Barra La 12
The Cement Machine of Mexican football.
Club de Futbol Cruz Azul S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Cruz Azul, is a Mexican professional football club based in Mexico City. The club competes in Liga MX and plays its home matches at Estadio Azteca.
- Affiliation
- Cruz Azul FC (unofficial supporter group)
- Home section
- Curva Norte, Estadio Azul, Mexico City
- Role
- Principal ultras / tifosi collective of the club
- Identity anchor
- Custodians of the 'La Máquina' supporter culture
- Colors
- Cruz Azul blue and white
- Status
- Active
Lore & Background
Founded in 1927 in Jasso, Hidalgo, as Club Deportivo Cruz Azul, the club relocated to Mexico City in 1971. It was renamed Cruz Azul Fútbol Club, A.C. in 2013, before adopting its current name in 2021. Cruz Azul are one of only seven Mexican clubs to have never been relegated from the top flight.
In Their Own Story
The bus is already pulling into the lot behind the Curva Norte when the first flares crack open in the distance. You can smell the sulfur before you see the orange glow bleeding through the concrete gaps between the upper and lower tiers. A kid of maybe fourteen presses his face to the barrier, eyes wide, while his grandfather beside him simply hums the chorus — the one that has been sung in this exact spot for longer than the kid has been alive. The tifo is being rolled out: a massive blue field with the white cross, the word MÁQUINA in block letters, and at the bottom, smaller, the number 12. The drums start. Not a rhythm yet — a pulse. Then the first wave of the crowd rises, and the sound hits the opposite end of the stadium like a wall of air. The referee checks his watch. The players on the pitch look up. The Curva Norte is already playing. The match has not started, but the match has already been won, in the only currency that matters here: noise, color, and the unshakeable belief that this blue end will not go quiet.
Reader's Guide
Cruz Azul's home matches are played at Estadio Azteca. The club maintains a long-standing rivalry with América, known as the Clásico Joven. According to several polls, Cruz Azul is the third-most popular team in Mexico, behind only América and Guadalajara.
Did You Know?
- Cruz Azul holds the joint-record for the most successful club in CONCACAF Champions Cup/Champions League history with six titles.
- The club achieved a continental treble in 1968–69, becoming the first CONCACAF club to do so, though the 'continental treble' is not a standard claim for the region.
- Cruz Azul was the first CONCACAF club to reach the final of the Copa Libertadores.
More in Stadium & Culture
Elsewhere in the Cruz Azul universe
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