Mexico and Germany play to 2-2 tie in front of more than 62,000 fans at Lincoln Financial Field

There are many kinds of spectacles in American soccer these days: MLS and NWSL games in big cities, lower-league games in smaller places, U.S. national team showcases, European club tours.

But for many years and still today, there’s no spectacle like a Mexican men’s national team game on American shores. On Tuesday, Philadelphia got its turn to sample the noise and color that washed over Lincoln Financial Field for El Tri’s 2-2 tie with Germany.

It was Mexico’s third trip to Philadelphia in recent years, after a 2011 friendly against the United States and the 2015 Gold Cup final against Jamaica. But this was the first time Mexico brought its perennial barnstorming tour of “home” games to South Philly.

The crowd of 62,284 needed a little while to fill all of its seats, and the teams to get to the stadium. Kickoff was delayed a few minutes because the buses got stuck in traffic amid 126,579 ticket-holders flocking to the Linc, the Phillies game, and the Flyers game.

Everyone settled in soon enough, though, and was thoroughly entertained. Germany’s Antonio Rüdiger kicked things off with a goal in the 25th minute, Uriel Antua tied it in the 37th, Erick Sánchez put Mexico up in the 47th, and Niclas Füllkrug had the last say in the 51st.

Veteran Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa, who played this game and the previous two here, said he was impressed by the big crowd.

“We have to play more often here,” he told The Inquirer. “For us, this support is always important ... It’s always amazing playing in all of America, because the people follow us very often.”

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Santiago Gimenez was Mexico’s star attraction, a 22-year-old striker who’s his country’s next great hope for a star. El Tri has a history of valuing veteran experience over young potential, which is why Gimenez has come off the bench more than he starts.

Manager Jaime Lozano, a former stalwart player for his country, got a pile of questions about Gimenez in his gameday-eve news conference Monday. That felt appropriate in a place famed for knowing the thrill of victory and the agony of reading about it the next day.

“It’s the usual for the Mexican team,” veteran Fox broadcaster Rodolfo Landeros told The Inquirer before the bilingual Mexican-American worked as the sideline reporter on the English broadcast. He also knows Philly fandom, having called many NFL and MLS games over the years.

“Extremists in a sports way,” he said of Mexican fans. “When [Mexico] wins, especially against teams like Germany, or if they beat Brazil, we think we’re World Cup champions, even though it’s a friendly. But if [they] lose to any team in the world, we’re the biggest losers and don’t deserve to be in a World Cup.”

A more authentic form of agony came in the 33rd minute, when Gimenez received Jesús Gallardo′s free kick unmarked eight yards out and blasted it over the bar.

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But there were enough goals the rest of the way to make up for it.

Rüdiger opened the scoring with an opportunistic finish, jumping to Robin Gosens’ header of Leroy Sané's corner kick.

Union left back Kai Wagner must have enjoyed watching his countryman of the same position take a corner a few miles up I-95 from Wagner’s turf in Chester. Gosens probably doesn’t know Wagner, but he does know one of Wagner’s former teammates: Brenden Aaronson is now Gosens’ colleague at Union Berlin.

Antuna tied the game by slipping in a crafty setup pass from Mexico’s biggest current star, Hirving “Chucky” Lozano. It came after German veteran Thomas Müller put the ball in the net at the other end, but was narrowly flagged offside.

Longtime MLS followers might remember that Antuna spent 2019 with the Los Angeles Galaxy after two years in Manchester City’s youth academy. He went from L.A. to Chivas of Guadalajara, one of Mexico’s biggest clubs, and is now at another powerhouse in Mexico City’s Cruz Azul.

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Mexico went ahead within two minutes of the second half kicking off. Antuna served up a cross from the right wing and the 5-foot-6 Sánchez outmuscled 6-foot-5 Nicklas Süle to get his head to it.

But Germany equalized in the 51st, as a surge forward by Füllkrug, Jamal Musiala, Florian Wirtz, and Sané proved too much to handle. Musiala sprung Sané on the right with a great pass, he crossed, Wirtz forced a diving save from Guillermo Ochoa, and Füllkrug smashed in the rebound.

That was it for the goals, as the game’s flow got choppy with lots of substitutions.

» READ MORE: A look back at Germany's 3-1 win over the U.S. on Saturday