00:02When Mexico qualified for Qatar 2022, it was their eighth successful qualifying campaign
00:09in a row.
00:12This is a feeling that's difficult to express. It's satisfaction. It's delight. It's a bit
00:20of relief after such a complicated qualifying stage. But most of all, it's the pride of
00:25seeing our national colours here in Qatar. Patel Tri were made to work harder than usual
00:31in CONCACAF qualifying, scoring fewer goals and earning fewer wins than at any point in
00:38this long run, reflecting the shifting dynamics of football in the region and also the extraordinary
00:44range of playing conditions. For example, qualifying featured back-to-back defeats in the USA and
00:54Canada. The second of those, away in Edmonton, was the coldest match in Mexican football history,
01:03kicking off at minus nine degrees.
01:08I've always seen Mexico as one of the teams that has evolved the most throughout these
01:12last 20 or 25 years. The fact that Mexico systematically reaches the last 16 at World Cups marks the
01:22progress.
01:30With their presence at the 2026 tournament assured as co-hosts, the ninth World Cup in a row is
01:36guaranteed. You have to go back to 1990 for the last time Mexico failed to reach the finals. And that
01:43was
01:44after they were disqualified as a consequence of fielding over-age players of the 1988 CONCACAF
01:50under-20 tournament. And what became known as the Catching Rules Scandal.
01:59But you have to go back even further, to 1986, for the last time Mexico ventured as far as the
02:06quarter-finals
02:07at a World Cup. Despite Eltrie's consistent qualification and progressing out of their group at the finals, the round of
02:1516 has proven impenetrable, with seven consecutive defeats.
02:24Mexican fans name it, the curse of the fifth game, or Quinta Partida, with its origins dating to the Catching
02:34Rules Scandal.
02:35Because four players were found to have falsified their ages, the fourth match at each subsequent World Cup ended in
02:42defeat,
02:43meaning the fifth game never eventuates.
02:51What we all want is to play the famous fifth game, but it is also true that sometimes results come
02:57down to chunks.
03:05But what we want is a team with a game plan that is visible to all and if we achieve
03:10that, the objective will be closer.
03:16This hoodoo feeds into a second jinx, known as Moctezuma's Curse.
03:22During Mexico's run of seven consecutive defeats in the round of 16, six of their opponents lost the subsequent match.
03:30With the only anomaly, the Netherlands in 2014 still failing to lift the trophy.
03:43Mexico's football culture dates back to the early 20th century.
03:48And the country has a place in history as participants in the first ever World Cup match, when they lost
03:554-1 to France on the opening day of the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay.
04:03The following match against Chile, they conceded the World Cup's first own goal.
04:11And against Argentina, they scored the competition's first ever penalty kick, but still lost 6-3.
04:22Perhaps Mexico have always been destined to play World Cup for guys.
04:30Mexico made little impression on international football for a number of decades.
04:33But during this period, goalkeeper Antonio Carvajal earned his place in the record books, becoming the first player to appear
04:41at five World Cups.
04:43A record he now shares with five other players.
04:51Remarkably, two of these are compatriots, with Rafael Marquez and Andres Guardado showing remarkable fortitude in the 21st century.
05:04Mexico hosted the World Cup for the first time in 1970, providing the backdrop for Pele to exit the international
05:12game at the highest level.
05:15Then 16 years later, they hosted again, with the vast Azteca becoming the stage upon which Diego Maradona would enthrall
05:23the world and score two of the World Cup's most memorable goals.
05:30The Azteca is the largest of the stadiums used at the 2026 World Cup.
05:35Setting a record is the only venue to be used at three different editions of the competition.
05:44The 1986 World Cup on home soil is the only time in history Mexico have won a knockout stage match,
05:52reaching the quarter-finals with a record third victory.
05:58That performance was overseen by Bora Militinovic, one of a host of foreign coaches to take charge of El Tri.
06:07Since the Serbian, Argentinian World Cup winning manager Cesar Luis Menotti has had a go.
06:14As has Sweden's Svenjorn Eriksson and another Argentine, former Barcelona boss Gerardo Martino.
06:23The weather next breaks the curse of the fifth game will go down in legend in one of the world's
06:30most storied football nations.
06:33yearn...
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