LOS ANGELES — Best friends Fernando Delgado and Josh Lee are still riding the high of seeing both their homelands — Mexico and South Korea — win their opening matches at the 2026 World Cup.

That was the easy part.

Now, their teams are going head-to-head and Delgado is hoping for a miracle, but not in the way you might think.

" A draw would be the ideal case," he says. "Because I think other than that, it's gonna be like, 'Oh man.'"

For all of the rivalries and bad blood that sports can foster, something different is in the air ahead of the Mexico vs. South Korea match on Thursday.

Earlier this month, when South Korea's squad arrived at their hotel in Guadalajara, Mexico, they were welcomed by hundreds of Mexican supporters. On social media, countless videos show fun-loving South Korean tourists partying and enjoying World Cup festivities with locals in Mexico — often with the caption, "Coreano, hermano ya eres Mexicano," meaning "Korean, brother, you are Mexican now."

The chant is a callback to the 2018 World Cup, the last time the two nations squared off on the global stage. Eight years later, as El Tri and the Taegeuk Warriors face off once again, fans from both sides are rekindling that brotherly love, adding that it's a reflection of a much deeper affinity between the two communities.

"Since then, this idea of Coreano Hermano has really persisted," Lee says, and "led to this greater appreciation for both national teams and both peoples."

How "Coreano, hermano" began

The camaraderie blossomed after the final matches of the group stage at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. After a shocking loss to Sweden, Mexico's chances of advancing to the next round hinged on South Korea beating the defending champions, Germany. Against all odds, the Asian squad pulled off the upset.

The win wasn't enough for South Korea to move forward in the World Cup. But the team was hailed as champions by grateful Mexican fans. Most famously, in Mexico City, supporters marched to the South Korean Embassy, where they hoisted the consul general, Han Byoung-jin, onto their shoulders.

Ray An, a Korean American from Fresno, Calif., was in Russia for the tournament. He recalls being showered with hugs, cheers and shots of tequila. Although he was initially disappointed by South Korea's early exit, those encounters gave him a new perspective.

"This is so much more than football. This is just so much more than winning and losing," he says. "This is what it's really about, right? Creating core memories with strangers in a foreign land."

Years later, An says the 2018 World Cup continues to be a point of connection whenever he meets someone from Mexico.

" Looking back, I mean maybe in the long run, this is actually a better thing for us to have happened," he says, referring to South Korea's failure to advance.

Geopolitically, Mexico and South Korea are growing closer

When diplomatic relations between South Korea and Mexico formally began in 1962, the friendship was a slow burn, according to José Luis León-Manríquez, who teaches East Asian studies at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City.

At the time, there was a strong nationalist sentiment in Mexico, León-Manríquez says, which made the country cautious of building ties with U.S. allies such as South Korea. It wasn't until the late 1980s that the two nations made headway, largely through trade and the arrival of Korean factories in Mexico. This also led to a wave of Korean migration to the country, León-Manríquez says.

" After that, links between both countries have increased a lot. Both in political, but especially in cultural and economic terms," he says.

Today, South Korea is one of Mexico's top trading partners. There's also a sizable Koreatown in Mexico City. Further north, the city of Pesquería — home to a Kia Motors manufacturing plant— is nicknamed "Pescorea" to reflect its large Korean community.

Culturally, Mexico has been swept up in the K-wave — which refers to the global craze for South Korean pop culture. In 2025, Mexico ranked fifth among countries that play the most K-pop, according to Spotify.

A friendship on and off the field

Korean and Mexican soccer fans have a number of theories for the warm ties.

Jean Lim Flores, a Korean American from Los Angeles, attributes it to both teams' underdog status. Despite their rich talent, neither have made it past the round of 16 in over 20 years. Most stubbornly, Mexico hasn't played in the quarterfinals since 1986. South Korea's deepest run was in 2002, when it reached the semifinals and placed fourth.

"Neither of our countries have won the World Cup," she says. "It would be exciting to see either Korea or Mexico win."

Her husband, Shon Flores, who is Mexican American, believes both teams have more heated rivals to focus on, like Japan for South Korea or Brazil and the U.S. for Mexico.

"I can see a lot of this coming together and closeness between some of the other teams, but I don't know about U.S. vs. Mexico," he says.

Others say the kinship over soccer is simply a reflection of the growing connections that already exist, like in Los Angeles, which is home to the largest Korean and Mexican population in the U.S.

Carlos González Gutiérrez and Youngwan Kim are not only consul generals of Mexico and South Korea based in L.A., but they're good friends, partly through their shared love for soccer. Months ago, the pair made a friendly bet over Thursday's match, which kicks off at 9 p.m. ET. If Mexico loses, González Gutiérrez will gift Kim a bottle of tequila. If the opposite happens, Kim will send over some soju. It's not (entirely) about bragging rights.

" This is a sign of friendship between our two countries," González Gutiérrez told NPR recently, adding that it's a "reflection of what already happens in this city on a daily basis."

Over the past year, in L.A.'s Koreatown, where Latino and Asian Americans make up the majority of the neighborhood, many residents have come together against immigration raids.

Paul "PK" Kim is hoping the World Cup will be a chance to unite over some much needed fun and reprieve. Kim is the marketing director at the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation, which is organizing a watch party in the heart of Koreatown on Thursday.

"There's always some awkward tension because everybody's competitive," he says. " The more important thing is being together."

"En las buenas y en las malas"

Best friends Lee and Delgado met at a watch party for a Los Angeles Football Club game in 2018. Now, the two help lead one of the MLS club's supporters groups, Tigers.

Lee says the group often sings a song that goes, "En las buenas y en las malas." That's how he's approaching Thursday's match — although he says he would like to see South Korea beat Mexico once on the global stage.

"In the good and the bad, we're celebrating together," he says.

Bonyub Koo and Mirella Vargas, a Korean American and Mexican American married couple in L.A., will be rooting for opposing teams come Thursday. But in a way, that makes it more fun.

" Once we found out that they were going to play against each other, we were super happy," she says, calling it "a friendly competition."

When the two started dating in 2019, soccer was among the first things they bonded over. Now married, Koo says he's more excited to watch Mexico vs. South Korea than the World Cup final. Given his love for both teams, he can't imagine a scenario where he will come away feeling disappointed.

" Whoever wins, that's my team," he says.

What does the past tell us about the possible outcome on Thursday? Well, the two squads faced off most recently last year at an international friendly in Nashville, Tenn. The final score? 2-2.

Emanuel Hahn, a Korean American photographer based in New York, says he wouldn't be mad if history repeats itself. Hahn, Lee and An are the creators behind the docuseries Korea, Away about the Korean diaspora and their fandom for South Korea's soccer team.

"If we drew with Mexico, I think it would be the ultimate sort of handshake moment," he says. "It's crazy because I don't know if I would say that about any other country."

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