate? But do it the right way."
In the past, rowdy Mexico City celebrations have ended in arrests and damages, with fans hurling rocks and soda cans at police. About 20 people were detained for
disturbing the peace Thursday.
During the phone call with his wife, Zedillo called Mexico's come-from-behind tie "an example for all Mexicans."
"We should all act with that same character, conviction and force," he said.
To the sounds of an impromptu salsa band, teen-agers stretched volleyball nets across Mexico City's main boulevard, which was closed to traffic. Revelers roared by
on motorcycles waving large Mexican flags, while others ran celebratory laps around the angel-topped Independence monument.
"I feel very, very proud," 9-year-old Araceli Robles Martinez said, smiling through her face paint and tightly gripping her little brother's hand as her father danced.
But others were more realistic about the Mexican team's narrow qualification and chances for advancing to the quarterfinals in France.
"We'll do well, as long as the team doesn't get nervous," said Gerson Gonzalez, a 21-year-old vocational-school student.
"I'll be satisfied if we just get to the semifinals," 48-year-old carpenter Eliseo Betancourt said.
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