Mexico fans flood Southern California streets to celebrate team's berth in World Cup round of 16

Mexico reached the FIFA World Cup Round of 16 for the eighth time on Tuesday night with its 2-0 win over Ecuador, and fans took the Southern California streets to celebrate the moment. 

As SkyCal flew towards Huntington Park, dozens of rounds of fireworks were seen exploding over parts of Los Angeles, just minutes after the whistles blew in Estadio Azteca, surpassing the Round of 32 for the first time since 2018. 

After the massive celebrations that had taken place in parts of downtown Los Angeles and Orange County following El Tri's recent wins, police were already stationed by the time the game ended. With multiple patrol cars stationed at the intersection of Pacific Boulevard and Florence Avenue, the fans instead gathered en masse on Pacific and Gage Avenue, where the celebrations included dancing, flag waving and more fireworks.

At Casa México in downtown Los Angeles, the party started hours before the game began and lasted until well after, with thousands of green jerseys flooding the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes campus, where dancing and live music accompanied the joyous occasion. 

"I've been waiting for this for 40 years, a very breathtaking moment, very emotional," said one fan.

"It's just amazing, it's just like we're one big family," said another young fan. 

Under the iconic Whittier Boulevard sign in East Los Angeles, a large group of people had gathered, where many were seen waving the Mexican flag as fireworks shot into the sky. Some law enforcement officers had gathered nearby, where they appeared to be monitoring the crowd, but allowing them to celebrate. 

Much of the same was seen in Pacoima, where hundreds of people were spotted dancing and watching fireworks at the intersection of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Van Nuys Boulevard.

On Wednesday morning, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said that three deputies were injured during celebrations, when some crowd members shot fireworks in the deputies' direction.

"Last night, I had three deputy sheriffs that were injured as a result of somebody throwing what I'm calling 'an explosive device' at them," Luna said.

He also said that several people were arrested, but did not offer details on the charges they could face or what led to their arrests.

Days later, the sheriff's department said Adam Behena, 18, of East Los Angeles and a juvenile from Los Angeles were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer for allegedly throwing glass bottles at deputies.

Earlier in the week, ahead of Tuesday's game, Santa Ana Police Department officers warned people that they would be cracking down on World Cup celebrations after similar scenes unfolded on Fourth and Main last week after their win over Czechia.

A much larger crowd was seen in downtown Santa Ana following the Mexico-Ecuador match, where more dancing and fireworks were seen, while some people rocked vehicles back and forth, jumped on top of cars and danced in the back of pickup trucks. At one point, it appeared that a large fight had broken out, but the parties were separated and the celebration continued.