Mini football figure - Mexico

Mexico

The Mexican national football team is one of the strongest national teams in CONCACAF. It represents the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación.

History

Mexico's first international match took place on 1 January 1923 during a trip to Guatemala and was won 3-2 by Mexico against the hosts. The second match on 4 January was won 3-1 by Guatemala and the third match on 7 January was won 4-1 by Mexico. There was no Mexican national team in the true sense of the word on this trip. Rather, Mexico was represented solely by the Club América team, which officially represented Mexico but provided all the players on this first trip of a Mexican "national team".

The "return matches" then took place between 9 and 16 December 1923, when Guatemala paid a return visit to the Mexican capital and also made three guest appearances. The first two matches were won by Mexico (2-1 and 2-0), while the third ended 3-3. In these comparisons, Club América again provided by far the most players, but no longer the complete formation. Necaxa's Roberto Jardón and Mauro Guadarrama (scorer in the first match) played in all three matches, and Club México's Cornelio "Coneja" Cuevas also played in the first two matches.

Seven Club América players played in all six matches: Goalkeeper Ignacio de la Garza, defenders Rafael Garza Gutiérrez and Pedro Legarreta, midfielder Enrique Esquivel and strikers Carlos Garcés, Horacio Ortiz and Adeodato López, the top scorer in these matches with six goals, who even scored twice.

The other four players on the Mexico tour in January 1923 were midfielders José Andrade and Pablo Sarré and strikers Humberto Garza Ramos and José Díaz Izquierdo, who scored the opening goal in the first encounter on 1 January 1923 after 26 minutes to make it 1-0 and thus the first goal in the history of the Mexican national team.

Americanistas Luis García Besné (striker), Agustín Ojeda and Aurelio Yáñez (both midfielders) also played in the December 1923 matches, making one and two appearances respectively.

The first competitive matches

Mexico did not play their next international matches until 1928, at the Olympic Football Tournament in Amsterdam, where they were heavily defeated. While the Mexican national team still consisted of eight Club América players against Spain (1:7), it was "only" six in the second match against Chile (1:3).

There were no further international matches until the first World Cup tournament in 1930, which took place at the invitation of the host nation Uruguay and for which no qualifying matches were required. Mexico lost all their matches by a three-goal difference; 1:4 to France, 0:3 to Chile and 3:6 to Argentina.

It was not until the 1934 World Cup qualifiers that the national team played three more matches, all against Cuba (3-2, 5-0 and 4-1) in March 1934. The final and decisive qualifying match took place in Rome on 24 May 1934 against Mexico's arch-rivals USA and was lost 4-2, which was tantamount to Mexico's non-participation in the 1934 World Cup.

The first title

Next up for Mexico was the III Central American Championships in El Salvador in the spring of 1935, which they absolutely dominated - with five wins in five matches and a convincing goal tally of 29-5. It was the first title for a Mexican national team made up almost entirely of players from the Necaxa side known at the time as Once Hermanos. Nine Necaxistas played in each of the first four matches, and coach Alfred C. Crowle even fielded ten players from the reigning Mexican champions in the decisive final match against the strongest rivals, Costa Rica (2-0).

The pre-war years

Another two and a half years passed before Mexico played any more international matches. These were initially played as part of the 1938 World Cup qualifiers, but subsequently took on the character of friendlies because Mexico decided not to take part in the 1938 World Cup due to the long journey to France. In the three matches played in September 1937, Mexico had impressively beaten the USA selection team 7:2, 7:3 and 5:1.

In February 1938, Mexico was also successful in the IV. Central American Championships, defending the title it had won three years earlier. This title win and the nine-and-a-half-year international break caused predominantly by the Second World War coincided with a decisive change in the structure of Mexican football, which moved from amateur status to professional status in 1943, which also resulted in the creation of a nationwide professional league. For the national team, this change in reality meant that from 1947 onwards it was composed of players from all parts of the country for the first time. Until then, the national team had been made up exclusively of players who were contracted to clubs based in Mexico City.

The post-war years

Mexico's next international matches did not take place until July 1947, as part of the first NAFC championship, and were won against the USA (5-0) and Cuba (3-1). Until 1938, the national team consisted exclusively of players from clubs in the capital, but now several players from other parts of the country also played in these matches. Goalkeeper Raúl Landeros was signed by CD Tampico, captain Alfonso Montemayor and star striker Adalberto "Dumbo" López came from Club León and a total of four of the players used in these two matches came from Guadalajara: Antonio Flores from Atlas Guadalajara and three (Max Prieto, Rodrígo Ruiz and Javier de la Torre) from Deportivo Guadalajara; the club that now has the most nominations in World Cup tournaments (as of 2010) (cf. table below).

From the capital clubs, the following players were in action in July 1947: Salvador Arizméndi, Alberto Medina and Miguel Ángel Segura (all Atlante), as well as Sergio Bravo, Julián Durán and Carlos Septién (all España).

It is noteworthy that even after the introduction of professional football, friendly matches between the national team initially remained a rare affair. The first were played in the run-up to the 1950 World Cup at Mexico City's Estadio Olímpico Universitario against Spain (1:3 and 0:0). Mexico took part in the 1950 World Cup but, as in 1930, lost all three encounters.

The 1950s and 1960s

At the 1954 World Cup, the typical Mexican "fate" repeated itself: an absolutely unchallenged qualification (8-0 and 4-0 against Haiti, 4-0 and 3-1 against the USA) was followed by another preliminary round exit after two defeats against Brazil (0-5) and France (2-3).

At the 1958 World Cup, Mexico were also eliminated after the preliminary round, losing heavily to Sweden (0:3) and Hungary (0:4), but were able to celebrate their first point in World Cup history with a 1-1 draw against Wales.

The 1962 World Cup saw the best Mexican national team at a World Cup up to that time. In the opening match, they defied the Brazilians for a long time before they won 2-0; but not as clearly as in 1950 and 1954, when Mexico lost 4-0 and 5-0 respectively against the same opponents. The second group match against Spain was unluckily lost 1-0 due to a last-minute goal, before "el Tri" managed their first ever victory at a World Cup in the last group match, against, of all people, the later runners-up Czechoslovakia. The 3:1 victory also meant a leap to third place in the table, so that Mexico did not finish last in the group for the first time ever at a World Cup, although this fact did not change the fact that Mexico was eliminated from the preliminary round again.

The Mexican team also finished the 1966 World Cup in the penultimate group of the preliminary round and was so convincing in its three appearances that the Times was able to give it justified hopes for the 1970 World Cup in its own country: "The players from the land of the Aztecs have demonstrated their ability and shown that they can play intelligently and with bite. It should be clear that this team will be one of the best teams at the World Cup in Mexico."

The 1970s and 1980s

The 20 years between 1970 and 1990 saw a very chequered history for the Mexican national team, which had participated in every World Cup tournament in the 1950s and 1960s but had always been eliminated after the preliminary round. During this period, Mexico hosted two World Cups: in 1970, they won the bid in time to host, and in 1986, they stepped in at short notice to replace Colombia, who had been scheduled to host the tournament due to organisational problems. In both of these tournaments, the Mexican national team qualified for the quarter-finals: in 1970, Mexico went the longest without conceding a goal (a total of 294 minutes), and in 1986, "el Tri" only failed in a penalty shoot-out against Germany.

As positive as the two tournaments as hosts were, the other World Cup years in this period were negative: In 1974, Mexico failed to qualify against Haiti (despite a 1-0 win in the direct comparison) because "el Tri" did not get beyond a 0-0 and 1-1 draw against Guatemala and Honduras, respectively, and lost 4-0 against Trinidad & Tobago. They also failed to qualify in 1982, winning only one of five games in the CONCACAF final round group! Mexico were not allowed to participate in the 1990 World Cup because the team was suspended for two years by FIFA in 1988 after the Mexican federation failed to adhere to the prescribed age limits for players when qualifying for the Seoul Olympics. Outside of the two tournaments in their own country, for which they were automatically qualified as hosts, Mexico only managed to qualify for a World Cup tournament in a sporting manner once in the 20-year period described above; but at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, "el Tri" achieved the worst result in its World Cup history: after defeats against Tunisia (1:3), Germany (0:6) and Poland (1:3), they finished last in their preliminary round group with 2:12 goals and 0 points.

The latest development

Mexico have reached the round of 16 in every World Cup since 1994. The national team's greatest success was winning the FIFA Confederations Cup in 1999.

At the end of September 2010, there was a player revolt within the national team. After a friendly match against Colombia, players were publicly reprimanded by football director De La Torre and two were even suspended for six months. Captain Rafael Márquez and twelve other players then published a letter of protest to draw attention to the "hostile and arrogant" treatment. They declared that they would no longer play for Mexico for the time being.

Other

In the CONCACAF Nations Cup/Gold Cup, Mexico has won the title a total of ten times (1965, 1971, 1977, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2011 and 2015). The team has participated every time except for the 1985 and 1989 championships.

Mexico's participation in the Olympic Games

After 1948, the senior national team has not participated; the Olympic team participated in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1992, 1996, 2004 and 2012. At the 2012 Games, the Mexican Olympic team won the gold medal with a 2-1 victory over Brazil. The best result to date was finishing 4th in 1968. The match at the Aztec Stadium between hosts Mexico and Japan was watched by 105,000 spectators, the highest crowd ever in the history of Olympic football tournaments.

In 1988, the qualified team was disqualified because Mexico had used four older players in the CONCACAF U-20 Championship.