LIVE REACTION: England Fans After the Instant Classic Mexico vs. England

Declan Link gathers fan reaction after the incredible England vs. Mexico at the Azteca Stadium. 

To follow our Patreon page for exclusive series on international topics, copy and paste the link below:

https://tinyurl.com/FriendsofWorldSportsetcPatreon

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hello and good evening. This is Declan Link reporting from our hotel. Having just got back after the big game tonight against Mexico at the Azteca Stadium. Wonderful evening, truly sensational, massively impressive. The stadium, the uh evening, the atmosphere, and ultimately the result. Okay, here we are in the rooftop bar. I've got George New, son of the legend, Sean New, who is uh probably somewhat excited about tonight's game because I don't know if he's ever been to a World Cup game before, but this was the fantastic game. Mexico at home in a World Cup knockout game. George, what are your thoughts on tonight's game?

SPEAKER_06 1:14

It's probably the best experience I've ever had. Um it's my second World Cup game. I went to Ghana, England in Boston before, which obviously wasn't that exciting. Uh, other than me actually being there, that was exciting in itself. Um, in terms of experiences in my lifetime that I've ever felt compared to the Aztec uh, I'd say watching Oasis at Wembley is the closest, but it doesn't compare to the feeling that that that I have after after tonight. It's I I don't have words. I don't have words, it's it's absolutely outrageous.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Brilliant, George. See you on Saturday in Miami, fingers crossed. Okay, following on from George New, I have uh favourite son number two, Tommy Link, who has never been to a game quite like this before. Tommy, what are your thoughts on tonight's game against Mexico at home in the Azteca?

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Well, it's quite ironic. So when I was at the event uh for when we were all together, Paul Smith, John Bob Helio, Declan Link sat at the lamb last night. I wasn't given the microphone, and what I would have said if I was given the microphone was England needed some kahunas to win the match tonight. And the man that had the kahunas tonight was Jude Bellingham. I didn't have the kahunas in the lamb, but Jude Bellingham had the kahunas in the Azteca tonight, and that's all that mattered. And we go home happy. See you in Miami next Saturday. We love you. The World Cup etc. podcast. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Brilliant, Tommy. Thank you very much, and a massive shout out to Joey after last night's stuff. Thanks, mate. On the on the back of last night's fantastic session at the Lamb with John and PST, uh, I've got Gordon here to give a critical analysis tonight's game. Um we were all shouting. Gordon had his shirt off at one point, which I told him to put it back on. Um Gordon, what do you think about tonight's game?

SPEAKER_07 3:33

Well, it's difficult to give a critical analysis because I'll give an emotional analysis because they're all heroes who uh played out of their skins. Um and I think that we just about deserved to win. Uh I don't really want to I don't think I can dissect the game from uh you know critical point of view because it was just so unbalanced in favour of one team and not in favour of another team, the other team being England, that it was really everything went against them, yet they came through. And so that's what I'm saying. They're heroes.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

What about your thoughts on being in the Azteca Stadium?

SPEAKER_07 4:20

Yes, I mean uh looking outward onto the onto the field and the stands and the Mexican fans iconic. Looking the other way towards the tunnels and the um rather kind of dodgy loos and the lack of facilities, not so great, but you know, clearly one of the iconic stadiums of the world and top of my bucket list, and I'm glad to take it off.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

So at the end of the day, we move on to Miami on Saturday. You must be quite happy we're playing Norway rather than Brazil, or am I wrong?

SPEAKER_07 5:01

You're wrong. I'd rather we were playing Brazil because I think Norway are a very strong team, whereas Brazil, as was proved today, are not.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Brilliant. Thank you, Gordon. As always, looking forward to catching up on Saturday in Miami. Take care, mate. Okay, we're going through our whole posse here, and we have young Jack Link, 22 years old, who has been spoiled with some of the big tournaments he's been to. I have a funny feeling his experience at the Azteca today was up there with the best. What do you think, Jack?

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Well, I'll say it's up there on the best. It is the best game I've ever been to wearing an English shirt. I've been to the Qatar World Cup and went to every game, went to the Euros. That was fantastic games, not performance-wise, but just result-wise and celebration-wise. But this game today, being in the Azteca, playing Mexico, the atmosphere, everything about it was just absolutely fantastic. You cannot ask for anything better than that. Obviously, England got results, they got two chances in the first half, finished both of them. I need it, I need to watch the highlights of it because we'll see how it actually panned out. Apparently, people are saying this is the best game of the World Cup so far. I need to watch all the highlights and actually soak it in and realize what we've been to. But come on, England, onto Mexico, against Norway. Not Mexico, onto Miami, against Norway.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Come on, you've gotta love it. Brilliant. Thanks, Jack. Your your voice is sounding very raspy, like you've been singing a lot of England songs tonight. What's your favorite England song?

SPEAKER_00 6:44

And after all.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Okay, we're down to the last two of our little crew here. We have the legend that is Shawnee New, who has gone to like seven different South American, Central American airports to get here, and he's leaving in about an hour and a half to get back to Orlando, going via three airports. Sean, try and give us a feel for your experience today at the Azteca, watching our beloved England.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

Declan, we've uh we've been through a lot together. We've seen a lot of things, we've never seen anything like that. We're standing 3,000 England fans in an 87,000 crowd getting beer, piss, shit, empoladas, hot sauce, everything thrown at us. And we stood, we took it. The England team had the referee adversity. We took that, and we came through and we won, and it was an unbelievable experience.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

I completely agree, Sean. Are you gonna go to Miami on Saturday or have you got something else going on?

SPEAKER_04 7:57

Actually, no, I've got I've got a haircut booked, but um, I'll see if I can get it moved, and maybe I'll swing it and get by to Miami and go and see England. The the big Norwegians.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Brilliant, Sean. Thanks, mate. As always, it was a pleasure having you on. Pleasure cuddling you, pleasure high-fiving with you, crying with you. You know, I I fell over three times tonight, and you picked me up three times. So thanks, mate.

SPEAKER_08 8:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Okay, the last uh short interview of the evening is with Joe Massino, who is the most intelligent of the Massino family. He is a true scholar of the game. He knows what he's talking about. The rest of them are absolutely rubbish about what they're talking about, especially the dad. Joe, summarize tonight's experience because everyone here is just so made up that they saw England beat Mexico at home in the Azteca Stadium. Give us your thoughts.

SPEAKER_05 8:51

Um, tonight was the most intense football match that I've ever been to, uh, personally, I thought. But everything everything was sort of sacked against England when you went to see Azteca. It was the only match I'd ever been to at a World Cup where like 90% of the fans were uh not supporting England. It was a home game for Mexico in Mexico. There's a whole altitude conversation. There was the people setting fireworks off for the England hotel last night. Everything was stacked against England today, and they still managed to win somehow. I got a red card. Um, we had beer being thrown on us from the the next stand. How many bags of piss? Probably heaps of piss, but then there was the the penalty that um Mexico had. I remember looking over, and you and Dad had your hoods up. I was like, why have they got their hoods up? I was like, oh, they're expecting the piss being thrown on them in like one second once Raoul scores this penalty, and sure enough, he scored and just we had uh all this liquid thrown on us from above. But um, yeah, it was intense. It was uh the crazy experience going.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Arguably one of the best your football experience of your life, because when all of a sudden you love England and we're in a a for foreign, hostile type of environment, and we won, so we move on.

SPEAKER_05 10:17

That's right, but also I want to say afterwards, all the Mexicans we met were just like well played. Great job. Um, and they've all been really nice.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yeah, I I completely agree. Like I said at the beginning, the Mexican um people at the stadium, the Mexicans who uh were on the train with us, the Uber drivers have been maximum respectful. It's been an absolute pleasure to be here. There's a lot of synergies between the Mexican people and the English people because of football. When all is said and done, football is the united um thing that gets everyone together in the world. So we love our whole experience here. We're happy we won. Good luck to Mexico, and thank you to all our little crew who have contributed tonight's roundup of our game Roll on Miami. So that's a roundup after a fantastic evening for England, for all the England fans who are visiting Mexico, Mexico City. As I said earlier on, fair play and kudos and uh congratulations to uh everyone who welcomed the English fans to the stadium today. Good luck in future uh games for Mexico and good luck to England in Miami against Norway.