Mexico National Team

The Hex kicks off on November 11 in Columbus, Ohio with the big one: the United States versus Mexico. El Tri manager Juan Carlos Osorio has announced his squad for that match and their trip to Central America to play Panama four days later.

While Osorio had the luxury of naming largely experimental squads for September’s final fourth round World Cup qualifiers against El Salvador and Honduras, as well as their October friendlies against New Zealand and Panama, the Colombian has named his strongest possible side in an attempt to end the Dos a Cero spell.

Mexico has previously stated its desire to host the 2026 World Cup, a tournament that will almost certainly be given to the CONCACAF region, but now it's getting serious.

Following CAF in 2010 (South Africa), CONMEBOL in 2014 (Brazil), UEFA in 2018 (Russia) and AFC in 2022 (Qatar), FIFA has all but promised the tournament to North America.

Mexico’s final tune-up before their World Cup qualifying clash with the USA on November 11th ended in a 1-0 victory over Panama.

For spectators at Toyota Park in Illinois, it was a relatively uneventful night with a largely experimental Mexico side grafting out a victory.

The highlight of the beginning proceedings was probably a mariachi version of “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

Mariachi version of the US anthem.

Very well received by Mexico fans.

After a one-year hiatus, Giovani Dos Santos is finally back in the fold for the Mexican National Team. 

El Tri's Colombian manager, Juan Carlos Osorio, called up Dos Santos for the first time since the 2015 Gold Cup, teaning the upcoming friendlies against New Zealand and Panama will be the first chance we get to see the LA Galaxy forward playing under Osorio. 

In terms of performance, Dos Santos’s call-up is no surprise, as he’s having a fantastic season in LA. So far he has scored 14 goals and dished out four assists this season in 26 MLS games.

Mexico ended the group stage of World Cup qualifying undeafeated but disappointed after a listless 0-0 outing against Hondiras in Estadio Azteca.

Honduras did the thing pretty much everybody expected them to do and parked the bus basically from the beginning. Even firing on all cylinders, Mexico might have had trouble beating this defense.

As it turned out, though, Mexico weren't firing on all cylinders, and the crowd let manager Juan Carlos Osorio know they didn't like what they were seeing.

Let's be honest, El Tri failed to meet extremely high expectations this summer. What was expected of the Mexican national team was to excel in all competitions, but they fell flat at the Copa America Centenario and the Rio Olympic Games.

Competing in the Copa America in the team’s ‘second home’, the United States, fans and spectators alike believed El Tri had a chance to make history in the competition. 

They were one of the early favorites. With a win over Uruguay and the top dogs, Brazil, crashing out early, they had a chance but blew it. 

Various pundits wondered earlier this week if the Mexico National Team was stagnating under Juan Carlos Osorio, and during the first half it looked like those pundits were right.

A Jorge Torres Nilo handball in the box gave Alexander Larin a penalty try in the 24th minute, and Mexico found themselves down 1-0 and looking mostly listless.

Then, after halftime, Mexico woke up.

Hector Moreno in the 52nd minute.

Mexico enter their final two games of the fourth round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying assured of their place in the fifth and final round, the ‘Hex’. However, their matches against El Salvador and Honduras will not be taken lightly by Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio, for whom they present something of a poisoned chalice. 

Two victories are expected, but any slip-up against the sides ranked 137th and 84th in the world would only magnify the hurt of Mexico’s last competitive match — that 7-0 defeat to Chile in the Copa America Centenario quarter-finals.

Mexico's gole medal defense is finished after a 1-0 loss to South Korea eliminated El Tri. Mexico needed to either win outright or tie and have Germany beat Fiji by less than four goals.

Instead, this happened:

South Korea holds on against Mexico they will go through and win their division. Lead 1-0. pic.twitter.com/ABGQlfG30K

— Mo Tafolla (@MoTafolla) August 10, 2016