World Cup fans usually know exactly who they’re rooting for.
Ask around Los Angeles ahead of Thursday’s match between Mexico and South Korea, though, and you’ll find plenty of fans who would be perfectly happy if neither side won.
“I think we should just tie because I think that would be the most peaceful option,” said Edmund Kim, who attended South Korea’s opening-match watch party in Koreatown with his girlfriend, Ruth Perez.
She shrugged at the question about picking a side.
“Any result would be a good result, honestly,” she said. “I just love the support amongst each other.”
The two countries will meet Thursday in one of the most anticipated group-stage matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. In LA, the matchup is drawing excitement — and more than a few mixed loyalties.
Carlos Martinez has no interest in picking a side. Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, he said he was surrounded by Asian friends and developed a love for Korean food.
He’d rather not see Mexico beat South Korea at all.
“I want us to both get points and for both of us to pass on to the next stage,” he said last week at the watch party in Koreatown.
Some of that goodwill is simply a product of life in LA. As Kim puts it, the two communities are “right here living with each other so there’s no way to not support each other.”
But the relationship also has a soccer origin story.
In 2018, when South Korea defeated Germany 2-0 in the final match of the group stage, the upset helped send Mexico into the knockout rounds. Mexican fans responded by flooding social media with messages of gratitude, gathering outside the South Korean embassy and chanting, “Coreano, hermano, ya eres mexicano” — “Korean brother, you are already Mexican.”
Daniel Hong remembers that moment like it was yesterday.
Hong, 49, lives in Brownsville, Texas, but regularly travels to LA to buy merchandise for his store. On the day of the match, he was shopping at a wholesale warehouse in LA when South Korea scored.
“The first goal happens, and the screams from the warehouse could be heard from inside the showroom,” he recalled. “Second goal scored and pandemonium. The game finishes and everyone is losing their minds.”
Throughout the night, strangers offered Hong free food, drinks and repeated declarations of affection for South Korea.
“It was such an amazing feeling to see strangers rejoicing together as if we were all family,” he said.
“Celebrations lasted throughout the night in Koreatown from what I could tell from my hotel room.”
Daniel Chung, one of the founders of Tigers Supporters Group, an LAFC supporters group based in Koreatown, joked that he’ll be “chasing my shots of tequila with soju” while supporting both teams Thursday night.
“Either way, win or lose, we support each other and lift each other up,” he said.
The upcoming match also arrives at a moment when connections between the two countries extend well beyond soccer.
Mexico is one of the largest markets for Korean pop music in the world. According to Spotify, more than 14 million K-pop listeners are based in Mexico, making it the fifth-largest market globally and the largest in the Spanish-speaking world.
Biannis Angeles, who said he loves K-pop and Korean food, counts BTS among his favorite groups. The South Korean boy band is expected to headline the World Cup final halftime show alongside Madonna and Shakira.
Angeles is hoping neither side leaves disappointed.
At South Korea’s opening-match watch party against Czechia last week, green Mexico jerseys popped out among the sea of red jerseys in the crowd at Liberty Park.
Venus Meza, a Koreatown resident, supports both teams in some way because of how things shook out in 2018.
“Obviously I’ll root a little bit more for Team Mexico, but if Korea wins, I’ll also be happy with that too,” she said.
For Leo Hernandez, an LA soccer creator known online as “El Soccer Guy,” the conflict comes down to one player: Son Heung-min.
Hernandez, who has attended LAFC matches since the club’s inaugural season, said many Mexican fans first embraced the South Korea star after the 2018 World Cup and have continued to admire him for the way he carries himself on and off the field.
“He’s a player you just can’t hate no matter what,” said Hernandez. “Also because of how he’s here now, I think it really connected us to other South Koreans and the culture.”
Despite what’s at stake, Hernandez said Thursday’s match feels more like a friendly than a rivalry.
“It’s going to be hard for me to see Sonny play against my country,” he said.
Hernandez said he’d celebrate a Mexican goal, but would still hate to see Son on the losing end.
“I don’t want him to lose, but I wouldn’t want him to win. I have loyalty to both, especially because of Sonny,” he said.
Paul Kim of the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation, a co-host of the watch party at Seoul International Park in Koreatown, expects Thursday’s match to draw one of the largest crowds of the tournament.
“I hope people understand it’s just a game,” Kim said, “but these two communities work together well, respect each other well in this city and neighborhood. It means a lot.”
