Mexico sees ugliness on and off the field in historic Copa America loss to Chile

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Mexico suffered through an ugly display on the pitch and an even uglier one off it in the Copa America Centenario on Saturday.

The Mexicans lost their quarterfinal in stunning fashion – 7-0 to Chile – to crash out of the tournament in front of 70,547 fans at Levi's Stadium. And as the game got out of hand, the behavior of the El Tri supporters only got worse with every goal by the defending Copa America champions.

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With the match still scoreless in the 13th minute, Jesus Duenas missed a chance and Chile goalkeeper Claudio Bravo attempted his first goal kick. On cue, Mexico fans chanted a homophobic slur at the Chilean No. 1, an act that has been heavily criticized in the aftermath of the Orlando shootings.

Seemingly, though, the chant triggered a chain of events that broke the spirits of Mexican fans.

Only three minutes later, Chile scored to take a 1-0 lead. Before the break, the scoreline jumped to 2-0 in favor of the away team. However, hope and joy still appeared in the stands, which were described as one journalist as consisting of 29 Mexican fans for every 30 people.

After the break, though, Alexis Sanchez took only four minutes to show that two changes for Mexico would have no impact on the result. After their third goal, Chilean players gathered at the corner flag to celebrate before Mexican fans acted heinously by throwing beer cups and popcorn at the players.

A fourth goal arrived only four minutes later, and the Chileans opted to celebrate in the middle of the pitch this time.

At that stage, popcorn was still visible on the pitch. At first, ushers moved to pick up and dust off the kernels whenever play shifted to the opposite side of the pitch. Before the 60th minute, the scoreboard read 5-0 in favor of Chile. With popcorn still visible on the pitch, Mexican fans began heading for the exits.

Brooms and dustpans appeared in the ushers’ hands, as the popcorn would finally disappear from the playing field, mirroring the El Tri supporters leaving Levi’s Stadium.

By the time the sixth goal arrived, Mexico fans had halted shouting the homophobic slur at Bravo and instead screamed it every time Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa punted up from his own box. When Edson Puch scored in the 87th minute to make the score 7-0, fans behind Ochoa’s goal hurled anything they could find in the direction of the keeper. A few pieces of plastic made it to the field but most fell short and put the security staff in danger.

As the stadium emptied, pockets of violence popped up. It was not widespread, and this match did not feature flares like the European Championships. But following the previous outbursts, the minor violence only further accented the poor display by Mexico on the pitch and in the stands.

When the final whistle blew, more debris rained down. However, with the crowd mostly emptied and the trash already thrown, the final flurry did not cause much of a disturbance or cause for concern.

A segment of Mexican fans reminded everyone that they're not all rotten apples. As the Chilean players walked off the pitch, Sombrero-donning and green-wearing Mexico supporters close to the tunnel stood and applauded the victorious players off the pitch.

The gesture showed how beautiful a little bit of class can be, even on a monumentally ugly night.

Shahan Ahmed is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow Shahan on Twitter: @ShahanLA and @perfectpass