Estadio Olimpico Benito Juarez

The Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez is located in Ciudad Juárez, where the sun does not spare the concrete stands. The ground opened in 1981 as a venue for athletics and football, but the track around the pitch now feels like a relic from a different era, one where sport was not yet packaged for television audiences.

What distinguishes the place is not its size, but its proximity to the border. The mountain range that rises behind the main stand is visible from every seat, and the wind that sweeps down from the Chihuahua desert crosses the pitch before it hits the fans. The capacity was trimmed to 19,703 after FC Juárez returned to the top flight, a decision that left the stadium with the smallest numbers in the league, yet the crowd often fills the terraces to the point where the standing sections are not needed. The colours in the stands are predominantly red and white, a sign of loyalty despite the club's precarious existence in the professional game.

The stadium was not built for comfort. The concrete steps are hard, and the seating arrangement in the lower tier is tight, forcing supporters to sit shoulder to shoulder. There is no roof over the main enclosure, so the sun and rain dictate the experience of the match more than any modern technology. The LED floodlights installed in 2015 changed the way the evening games were played, but the structure remains unchanged since the renovation that preceded FC Juárez's rise to the first division. The pitch itself is natural grass, cut short to accommodate the track, which means the ball moves quickly and the players must adapt to a surface that is not designed for the slower pace of association football.

The ground has hosted finals and concerts, but its identity is tied to the local team that plays here. The atmosphere is not loud because of the acoustics, but because the people have nowhere else to go. The incident with the away fans in 2016 was contained within the stadium, but the tension spilled over into the streets outside, a reminder that the boundary between sport and society is thin in this part of the world.