TIJUANA, Mexico -- Like many cities in Mexico, Tijuana has long embraced American sports such as baseball, basketball and football as part of its sporting diet. Up until 2011, the city was without a top-level pro sports franchise of its own, a void filled by Xolos, who currently compete in the country's top soccer league, the Liga MX.
Even with the city embracing soccer, Tijuana is in a lot of ways an extension of Southern California fandom. Sports bars in trendy neighborhoods are mostly filled with memorabilia and pictures of regional legends such as Tony Gwynn, LaDainian Tomlinson and Kobe Bryant, among others.