00:01When Mexico qualified for Qatar 2022,
00:05it was their eighth successful qualifying campaign in a row.
00:11This is a feeling that's difficult to express.
00:15It's satisfaction. It's delight.
00:18It's a bit of relief after such a complicated qualifying stage.
00:22But most of all, it's the pride of seeing our national colours here in Qatar.
00:27But L3 were made to work harder than usual in CONCACAF qualifying,
00:32scoring fewer goals and earning fewer wins than at any point in this long run,
00:38reflecting the shifting dynamics of football in the region
00:42and also the extraordinary range of playing conditions.
00:48For example, qualifying featured back-to-back defeats in the USA and Canada.
00:55The second of those, away in Edmonton,
00:58was the coldest match in Mexican football history,
01:01kicking off at minus nine degrees.
01:07I've always seen Mexico as one of the teams that has evolved the most
01:10throughout these last 20 or 25 years.
01:16The fact that Mexico systematically reaches the last 16 at World Cups marks the progress.
01:29With their presence at the 2026 tournament assured as co-hosts,
01:34the ninth World Cup in a row is guaranteed.
01:36You have to go back to 1990 for the last time Mexico failed to reach the finals.
01:41And that was after they were disqualified as a consequence of fielding overage players
01:46at the 1988 CONCACAF Under-20 tournament in what became known as the Catchy Rules Scandal.
01:58But you have to go back even further to 1986 for the last time Mexico ventured as far as the
02:05quarter-finals at a World Cup.
02:07Despite El Tri's consistent qualification and progressing out of their group at the finals,
02:12the round of 16 has proven impenetrable with seven consecutive defeats from 1994 to 2018.
02:23Mexican fans name it The Curse of the Fifth Game or Quinta Partida,
02:30with its origins dating to the Catchy Rules Scandal.
02:34Because four players were found to have falsified their ages,
02:38the fourth match at each subsequent World Cup ended in defeat,
02:42meaning the fifth game never eventuates.
02:50What we all want is to play the famous fifth game,
02:53but it is also true that sometimes results come down to chance.
03:04But what we want is a team with a game plan that is visible to all,
03:08and if we achieve that, the objective will be closer.
03:15This hoodoo feeds into a second jinx, known as Moctezuma's Curse.
03:21During Mexico's run of seven consecutive defeats in the round of 16,
03:26six of their opponents lost the subsequent match.
03:28With the only anomaly, the Netherlands in 2014 still failing to lift the trophy.
03:35The
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