Soccer Chronicle

San Antonio, TX, 10 September 2019: The site of the Mexico vs Argentina friendly in the Alamodome. Recent news and talk indicates that more stringent action could be taken to eradicate the P*to Chant from Mexican National Team matches. Even to the extent of suspending the match if it keeps occurring. While watching the previous Mexico friendly in New Jersey on the TV, I could faintly hear the chant. Now I was in the stadium and kept a keen ear out for the fan behavior.

The game consisted of two incidents. There may have been others, but were smaller in noise and impact. The first “grito” came and immediately after an announcement came on the big screens in the stadium, along with a vocal announcement over the PA system.

The game resumed and later on another instance where the Argentinian goalkeeper would put the ball in play, the “grito” came in loud and clear.

As perviously done, the message came on the big screen and an announcement over the PA system

This time I immediately turned around to view the Pancho Villa’s Army section. PVA has recently announced that they want no part of the chant in their membership.

As I turned around I noticed that a few fans in or around the PVA section had their hands up in the air with the pre-grito, “eeeehhhhhhhh”. Immediately after, I noticed a couple PVA members waving their fingers and telling people to stop. Perhaps some members did not get the message or they were telling other fans in the section to not perform the goalkeeper chant.

In the end, the game continued and the referee did not stop or suspend the game. It is unclear what type of instruction the refs are given in these situations.

So it looks like the chant will persist.

It was also noticed that while the PA announcement and message on the big screen appeared, the fan noise increased. It is hard to tell if this was a response of rebellion against the announcement or not.