A Group A showdown on Thursday, June 18 is more than a football matchup for Mexico and South Korea. The fan alliance in Mexico City traces back to South Korea’s 2018 World Cup upset over Germany, and it has since turned into an ongoing tradition capped by a ch
On Thursday, June 18, Mexico and South Korea will meet in a Group A match—and in Mexico City, the build-up doesn’t feel like a cold rivalry. It feels like a reunion.
Football powerhouses are competing for points, but the loudest story in the stands has been the bond between the two fanbases. The friendship, rooted in a moment from the 2018 World Cup in Russia, has outlasted the final whistle ever since.
Mexico’s path in 2018 came down to a single, fragile question: could South Korea help keep them alive? After Mexico suffered a difficult group-stage defeat to Sweden, its tournament fate depended on results elsewhere.
Then South Korea delivered the kind of upset that changes how people remember a tournament. In Russia, South Korea defeated the reigning champions, Germany, 2-0. The win knocked Germany out, and although South Korea couldn’t advance, the celebration in Mexico was immediate and emotional.
The result reshaped Group F for Mexico and Sweden, with both advancing after South Korea’s win. Germany and South Korea exited early.
In Mexico City, that gratitude didn’t stay in the stands. After South Korea’s victory. thousands of jubilant fans marched to the South Korean Embassy. filling the area with cheers. music. and waving flags. In the middle of it all. they lifted South Korea’s consul general. Han Byung Jin. into the air—an honorary gesture that quickly became part of the legend.
The consul general joined the celebration, with fans erupting into a chant that has stuck ever since: “Coreano, hermano, ya eres mexicano!”—“Korean brother, you are now Mexican!”
From that day forward, the chant carried a simple message across the rivalry: competition on the pitch, friendship in the crowd. Each World Cup since has brought the same renewed warmth between Mexico’s fans and South Korea’s supporters, a relationship kept alive by the story of 2018.
Even the symbolism shows up in the details. In Mexico City, one of the most visible faces of the movement is Merlin the duck, a World Cup superfan who charms crowds while wearing a little El Tri jersey.
At the Group A kickoff on June 18, the stakes will be obvious on the scoreboard. But for the fans who remember the route that gratitude took—from an upset over Germany to a march on the embassy—it won’t be hard to hear the other noise in the stadium: the chant. the memory. the sense that this rivalry comes with a shared identity now.
Mexico South Korea fans 2018 World Cup Russia Germany 2-0 Mexico City South Korean Embassy Han Byung Jin Coreano hermano ya eres mexicano World Cup fans