Mexico National Football Team

The Mexico national football team is a team of football players that represents Mexico in international matches such as the (qualifying) matches for the World Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The country has won the CONCACAF Gold Cup seven times, won the Confederations Cup once and won gold at the Olympics once.

The Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación was founded in 1927 and is affiliated with the NaFu the CONCACAF and FIFA (since 1929). The Mexican national football team achieved the highest position in the FIFA world rankings for the first time in February 1998 with 4th place, also in August 2003, April 2004 and May 2006. In July 2015, the lowest position was reached in 40th place, the month that Mexico won the CONCACAF Championship for the tenth time.

History

In the 1920s, soccer was practiced in Mexico mainly by foreigners. It is obvious to point out that during the two decades after the arrival of soccer in the country (1900), it lacked national representation given the dependence on the English and Spanish schools, which exercised a patriarchy of several decades. By the end of 1922, the Ambassador of Mexico in Guatemala, Juan de Dios Bojorquez, invited the only team in the Championship of First Force FMF composed mostly of Mexican players, the Americas, to play a series of friendly meetings held in early January of 1923 against Communications in the capital of that country, thus being the first representative of Mexican soccer abroad. Although, the Communications team received the endorsement of its Federation to be recognized as a Guatemalan soccer team. This did not happen with Club América, so this tour was not officialized, nor recognized as the first games of a "Mexican national team."

Participation in international tournaments

Mexico has been participating in the Football World Cup since the very first tournament. In 1930 the country even played the opening game of the first World Cup. On July 13, 1930, France was played. The match was lost with 1–4. The only goal for Mexico was scored in the 70th minute by Juan Carreño. Mexico became this World Cup last in group 1, which besides France also included Chile (0–3) and Argentina (3–6). Neither game was won in the following championships (1950, 1954, and 1958). Only in 1962 was the first win, opponent Czechoslovakia was defeated 3–1. When Mexico was allowed to organize the tournament in 1970, the group phase was survived for the first time in history. Mexico reached the quarterfinals. The same result was achieved when Mexico was allowed to host the tournament for the second time in 1986. Between 1994 and 2018, Mexico reached the eighth final 7 times in a row, but was eliminated each time. Because Mexico regularly wins the Gold Cup, it can participate in the FIFA Confederations Cup. The best result came in 1999, Mexico won the tournament domestically by beating Brazil 4–3 in the final.

Football World Cup

The CONCACAF Championship is a precursor to the Gold Cup. Both tournaments have been won regularly by Mexico. In 1963, Mexico competed for the first time in the CONCACAF Championship. In group B, Jamaica won 8–0, but not against the Netherlands Antilles (1–2) and Costa Rica (0–0). The tournament in 1965, as well as the tournaments in 1971 and 1977, were won by Mexico. In 1991, the tournament went into the Gold Cup. The tournament would (7) be closed winning (until 2015). In 2015, Jamaica was defeated in the final by goals from Andrés Guardado, Jesús Corona and Oribe Peralta.

Copa América (South American Championship)

Although Mexico is not located in South America, that country still regularly participates in the South American football tournament, the Copa América. This is then done by invitation. In 1993 this happened for the first time and Mexico was assigned to a group with Colombia (1–2), Argentina (1–1) and Bolivia (0–0). Both the quarterfinals (against Peru, 4–2) and the semi-finals (against Ecuador, 2–0) were won. In the final was lost to Argentina, Mexican Benjamín Galindo scored a goal for Mexico, but the match was lost 1–2. Second place is also the highest position that Mexico would achieve in the Copa América. The result that was also achieved in 2001, when the home country, Colombia, lost 0–1 in the final. In 2016, the tournament was called Copa América Centenario, in honor of the 100th anniversary of CONMEBOL.