Free Viewing Parties To Be Held In SoCal For Mexico-Ecuador World Cup Match

LOS ANGELES, CA — Mexico will begin knockout stage play in the World Cup Tuesday evening in Mexico City against Ecuador with free watch parties being held throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties.

El Tri is coming off its best group stage performance in its 17 World Cup appearances with a 3-0-0 record in Group A, although facing generally weaker opponents because of the expansion of the tournament from 32 to 48 teams.

Mexico and Spain were the only teams to not give up a goal in the group stage.

Ecuador finished third in Group E with a 1-1-1 record, losing its opener to Ivory Coast, 1-0, June 14, then tying Curacao, 0-0, June 20, and defeating Germany, 2-1, Thursday with Gonzalo Plata scoring the tie-braking goal in the 77th minute after the Germans opened the scoring in the second minute.

"We didn't get off to the start we'd hoped for in the competition, but we're still here," Ecuadorian defender Willian Pacho said.

Mexico is ninth in the unofficial rankings released after the completion of Monday's play by FIFA, soccer's global governing body. Ecuador is 24th.

The rankings are based on a point system in which points are added to or subtracted from a team's total based on the latest result. The ranking is considered unofficial until all matches are approved as international `A' matches. The latest official ranking was released June 11, the day the World Cup began.

The Opta supercomputer gives Mexico a 61.09 percent chance of advancing to the round of 16 based on 10,000 pre-match simulations, Ecuador a 38.91 percent chance.

The Mexico-Ecuador winner will face the winner of Wednesday's England- Congo match in a round of 16 match Sunday in Mexico City.

Free watch parties for the 6 p.m. game will be held at Lanark Recreation Center in Canoga Park, Northridge Recreation Center and Sycamore Grove Park in Highland Park as part of the Kick It In the Park program organized by various city of Los Angeles departments that also include youth soccer clinics, neighborhood programming and community resources.

Attendance is limited to 1,000 people at a time. Alcohol sale, possession and consumption is not permitted. Attendees are advised by organizers to bring blankets, chairs, snacks and reusable water bottles.

More information is available at kickit.lacity.gov.

Free watch parties will also be held at Galaxy Park at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica and the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles.

Capacity at Galaxy Park is approximately 2,000 people. Fans are encouraged to arrive early. Gates will open at 5 p.m.

In Orange County, a watch party for adults 21 and older will be held at The Yost Theater in Santa Ana with doors opening at 5 p.m. A watch party organized by the Orange County Soccer Club will be held at the Dave and Buster's at the Irvine Spectrum Center.

Viewing parties for Tuesday's other two round of 32 matches will also be held at the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles, Lanark Recreation Center, Northridge Recreation Center and Sycamore Grove Park, Ivory Coast will face Norway at 10 a.m. and France will play Sweden at 2 p.m.

All three of Tuesday's matches will be televised in English by Fox and in Spanish by Telemundo.