Oranje: Challenge in Monterrey
The Netherlands prepare for their World Cup round of 16 match in Monterrey, Mexico, where they will face more challenges than just Marokko.
Welcome to Monterrey, welcome to another world. It's only a two-hour flight from Kansas City, but for the Dutch team, everything is different in Mexico's second largest city. Here, the players will face more challenges than just Marokko in the round of 16 match taking place tonight (Dutch time).
The Dutch team left Kansas City, where there was an organized structure, for the chaos of Monterrey. This industrial center of Mexico is located among the mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental. At the foot of the Loma Larga mountain is the Independencia area, a collection of seven neighborhoods that operate almost independently of each other. In the past, workers from steel mills flocked here to build low-cost housing, but according to residents of Monterrey, each barrio today has its own dynamics and crime rate. This creates a fragile balance, often disturbed by internal conflicts.
Not far from Independencia is San Pedro, the richest region in Latin America, located next to Monterrey. Under a sky of high-rise buildings and luxury offices lie sparkling shopping malls, planned lakes and tended parks, surrounded by hotels of international chains. To the north is the city center, with Barrio Antiguo as the tourist attraction, filled with colorful Mexican life. Between these two areas is Fundidora, where a giant steel plant that once belched smog over the city, has now been transformed into walking and cycling paths that wind around old blast furnaces, terraces and museums.
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