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What Does Cement Have to do With Soccer?
OK, so I grew up watching soccer as a kid in England. I went through the excitement and the heartache of following my favorite team's every game as if it was a matter of life and death.
Since I moved to the states I haven't really followed soccer much, only really paying attention to World Cup games, and becoming an NFL addict and die-hard Packer fan.
However, I figured that a good way to understand more about México would be to get to know something about the Primera División Mexicana.
I was reading an article on-line about a recent game between Cruz Azul (Blue Cross) and Toluca (Los Diablos Rojos - "The Red Devils"). The article made reference to the Cruz Azul fans as "aficionados cementeros" and I found lots of other references to the team and their fans as "cementeros" (cement makers) and "la maquina cementera" (cement making machine). I was confused - I didn't see the connection between soccer and cement.
The answer was simple, but shows how we sometimes need more context to undserstand things like this. It turns out that "Cruz Azul" is the name of one of the biggest cement manufacturers in México!
So my favorite NFL team, the Green Bay Packers, share something in common with the Cruz Azul soccer team - they both got their name from the company that originally sponsored them.