Mexico's sporting heart - Futbol

Our time in Mexico City would not be complete without seeing Mexicans in action at the football. Fortunately choosing a home team out of the eight or so teams in the city was not a problem. UNAM, the university we are attending, has its own team, the Pumas who play in the national league.

Puma pride is everywhere in our neighbourhood, a five minute walk away from UNAM's mammoth campus. People walk around in Puma jerseys even on days when they're not playing, there are merchandise stores everywhere and their logo is graffitied on most walls around here.

The Puma's home ground is the Olympic Stadium, which is part of the uni campus. It hosted the controversial 1968 Mexico City Olympics, which were marred by a massacre of student protesters just 10 days before they started.

In the underpass leading to the stadium, we were first struck by the incredible security presence. Riot police with plastic shields lined the perimeter. We were patted down twice before being shunted to the entry way - girls on one side and boys on the other. Moments later, we saw why all of this manpower was necessary - a fight broke out near the entrance, and as the police mobilised themselves it quickly spilt onto the main road out front, stopping passing traffic.

Inside the stadium, fans of the away team were housed right down the end behind one of the goals and were snugly encircled by a ring of police. Our Mexican friends who we came with to the match said there is always a big effort to keep the home and away side fans well apart. Apparently, when Los Pumas play América, the nearest local team, the stadium is divided in half with home fans on one side and away fans on the other, under a big guard of the riot squad.

Nothing actually happened during the match, I guess with all that security and distance between the fans it wasn't possible - but that didn't stop the passion of the home side fans. Most of them were on their feet, singing and chanting during the entire 90 minutes of the match. At the start everyone sung the Pumas anthem while doing the Puma salute - right arm raised at 90 degrees with a fist (fingers out straight would be a Nazi salute).

The Pumas were playing Monterrey - the second-biggest economic zone in the country after Mexico City and home to some of the worst drug cartel violence at present. It was a bit of a grudge match seeing as Monterrey had defeated the Pumas in the semi-finals at the end of last season.

Nevertheless, the Pumas prevailed. When they scored their first goal about midway through the first half, the crowd went crazy, screaming and cheering, then singing the official Pumas chant, while we scrambled to learn the words. Monterrey then scored a penalty goal, which was met with extremely loud boos from the time the penalty occurred to well after the goal was scored.

In the second half the Pumas scored again, a magnificent header off a well-placed corner. They followed this up with another goal near the end of the match, the nail in the coffin for the away team. At the end of the match, everyone just stood around for while - I discovered that it was because the police let the away side fans out first and give them a really big headstart before letting the home side fans loose.