Mexico’s World Cup History: An Unlucky Seven
In the early 1950s, the national team of Mexico was the best in the world, but it was not recognized and thus had little chance of being invited to play in the FIFA World Cup finals. With a large population of people in Latin America who had never seen a World Cup, they simply could not conceive of what it meant. As a result, Mexican football was relegated to the Mexican league and was not even able to qualify for Copa America later in the decade.
While Mexico’s national team was underdogs, the US was in the opposite direction with the best team in the world, the national team of Argentina. The US was finally able to compete in the FIFA World Cup, in 1958, and managed to win the tournament. Mexico was relegated back into the Mexican league as well, but Argentina and Brazil, which were a year below them, were able to join the World Cup.
That was how Mexico had lost a tournament in which all of its top players were playing.
In the 1970s, Mexico was the best in the world again, but it was only able to qualify for the World Cup because of Mexico’s participation in the tournament. In the 1978 World Cup, the United States and Mexico got the better of Brazil, which was coming off a silver medal in the 1976 Olympic Games.
Mexico was also able to win the 1988 and 1990 World Cups, but its last appearance in a World Cup came in 1994.
In the early years of the new century, the Mexicans were able to win the World Cup, but then lost it in a shock result to Poland. Mexico had qualified for the 2002 World Cup in a thrilling match against Saudi Arabia, but the Spanish won, 3–1.
Mexico also played in the 2006 World Cup, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Mexico failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup and was eliminated in the semifinals by Argentina.
Today, Mexico is an underachieving country, and its soccer teams have not qualified for the World Cup since 2014. That is why Mexico has