Mexico has been one of the underwhelming performers at the World Cup despite playing in 16 of the 21 tournaments so far. As many finals events as England, Qatar has only received a meagre two quarterfinal berths, both of which occurred while the competition was held on home soil. Playing outside of Latin America has proven to be too difficult to overcome despite the region consistently generating players of the highest calibre. Simply put, something has never clicked. The Mexican Wave, which was popularised when Mexico last hosted the World Cup in 1986, has even drawn some very strong criticism as being the country’s biggest gift to the World Cup.
Since so many of Mexico’s best and most experienced players spent the majority of their professional careers in Central or North America, they were exposed to a wide range of environments and opponents, which caused them to experience some culture shock. Mexico has also never travelled well to finals tournaments. However, recent difficulties have been caused by both external factors and internal issues with Mexico. At the 2014 World Cup, they advanced from their group unbeaten but lost to a quality Netherlands team in the next round after conceding twice in the final two minutes.
Argentina’s victory against their continental rivals at the same stage in 2006 required extra time. These are meagre consolation for a team that has waited 36 years to play in the storied “fifth game.” It’s all they’ve had since 1986, which is why they asked former Barcelona manager Gerardo Martino, a man with experience managing Argentina and Paraguay on the international stage, to make it happen this time. Three years later, despite criticism of Martino’s tactics, a serious goal-scoring issue, and inconsistent results in both friendlies and qualification, that dream still appears far away.
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