A football league plays in an extinct volcano crater, fiercely guarding its 'Field of the Gods'

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Azteca Stadium has been graced triumphantly by Pelé and Maradona. It's days away from staging its third different World Cup.

And, yet, the Mexican soccer pitch known as the “Field of the Gods” is not the iconic Azteca.

That nickname belongs to a football field nestled inside the crater of an extinct volcano just south of Mexico City.

Teoca volcano serves as the dramatic backdrop for an amateur league organized in the town of Santa Cecilia Tepetlapa in the Xochimilco borough.

Every Sunday, dozens of families from the town of 10,000 inhabitants — a predominantly lower-middle class community — gather to immerse themselves in Mexico's national obsession.

“For us, it's a way of life. Being here on Sundays is part of our routine, and there's a fantastic atmosphere across all the tournaments,” Jorge Becerril, the league’s representative, tells the Associated Press. “There are no altercations here; people just come to socialize, and the teams come to compete.”

The Teoca League features 10 teams, each one representing a single family. Because of these deep roots there is no age limit; generations compete side by side, from patriarchs to teenagers.

“The core of every team is a family,” Becerril explains. “When a player steps away, their son takes over, then their grandson, passing the torch down through the generations.”

While women do not currently play on the pitch, they remain the vibrant heartbeat of the league from the sidelines.

“Football is my passion,” says Isabel Madrid, the wife of one of the league players. “I'm not good at playing it, but watching it brings me a joy I can't fully explain. Outside of the birth of my children, this is what has captivated me most. I always look forward to Sundays so I can watch my husband play.”

Carving a football pitch out of a volcanic crater was born out of necessity rather than eccentricity. The surrounding terrain of Santa Cecilia Tepetlapa is strictly mountainous, leaving residents with virtually no flat open spaces to practice sports. Faced with a lack of infrastructure, the community looked to the volcano.

“It's fascinating to play inside a crater,” regular Sunday player Jonathan Flores says. “It's a challenging pitch, but the view makes it incredibly beautiful. It's about bringing football into unique spaces so people can enjoy themselves in a healthy environment. I love this game, and I'm here every week.”

To an outsider, the pitch — with its patchy grass and hard-packed dirt surface — might look weathered. However, its upkeep is a point of fierce local pride. The townspeople handle all maintenance themselves, intentionally refusing government intervention.

“We take care of it as best we can,” Becerril insists. “The league is entirely self-governing. We don't ask for municipal support because if the local government invests in it, they'll try to claim ownership. This hill is communal; it belongs to the people, and we maintain it because it's ours. By keeping the government out, we keep the field for ourselves.”

AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

San Mateo soccer club players celebrate the penalty shot by Jesus Flores, left, that gave them the victory over Tepetlapa at the end of a tournament final on a soccer field nestled inside the crater of the extinct Teoca Volcano in the town of Santa Cecilia Tepetlapa in the Xochimilco borough of Mexico City, Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A San Mateo player scores a penalty shot past the Tepetlapa goal keeper during a match on a soccer field inside the crater of the extinct Teoca Volcano in the town of Santa Cecilia Tepetlapa in the Xochimilco borough of Mexico City, Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Fans cheer on the sidelines of the final tournament game between San Mateo and Tepetlapa clubs on a soccer field inside the crater of the extinct Teoca Volcano in the town of Santa Cecilia Tepetlapa in the Xochimilco borough of Mexico City, Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A soccer field nestled inside the crater of the extinct Teoca volcano hosts a local tournament match in the town of Santa Cecilia Tepetlapa in the Xochimilco borough of Mexico City, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A soccer field nestled inside the crater of the extinct Teoca volcano hosts a local tournament match in the town of Santa Cecilia Tepetlapa in the Xochimilco borough of Mexico City, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is assessing damage to its launch pad after a rocket exploded during a test firing, creating a giant orange fireball seen and felt for miles around.

The company fueled the hulking New Glenn rocket Thursday night, hoping to briefly ignite the engines ahead of a satellite launch next week. But the 321-foot (98-meter), rocket blew up, taking part of the pad with it.

Aerial views on Friday revealed heaps of crumpled structures on the ground, with just one tower and the water tank still standing. Emergency officials warned the public to avoid any wreckage that might wash ashore and to instead call 911. There were no reported deaths or injuries.

It’s a major setback for Blue Origin, coming just one month after the entire New Glenn fleet was grounded because of an upper-stage engine issue that dumped a satellite in the wrong orbit.

Named after John Glenn, the first American in orbit, New Glenn is the rocket that Blue Origin plans to use to launch landers to the moon under NASA's Artemis program that aims to build a sprawling base near the moon's south pole. The goal is to land the first Artemis moonwalkers as early as 2028. Earlier this week, the space agency awarded a new contract to Blue Origin worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

One of the biggest rockets to reach orbit, New Glenn has seven first-stage engines fueled by liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas, which is essentially methane. It has flown three times.

None of the assigned 48 Amazon Leo satellites were on board the newest rocket when the blast occurred. Another batch of Amazon Leo satellites — competing with SpaceX's Starlinks to provide internet service to remote locales — awaited liftoff several miles away at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, courtesy of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket.

Within 12 hours of the explosion, SpaceX launched more Starlinks to orbit Friday morning. CEO Elon Musk has two Florida pads in action, one on the Space Force side where the latest Falcon 9 lifted off and the other at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Blue Origin has just one Florida pad: Launch Complex 36 dating back to the early 1960s. NASA's Mariner and Pioneer interplanetary probes rocketed away from there, as well as the moon-bound Rangers and Surveyors. The Washington state-based Blue Origin spent more than $1 billion rebuilding the launch complex — taking it from double pads to a single — after leasing it from the Air Force in 2015.

The company's smaller New Shepard rockets soar from Texas, skimming space for a few minutes with tourists and science experiments. Those suborbital hops were paused in January so the company could focus on New Glenn and upcoming moonshots. All that is now on hold, pending the investigation into the explosion.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said late Thursday that the space agency will evaluate near-term impacts to the Artemis program, which saw four astronauts fly around the moon in April. That Artemis II mission was hoisted by NASA's Space Launch System rocket.

Before the explosion, Blue Origin was on track to launch a prototype lunar lander to the moon on a New Glenn this fall, with another lander due to rocket into orbit around Earth in 2027 for docking practice by the soon-to-be-announced Artemis III crew.

A touchdown by two astronauts on Artemis IV — using a Blue Moon lander or SpaceX's Starship, whichever is ready first — was targeted as early as 2028.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A lightning arrester and a charred water tower are seen at pad 36 in the aftermath of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket explosion at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

A lightning arrester and a charred water tower are seen at pad 36 in the aftermath of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket explosion at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

A lightning arrester and a charred water tower are seen at pad 36 in the aftermath of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket explosion at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

FILE - A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket stands ready for launch at the Cape Canaveral Space Force station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket explodes during an engine-firing test on Thursday, May 28, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (@JConcilus via AP)