MEXICO CITY — César Aquino had never been to the Fan Festival in Mexico City’s Zócalo. But on Wednesday, the day after Mexico beat Ecuador 2-0 to secure its fourth consecutive World Cup victory, the fan and his wife, Angélica Arias, walked to the plaza wearing two identical caps. Both had the same question embroidered on them: “¿Y si sí?”
In English, it translates to “What if we do?”
It’s a catchphrase that fans, players and public figures have used to encourage people to dream that the Mexican national soccer team can exceed expectations.
“I’m pleasantly surprised by how the team has progressed,” Aquino said. “The enthusiasm of the people is reaching all of us; little by little, that excitement has taken hold of us. That’s why I’m here.”
Last month, the streets of Mexico City told a different story. They were filled with protesters — including outraged members of a teachers’ union and relatives of kidnapping victims — as well as fans skeptical of a team that, four years earlier, posted its worst World Cup performance since 1978. Social problems and public anger toward the government mingled with soccer-induced anxiety.
“The mood in the country was somber; morale was low,” recalled Aquino, who attended the World Cups in South Africa in 2010, Brazil in 2014 and Qatar in 2022. “But as the date approached, people got more and more into it.”
On Tuesday, more than a million fans took to the streets to celebrate Mexico’s advancement to the World Cup’s round of 16, a feat the national team hadn’t achieved since 1986, and with each victory, the human tide grows. More than 400,000 people surrounded El Ángel de la Independencia statue for the first Mexico game, then more than 800,000 gathered for the next few games and more than a million during Mexico’s most recent win.
“The day before the World Cup began, I felt like it was going to be a lackluster World Cup — even forced upon the fans,” recalled Víctor Velásquez, an Estrella TV reporter from Los Angeles covering Fan Fest in Mexico City. “Now I can’t remember a time when the fans have been so devoted to El Tri.”
The chant that once defined Mexican fans at World Cups — “Sí se puede” (“Yes, you can” in English) — has been supplanted not only in the streets, but also in stadiums. “¿Y si sí?” echoed on Tuesday from the throats of more than 80,000 fans inside Azteca Stadium as the national team was leading Ecuador 2-0 and victory felt within reach.
The phrase took hold before the World Cup during a news conference ahead of the Liga MX playoffs. Efraín Juárez, then the coach of Pumas, was asked about the possibility of his team ending a long title drought. The former World Cup player responded with a question of his own: “What if they do? What if the Pumas do become champions?”
That response went viral and now the phrase “¿Y si sí?” is chanted by Mexicans as they cheer on their national soccer team — a squad that boasts four wins without conceding a goal.
Veteran Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa posted a photowearing a cowboy hat bearing the “¿Y si sí?” inscription. Many artists have featured the phrase on social media, turning it into an unofficial campaign to support Mexico.
For Jesús Roberto Ramírez, a 36-year-old poet and content creator, the phrase touches on something deeper.
“I think all Mexicans have a ‘What if we do?’ in our lives,” said Ramírez, whose video thanking the World Cup and the Mexican national team for bringing joy to millions of Mexicans accustomed to bad news was shared by FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
“In Mexico, our very education holds us back. It tells us we won’t be able to do it because we’re Mexican. But life has taught us to fight for the impossible. The ‘What if we can?’ goes far beyond soccer.”
Adriana Valasis, an N+ reporter in Mexico City who has covered World Cups and the Olympic Games, has seen firsthand how the Mexican national team lifted the fans’ spirits and brought Mexican society together.
“I think it has broken down a marked inequality we have in Mexico,” Valasis said. “The political problems aren’t over, but I think Mexico needed an outlet. It was something we needed and didn’t even know it.”
Ramírez described it as an unexpected truce in a society fractured by politics.
“Right now, as Mexicans, we’re in such a polarized moment that you can’t even question what your government is doing without being labeled as part of the opposition, nor can you applaud what it does well without being labeled as being on one side or the other,” Ramírez said. “I desperately needed a breather. I missed being able to chat with my neighbor for 15 minutes without our political preferences coming up.”
On Sunday, Mexico will play another do-or-die knockout match against England in Mexico City — a game that, if won, is already expected to spark one of the biggest celebrations in the country’s history and will match the achievements of the 1970 and 1986 World Cups, when El Tri also reached the quarterfinals as a World Cup host.
If they win, authorities and fans have called for caution and restraint. On Tuesday, four people died when more than 1 million fans gathered near Ángel de la Independencia statue to celebrate Mexico’s win. Mexican authorities announced no more than 25,000 will be allowed to gather near the statue, with overflow crowds directed to 49 other locations along Paseo de la Reforma and throughout the city featuring screens showing the game. FIFA briefly considered shifting the kickoff time from evening to daytime to further improve fan safety, but England and Mexico teams opposed the change and Mexican authorities assured they could keep fans safe inside and outside Azteca Stadium, so the game remains scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. local time.
The security adjustments aren’t expected to quell Mexico’s World Cup fever.
During the tournament, a new tradition has also emerged: Fans gather and toss a person into the air, as is traditionally done with a groom at a wedding. The fans are mirroring the Mexican team’s postgame celebrations, which have included tossing Ochoa in the air after he played in his sixth and likely final World Cup game at Azteca Stadium.
“These new generations want to fly,” Ramírez said. “This euphoria hasn’t been just because of Mexico’s athletic successes, but also because of the social failures we’ve been dragging around. This World Cup has been a pressure valve that we’ve blown off with this joy.”
Even so, he knows the celebration has an expiration date.
“A World Cup isn’t going to change the problems we have as a country because these are problems we’ve been dragging along for generations,” Ramírez said. “But I would like to dream that something of this fellowship will remain with us. Soccer is a celebration. If Mexico loses, it’s going to hurt, but it won’t be a problem, because we already have more than enough other problems.
“I hope that this unity we have as Mexicans stays with us — even if it’s just a tiny bit — when the World Cup is over.”
Ramírez then repeated one of the lines from his viral video expressing gratitude for Mexico’s newfound joy.
“How beautiful you are, happy Mexico.”