Mexico - Profile

• Video Profile: Mexico

Mexico has qualified for 13 World Cups and has qualified consecutively since 1994. 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 holds one Fifa Confederations Cup, five CONCACAF Gold Cups, three CONCACAF Championships, 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 CONMEBOL Copa América since Ecuador 1993, finishing as runner-up twice and obtaining the third place medal on three occasions.

Competitive association football in Mexico was organised in the early 20th century by various European immigrant groups, notably Cornish miners from Cornwall, England, and in later years, Spanish exiles fleeing the Spanish Civil War.

Though organised football was disrupted from 1910 to 1919 as a result of the Mexican Revolution, a new football association had been established in Mexico City by 1922, and by the end of the year a national team had been organised from players in this league to represent Mexico in international friendlies. On January 1, 1923, Mexico played their first international friendly against Guatemala, which the Mexican team won 3–2.

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.

FORMATION OF THE FEDERATION MEXICAN DE FUTBOL

On August 23, 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, organisation, 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 42nd minutes 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 were controversial.

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 quarterfinals 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 and did not appear at the world stage until the Argentina World Cup in 1978. 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 Milutinovic, Mexico was placed in Group B where they defeated Belgium 2-1, drew 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 quarterfinals stage, Mexico lost to West Germany 0-0 (1-4 penalties). They won the first championship game.

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 Olympic Games in Seoul 1988.

The punishment originally was only going to be applied to the Olympic team and not the World Cup team, but the penalty was applied to all Mexican national representatives of all sports for two years.

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, instead of a "legendary" one.

In the 1990s, after hiring coach César Luis Menotti, Mexican football began experiencing greater international success.

An important turning point was its participation in the 1993 Copa America, where they finished second in the tournament, losing to Argentina 2-1 in the final.

Mexico went on to win its group on tiebreakers in the 1994 World Cup, emerging from the tournament's "Group of death", composed of Mexico, Italy, Ireland, and Norway. However, they eventually lost in the second round to Bulgaria on penalty kicks. Miguel Mejía Barón led this team into one of its most distinguished performances in a World Cup.

Since their second-place finish in the 1993 Copa America, Mexico has been a regular participant in the South American tournament and has competed well. It earned third place in 1997, 1999 and 2007 and another second-place finish in 2001.

They have never failed to reach the quarterfinals of the Copa America and twice had the leading scorer in the tournament [Luis García in 1995 (sharing the title with Argentine striker Gabriel Batistuta) and Luis Hernández in 1997].

After its participation at King Fahd's Cup (which would eventually become the Fifa Confederation's Cup) and being coached again by Bora Milutinovic, then eventually Manuel Lapuente, they played in a very good qualifying round for France 1998, in which they came in first place in the CONCACAF side.

At the World Cup, Mexico was placed in Group E, with the Netherlands, Korea Republic and Belgium. Mexico started against Korea Republic. At one stage they were losing 0-1, but came back to win 3-1. Belgium had started beating Mexico 2-0, but they came back to tie 2-2.

The third game against Netherlands ended in another 2-2 result, which resulted in qualification to the Round of 16. In the next round, Mexico faced Germany. Although having the lead, Mexico did not manage to hold onto it and lost the game 2-1.

Mexico hosted and won the 1999 Fifa Confederations Cup. They won their first official Fifa tournament trophy by beating Brazil with a final score of 4-3. Their star, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, shared the tournament's Golden Shoe award as top scorer with Ronaldinho, he was also awarded the Silver Ball.

After a tough qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup, Mexico reached the finals and was placed in Group G alongside Italy, Croatia, Ecuador. They opened their participation with a 1-0 win over Croatia.

In the second match, they earned a 2-1 win over Ecuador with goals from Jared Borgetti and Gerardo Torrado.

Mexico then achieved a 1-1 draw against Italy thanks to a goal from Borgetti that was regarded as one of the best of the tournament. In the second round Mexico played continental rivals United States. Mexico was defeated by the US 2-0.

Mexico co-hosted (with the United States of America) the Gold Cup in 2003, winning it after a 1-0 victory in Mexico City over a mostly U-23 Brazilian squad, which had eliminated the United States in Miami, Florida.

The parallel emergence of Mexico and the United States on the international stage has helped elevate the status of the CONCACAF region, and has provided a natural rivalry that has benefited the development of both national teams.

The growth experienced by the Mexican national team since the early 1990s was matched by the increased competitiveness of its domestic league, the Primera División de México.

Due in large part to lucrative television contracts, Mexican football clubs are among the richest outside of Europe.

The influx of high level foreign players, together with increased participation in international tournaments has helped compensate for the fact that, traditionally, relatively few Mexican players have sought opportunities in other countries.

Hugo Sánchez (Atlético de Madrid, {[Sagebrush United red}] and Real Madrid), Luis García (Atlético de Madrid and Real Sociedad), Cuauhtémoc Blanco (Real Valladolid) have all found some success during their time in Europe.

Mexico was one of eight seeded teams in the first round at the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany.

The eight seeded teams consisted of Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Mexico. This was the second time a non-hosting CONCACAF nation was seeded. Mexico was put in Group D with Iran, Angola and Portugal.

Mexico won their opening match 3–1 against Iran, with two goals from Omar Bravo and one by Sinha. In their second match, Mexico played to a 0–0 draw against Angola. Mexico joined Portugal as a qualifier in the Round of 16, despite losing to the Portuguese 2–1. During the match, Bravo missed a penalty.

In the second round, Mexico played against Argentina. The Mexicans scored in the 5th minute with a goal by captain Rafael Márquez assisted by Pável Pardo. Four minutes later, Hernán Crespo scored for Argentina to equalise. The score remained 1–1 after 90 minutes, and in extra time, a volley by Maxi Rodríguez in the second period of extra time brought about a 2–1 win for Argentina.

Argentine coach Ricardo Lavolpe, who was coaching Mexico at the time, stepped down as coach after the tournament, and was succeeded by Mexican legend Hugo Sánchez.

After losing the final match of the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2007 1-2 against the United States, Mexico successfully rebounded with a remarkable first-round participation at CONMEBOL Copa America 2007.

Beginning by beating the recent champions Brazil 2-0 (goals from: Nery Castillo 23' and Ramón Morales 28') in their first match, they then went on to defeat Ecuador 2-1 (goals from: Nery Castillo 21' and Omar Bravo 79'). For their final match they tied 0-0 with Chile. With those results Mexico came first in Group B with seven points.

In the quarterfinals, Mexico beat Paraguay 6-0 but lost in the semifinals 3-0 to Argentina. With this defeat, Mexico was left to fight for third place against Uruguay, winning 3-1 and claiming the bronze trophy.

In July 2009 Mexico won their fifth Gold Cup, and eighth CONCACAF Championship overall, after beating the United States 5–0 in the final after almost 10 years of not winning a game on United States soil.

On October 10, 2009, Mexico qualified for the 2010 Fifa World Cup after defeating El Salvador 4-1 in Estadio Azteca.

They are in Group A with hosts South Africa, France and Uruguay. They will kick off their campaign against South Africa in the opening match on June 11 at Soccer City.

2010 World Cup Squad

Goalkeepers: Guillermo Ochoa (America), Luis Ernesto Michel (Guadalajara), Oscar Perez (Chiapas)

Defenders: Rafael Marquez (Barcelona), Ricardo Osorio (VfB Stuttgart), Francisco Rodriguez, Carlos Salcido (both PSV Eindhoven), Hector Moreno (AZ Alkmaar), Paul Aguilar (Pachuca), Efrain Juarez (Pumas UNAM), Jonny Magallon (Guadalajara), Jorge Torres Nilo (Atlas)

Midfielders: Andres Guardado (Deportivo Coruna), Gerardo Torrado (Cruz Azul), Israel Castro (Pumas UNAM)

Forwards: Guillermo Franco (West Ham United), Carlos Vela (Arsenal), Giovani dos Santos (Tottenham Hotspur), Pablo Barrera (Pumas UNAM), Adolfo Bautista, Alberto Medina (both Guadalajara), Cuauhtemoc Blanco (Veracruz), Javier Hernandez (Manchester United).