A Brief Introductory Note

This data was taken directly from Twitter. The datasets used for this analysis are composed of the 600 most recent Tweets from the USMNT Twitter account & the Mexican National Team’s Twitter account (at the time I am writing this). Obviously, they have tweeted since this has been published, but these tweets are the most recent at this particular point in time.

The purpose of this analysis is to focus on the great rivalry in CONCACAF: the United States vs Mexico. Since the final stages of World Cup Qualifying are currently ongoing, the Twitter accounts for each team are up, running, and in full force. Both teams post tons of content daily, and have been for quite some time, since this is such a big time period for both teams; qualifying for the World Cup, the biggest stage in soccer, is obviously huge. But in a bigger picture, both teams have gone through a transitional period, recently, with lots of roster turnover (due to injury, giving younger players a chance, etc.) & coaching staff turnover (the US had a coaching carousel before settling on Berhalter, and Mexico has had their fair share of managers in recent time periods)

NOTE: For both teams, I’m choosing to analyze their main accounts: @USMNT (for the US Men’s National Team) & @MiseleccionMX (for the Mexican National Team). Each team has alternate accounts which post the same content, but in different languages & dialects. Both team’s main accounts generate the most interaction & are the most well-known. I’d imagine they have alternate language accounts to cater to specific audiences, which is pretty cool.

NOTE: I’m choosing to analyze the most recent 600 tweets from @USMNT and @MiseleccionMX; this does not include any quote tweets, or just tweets in general, (from anyone) at the two teams. These data sets are purely the 600 most recent tweets from each team. By applying this type of filter, I’m trying to measure overall fan interaction & fan perception of their teams.

Twitter Interaction Analysis

Now, let’s get into the actual Twitter analysis!

An important aspect of Twitter is interaction, especially for big brands, corporations, teams, etc. They demonstrate how popular an account representing a brand can be, so let’s analyze the interactions both accounts are getting over their most recent 600 tweets.

On average, it looks like the USMNT get more interaction with their posts. This is pretty shocking, on the surface, to me at least. This is because soccer is nowhere near as big or competitive in the states as it is in Mexico. In the United States, football and basketball, for example, are easily so much more popular than soccer, even though soccer is growing in the US.

However, it’s worth mentioning the recency of their tweets. The USMNT does not tweet as much/often than Mexico during games, for example. The amount of tweets for each team is the same, but the timelines are different. Mexico’s most recent 600 tweets covers a much shorter time span than the US’. This timeline difference is noteworthy, as it might add an explanation to this stark difference in interaction. Mexico’s Twitter generates a lot more content than the US, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but could be a reason why they don’t get as much interaction on a lot of their tweets (even though they do still get substantial amounts of interaction).

Twitter Media Analysis

This data table analyzes the average tweet length (based on text and character counts for each account) for both accounts. It looks like Mexico’s tweets are, on average, longer than the USMNT’s. Let’s take a deep dive on why the US’ tweets could be longer. One plausible explanation could be the US uses more media (photos, gifs, videos, etc.) in their Tweets, instead of relying on pure text.

The data table above analyzes all 600 tweets & determines whether there is media present in each tweet; media is photos, or anything else, that can be posted along with text. The true’s indicate that there is media present in a tweet; meaning, that for the majority of tweets (386 to be exact) there was media present, most likely along with a little bit of text. Thus, it can be concluded that media is meant to be complimentary in tweets & meant to aid fan interaction. This is also backed up by the fact that the USMNT’s Twitter account, overall, gets more interactions than the Mexican team’s Twitter account!

The corresponding box plot analyzes the display text width against the presence of media to see, essentially, if media is being substituted for just plain text in Tweets. Since we’re only focusing on the USMNT’s Tweets, then yes, it does appear that Tweets that have media are, on average, shorter than Tweets that don’t have media in them. This is an interesting thing to point out; it’s most likely for convenience, and because Twitter has a 280 character limit for their Tweets.

However, this does allude to a fundamentally different approach to social media engagement from both of the teams. The USMNT seems to tweet less, but tend to include more media (with less text, and thus less reading/work for their audiences), and rely more on quality than quantity. The Mexican National Team’s Twitter, on the other hand, tweets more frequently, typically contains more text (but still a fair amount of media accompanying their tweets), and rely more on quantity. This isn’t a bad thing for either team, or meant to be any sort of indictment, but is more of an observation.

It’s worth noting that the Mexican National Team also has a hashtag that they post at the bottom of pretty much all of their tweets: #HechoDeLosMexicanos. Each Mexican National Team (e.g. men’s senior team, U22, U15, etc.) also has their own hashtags as well, so there’s typically two hashtags per tweet, adding to the tweet length!

Mexco vs US Matchday Twitter Analysis

The most recent edition of the Mexico vs US rivalry occurred on March 24, 2022. Estadio Azteca (the home field for Mexico & Club America in Liga MX) played host to the game. In this most recent addition, the game ended a scoreless 0-0 draw. This game was the first of three games in the final qualifying round for the World Cup, so it was a huge game with lots at stake. Both teams earning points helped both of their qualifying chances, which is great, especially since the US did not qualify for the last World Cup. Azteca is also one of the hardest places to travel and play at as an away team (much like trying to play in Xavier’s Cintas Center), so leaving with any points feels like a win for the visitors & a loss for the Mexican national team.

Analyzing the Twitter activity for both teams, Mexico was the more active team on Twitter, tweeting more than the USMNT throughout the day. As we mentioned earlier, Mexico does in general tweet more than the USMNT; however, this was more than likely especially the case today because of how big the stakes were & it was also a home game against the big rival. Xavier Twitter is always super hyped throughout the day of the Crosstown Shootout, especially if it’s at home; the same concept applies here!

However, the same trend occurred where USMNT gained more interactions. It most likely did not help that the game was not very eventful, so although Mexico did tweet more before, throughout, and after the game, there just overall wasn’t much to tweet about. Further, Mexico did tweet more, overall, as we mentioned earlier. As shown throughout in the tables above, the Mexican National Team tweeted 84 times throughout the course of the day & the USMNT only tweeted 46 times.

To back this trend up, below are summary tables for match day, March 24, 2022. Mexico is represented in the first table & the USMNT is represented in the second table.

In 2022 CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying, the US and Mexico met in Cincinnati at TQL Stadium on November 12, 2021 for the US home game. The US beat Mexico 2-0. And then they tied 0-0 at Azteca, so the US got the upper hand in this edition of World Cup qualifying for the rivalry. As I’m typing this, CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying has concluded, however. The US and Mexico both qualified for the World Cup, clinching a spot following their final games on March 30, 2022. Qatar awaits both teams!