Don’t know TV Azteca? For most of the U.S., there’s a good reason for that. The Mexican broadcaster is a player in the FMF soccer world and will be broadcasting Oct. 10’s Confederations Cup playoff between the United States and Mexico, but unless you’re a Spanish speaker or a Liga MX diehard, you’ve probably never ventured onto the network.
Today, however, Azteca made a name for itself among a new batch of U.S.-based fans with one of the more entertaining promotional spots in recent memory. Capitalizing on the ongoing Donald Trump craze, Azteca took comments from the presidential candidate’s infamous candidacy announcement to promote its upcoming coverage.
SEE MORE: Tuesday a failure on all levels for Klinsmann, U.S. Soccer.
The full video, which can be seen, above, had over 60,000 views at the time of this posting – mere hours after the clip went public. Some of the highlights:
- As Trump says, “When Mexico sends its people (to the United States), they’re not sending their best,” Azteca edits in video of Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Jorge Campos, and Giovania dos Santos, all of whom have played in Major League Soccer.
- When Trump says, “Our country is in serious trouble,” Azteca intersperses video of El Tri goals among the confused expressions of Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Tim Howard and Bob Bradley.
- When Trump says, “[The U.S. doesn’t] have victories anymore,” Azteca cuts to dos Santos’s famous goal in the 2011 Gold Cup final – Bob Bradley’s final game in charge of the U.S.
The clip ends with Trump bombastically pronouncing “the American dream is dead,” as if Azteca’s producers had secretly written his announcement speech with this video in mind.
SEE MORE: Klinsmann’s experiments equal a frustrating viewing experience.
No matter what you think of Trump’s politics, it’s an ingenious use of what’s become a notorious speech. If FOX Sports can offer a similar response — being it building on Miguel Herrera’s airport decorum or Ricardo Ferretti’s sideline “tactics” — we might get a buildup that matches the hype of the much-anticipated playoff.
