A hot, sunny, smoky Sunday afternoon and Raley Field combined to host an exhibition soccer match between two Mexican League first division teams, Cruz Azul of Mexico City and Tigres of Monterrey. Although Tigres is putatively the more popular of the two teams back home it wasn't evident in the stands as the Cruz Azul partisans made up the vast majority of the crowd. Or at least there were an awful lot of folks just coincidentally wearing blue.

The last time Raley Field hosted an international exhibition was last year when Monterrey of Mexico faced off against Preston North End of the English League. Although better attended it was largely a lackluster affair.

This match was a vast improvement over the aforementioned exhibition from last year, offering spirited play, good ball movement and first-touch passing that led to several creative scoring chances for both sides. The end result was a 1-1 draw but not for lack of opportunity and some great goaltending.

The crowd was approximated to be around 7,000 and although smaller than the previous exhibition's this crowd showed that it is the heart of the crowd not its size that is important. As both teams are from Mexico the audience was, not surprisingly, heavily Latino and incumbent to that a heavily Latino cultural experience. In other words, it was a fiesta. There was no short supply of flags, noisemakers, wrestling masks, music and soccer jerseys. To accommodate the demographic several of the hotdog stands had been converted to taco stands. The coterie of comely Tecate girls gladly granted any and all requests for snapshots. A drum and horn band beat out a relentless rhythmic cacophony that had the concourse jammed with enthusiastic dancers at halftime.

The favored Cruz Azul took a 1-0 lead into the locker room at halftime-but only just barely. Their goal came compliments of a penalty kick in the 25th minute. Cruz Azul striker Miguel Sabah caught the Tigres goaltender going the wrong way and punched home an easy goal. Still, it was tenuous at best and preserved when the Cruz Azul keeper stopped short blast just prior to the whistle ending the first half.

The second half, or segundo tiempo, as they say, saw a continuation of the spirited play that characterized the first half. Throughout the match Tigres appeared the more creative offensive team and finally a header in the 49th minute equalised the match. Despite the offensive ingenuity of Tigres, Cruz Azul continued to press the attack and had several chances to regain the lead but none found their mark. In the waning minutes of the game Cruz Azul seemed destined to score and only a superb diving save and a crossbar prevented them from doing so. A sharp crossing ball found a strong header placed down to the goal line but a diving save punched the ball wide. The rebound was glanced off the leg of a defender from close range and deflected to a flanking wing whose shot deflected off and over the crossbar.

Sacramento doesn't often host soccer matches of this magnitude and those in attendance got their money's worth. The crowd size was smaller than anticipated and the promoter's explanation that high temperatures were to blame seemed specious at best. Sacramento in July is not known for its cool climate. Temperatures in the 90's are to be expected. And, if not for the audience, then certainly the conditions had to seem downright balmy for the players compared to the heat, humidity, altitude and smog of Mexico City. The crowd was enthusiastic and saw some very good soccer. This is an effort worth making again.