PACHUCA, Mexico (AP) — Mexico hopes to showcase its soccer culture both on and off the pitch when it co-hosts the World Cup with the United States and Canada next month.While the sport is growing across North America, it has long been the undisputed No. 1 in Mexico, which will become the first country to host three men’s World Cups.The roots of modern Mexican soccer can be traced far beyond the host cities of Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City to a misty silver mining town where Britons and Mexicans forged a bond in the 19th century.British miners—chiefly from Cornwall — brought the sport to Mineral del Monte, formerly known as Real del Monte, a mountain town located near Pachuca, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Mexico City, where they worked in the local silver mines.“When the miners arrived, they started playing among themselves during their breaks, and then they involved the Mexicans, who found it strange at first, but they started playing and interacting, and that’s how they began to spread the football fever in Real del Monte,” said Brasil Ordaz, who teaches soccer history at the Soccer Hall of Fame museum in Pachuca.
Matches between English and Mexican teams were played near the Dolores Mine in the late 1800s and early 1900s, on a site now used as a parking lot. A dusty metal plaque marks the location as the birthplace of soccer in Mexico.
