MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican soccer fans did their best to contribute ecuador Before their sleepless nights world cup Round of 32 clash at Mexico City Stadium late Tuesday.
From midnight to early morning, dozens of fans gathered outside the Westin Hotel in Santa Fe, an upscale suburb of the capital, and used loudspeakers, horns and motorcycles to disrupt the visiting team’s rest.
Team Hotel Serenade is a deeply-rooted and highly polarizing tradition in Latin American soccer. What began as a passionate way for fans to cheer on the home team has increasingly evolved into a psychological weapon aimed at depriving visiting players of a good night’s sleep.
Ecuador’s arrival was made even more chaotic by a fan ambush organized on social media. The disruption ended a severe logistical nightmare for Ecuador, which had deliberately planned a last-minute arrival on Monday night to reduce the impact of Mexico City’s 2,200-meter (7,300-foot) altitude.
To reduce the physiological damage caused by thin air, sports scientist Generally, there is a long-term acclimatization period of at least two weeks, or a “fly-in, fly-out” approach that gets you as close to kick-off as possible before the onset of acute symptoms.
This is the route that teams from major U.S. sports leagues use when coming to Mexico City for games.
But the Ecuadorian trip from Columbus, Ohio, was plagued by delays from the beginning. Ecuador head coach Sebastian Beccasese complained that his flight was delayed by more than three hours, although he did not say whether the two-hour time difference between the two cities was taken into account.
“My flight was delayed and I had to get to the hotel, so it ended up being a nine-hour trip, three hours longer than I had planned,” Beckases said. “But the team is progressing well and we’re excited. Obviously we’ll be playing against an opponent who did well in the group stage.”
To make matters worse, the team landed at Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA), 65 kilometers (41 miles) from the hotel. The team was forced to travel to Santa Fe through Mexico City’s notorious traffic jams, but heavy rain Monday night further paralyzed traffic.
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