Thursday, January 22, 2015

Mexico vs Paraguay Friendly Confirmed for Arrowhead

The friendly between Mexico and Paraguay to be played in Kansas City has been confirmed today by the Mexican Federation. The game will take place on Tuesday, March 31st with an 8pm Central Time kick off at Arrowhead. The game will be the second of two friendlies that Mexico is playing in the United States during that international break. The first is three days earlier in Los Angeles against Ecuador.

This will be the first standalone international match between two countries that are not the United States to take place in Kansas City. The other international matches not involving the US have been coupled with the Gold Cup or with Olympic qualifying. It's also the first time that the full Mexican national team will play in Kansas City.

From my personal experience, fans from all over the Midwest will travel to Kansas City for this game. It being a mid-week game will cut down some on the traveling crowd, but it should still be a decently sized crowd for the game. Back in 2009, Arrowhead hosted a friendly between Club America and Chivas Guadalajara that game drew over 26,000 people on a Wednesday night.

The attendance for that friendly is probably one of the main reasons why that this game is going to be held at Arrowhead and not across town at the city's Soccer Specific Stadium, Sporting Park. With a seating capacity of just 18,467, putting the game at the larger stadium makes sense for all parties involved. I'd expect at least north of 30,000 for this game, possibly more if it is promoted well.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Everyone should try and go to this game. I imagine it will be unlike anything you've been to before.
My wife and I went to the America/Chivas game in '09. We were a minority as Caucasian English speakers. The PA announcing was all Spanish and the crowd was LOUD and involved the whole game. It was a very fun, exciting, different experience.
I would expect this game to be similar. It's probably your best way to experience an true international game without traveling out of the USA.