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Mexico national football team

The Mexican national football team represents Mexico in association football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (FMF), the governing body for football in Mexico. Mexico's home stadium is the Estadio Azteca and their head coach is José Manuel de la Torre. The team is currently ranked 20th in the FIFA World Rankings and 12th in the World Football Elo Ratings.
Mexico has qualified for fourteen World Cups and has qualified consecutively since 1994; Mexico played France in the very first match of the first World Cup on 13 July 1930. Mexico's best progression was reaching the Quarterfinals in both the 1970 and 1986 FIFA World Cups, both of which were staged on Mexican soil.

Mexico national football team

Mexico is historically the most successful national team in the CONCACAF region, as they are the only team from the region to win an official FIFA recognized title. They hold one FIFA Confederations Cup, nine CONCACAF championships, including six CONCACAF Gold Cups, one North American Nations Cup and two NAFC Championships.
Although Mexico is under the jurisdiction of CONCACAF, the national football team has been regularly invited to compete in the Copa América since Ecuador 1993 finishing as runner-up twice and obtaining the third place medal on three occasions.

History

Early years

Mexico national football team

Football in Mexico was organized in the early 20th century by European immigrant groups, notably Cornish miners from Cornwall, England, and in later years Spanish exiles fleeing the Spanish Civil War. The original team played Guatemala, which the Mexican team won 3–2.
A series of international friendlies were played against the national representation of Guatemala on December 9, 12, and 16 of 1923. The match on December 9 was played in Parque España and was won by Mexico with a final score of 2–1. On December 12, the match ended in a 2–0 win for Mexico, and the final game of the series ended in a 3–3 draw.^[4] The manager for this team was Rafael Garza Gutiérrez "Récord", and the assistant coach was Adolfo Frías.^[4] The fourteen players selected for this friendly series include: Nacho de la Garza, Pedro "Perico" Legorreta, Manuel "Güero" Yáñez, Enrique "La Matona" Esquivel, Agustín Ojeda, Roberto Jardón, Carlos Garcés, Horacio Ortiz, Adeodato López, Mauro Guadarrama "La Venada" Alatorre, Cornelio Cuevas, and Alfredo García Besné.
It would be another four years before the national team would be represented in international friendlies. In preparation for a friendly against Spain, the team played a friendly against their "B" squad on June 12, 1927, winning 4–2. On June 19, 1927, the Mexican squad faced a selection from Spain, drawing 3–3. During this series, the squad also played against the Uruguayan club Nacional de Montevideo, losing 1–3.

Mexico national football team

Formation

On August 9, 1927, the official governing body of the sport of football in Mexico was founded. From its inception, the federation has been the main body in charge of the promotion, administration, organization, management, and funding of the Mexican national football team as well as all football competition within Mexico. Club representatives from the federation's first division all vote on the direction, management, and coaching staff of the national football team. The 1928 Summer Olympics were hosts to Mexico's first international tournament. Prior to the tournament, the Mexican squad held friendlies against a representative Asturias side as well as two friendlies against Spain. These matches resulted in two draws and one loss. At the Olympic tournament, Mexico faced Spain in the Round of 16 on May 30, 1928, resulting in Mexico's defeat of 1–7.
Mexico participated in the 1930 FIFA World Cup, having been grouped together with Argentina, Chile, and France. Mexico's first match was played against France at Estadio Pocitos in Montevideo, Uruguay on July 13, 1930. The match ended in a 4–1 win for France, but witnessed Mexico's first World Cup goal by Juan Carreño.This match occurred simultaneously with the USA–Belgium match. In their second match of the tournament, Mexico fell to Chile 3–0 at Montevideo's Estadio Gran Parque Central. Mexico's third match, against Argentina, featured the first penalty of the tournament, awarded in the 42' and scored by Mexico's Manuel Rosas. A total of five penalties were awarded during the match which was refereed by the Bolivian coach Ulises Saucedo, three of them controversial.

Mexico national football team

Post-WWII

Mexico did not appear again in a World Cup tournament until the 1950 FIFA World Cup. Before 1970, Mexico struggled to make much of an impact in the World Cup when competing against European and South American teams. However, goalkeeper Antonio Carbajal has the distinction of being the first player ever to appear in five consecutive FIFA World Cups.
In 1970, Mexico hosted the World Cup and kicked off their campaign with a scoreless draw against the Soviet Union. This was followed by a win over El Salvador (4–0). Mexico advanced to the next round with a victory against Belgium thanks to a penalty scored by Gustavo Peña in the 14th minute. At the quarter-finals stage, Mexico was eliminated by Italy in a 4–1 match despite Mexico taking an early lead.
Mexico failed to qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup but did make it into the Argentina '78. Mexico suffered an early exit after three defeats: 0–6 against West Germany, 1–3 against Tunisia, and 1–3 to Poland. Mexico failed to qualify for Spain 1982.
In 1986, Mexico again hosted the World Cup. Coached by Bora Milutinović, Mexico was placed in Group B where they defeated Belgium 2–1, draw 1–1 with Paraguay, and defeated Iraq 1–0. With this performance, Mexico won the top spot in its group and advanced to the next round where Mexico faced Bulgaria in a 2–0 win. In the quarter-finals stage, Mexico lost to West Germany 0–0 (1–4 pens).

Mexico national football team

The Cachirules scandal

Main article: 1988 Mexico national football team scandal

Mexico was disqualified from the 1990 FIFA World Cup (and any other international competition) after using players over the age limit allowed by FIFA in the qualifying round for the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship. The punishment originally was only going to be applied to the FIFA World Youth team and not the World Cup or Olympic Games team, but the penalty was applied to all Mexican national representatives of all FIFA sanctioned tournaments. This was a hard intake, as this was the golden time for the legendary striker Hugo Sanchez, where in the next World Cup, he was just considered a "good" player, rather than a "legendary" one. Many other players that were having an exciting moment in their club careers such as Carlos Hermosillo (Standard Liege (BEL), Ricardo Pelaez (Necaxa), Alberto Garcia Aspe (UNAM), Adrian Chavez (America), Felix Fernandez (Atlante), Luis Flores (UNAM), Zaguinho (America), Miguel Herrera (Atlante), Benjamin Galindo (Guadalajara), Daniel Guzmán (Universidad de Guadalajara), Guillermo Huerta (America); plus many others saw their World Cup 1990 dreams shattered, crushed and ruined by this scandal that in the Mexican media became known as the "Cachirules".

Home stadium

Main article: Estadio Azteca

The Estadio Azteca, (Aztec Stadium in English), also known in Spanish as "El Coloso de Santa Úrsula" is a stadium in Mexico City, Mexico built in the 1960s. It is the official home stadium of the Mexico national football team and the Mexican club team Club América. It has a capacity of 105,000 seats, making it the largest association football stadium in the Americas and the third largest stadium in the world for that sport.
The stadium has carried out many important sporting and historical events in its existence including the FIFA World Cup in 1970 where Pele won his last championship. The earthquake of 1985, which destroyed most of the city, did not damage the stadium. Thus, the stadium could host the FIFA World Cup in 1986 where Argentina won the cup.
It was the primary venue for association football at the 1968 Summer Olympics and is the only stadium ever to host two FIFA World Cup final matches, in 1970 and 1986. It also hosted the 1986 quarter-final between Argentina and England in which Diego Maradona scored the "Hand of God goal" . The stadium also hosted the "Game of the Century", when Italy defeated West Germany 4–3 in extra time.

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