Mexico will open its three-match fall tour in the United States against Colombia at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday, September 26, and Rafael Márquez will make his head coaching debut that night. The match is the first stop in MexTour’s 23-year history in Baltimore.
The timing is what gives the schedule its edge. Tickets for all three matches go on sale Wednesday, August 5 at 10 a.m. local time through SomosLocales.com, and the games fall inside an official FIFA international match window, which means all four teams are expected to bring their top rosters.
Federación Mexicana de Fútbol and Soccer United Marketing announced three marquee fall matches as part of the annual MexTour, giving Mexico a quick run through Baltimore, Harrison and Los Angeles over about 10 days. After Colombia, Mexico will face Peru at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey, on Tuesday, September 29, before closing against Chile at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday, October 6.
The three venues each carry their own weight. M&T Bank Stadium seats about 70,000 fans, Sports Illustrated Stadium holds 25,000 and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has room for more than 76,000. MexTour has averaged more than 50,000 fans per match over the past decade, and Mexico’s support in the United States has been estimated at 65 million by Nielsen Sports.
There is still one question the schedule does not answer: which players will actually be on the field when the matches begin. The setup points toward full-strength rosters, but the list itself has not been released, and Márquez’s debut adds another layer of interest to a tour that is already being framed as Mexico’s return to the United States after its FIFA World Cup campaign.
That makes the Baltimore opener the clearest marker on the calendar. If Mexico arrives with the squad the window suggests it should, Márquez will begin his tenure in front of one of the biggest crowds on the tour, with the rest of the fall trip set to follow fast behind.
