Cursed? Always let down? Whatever the truth, Mexican support is unconditional
As part of our Language of Soccer World Cup series, The Athletic is speaking to supporters of all 48 nations competing at the 2026 edition to capture their unique football culture, distilled into a single phrase. You can read the articles in one place here.
Incondicionales – Unconditional
Few countries have a knottier relationship with the World Cup than Mexico.
The tournament will visit for an unprecedented third time this summer. Entire chapters of football history have been written on the turf of the Estadio Azteca, one of the sport’s holy sites. The Mexican national team, known to fans as El Tri, have missed only five World Cups. They have been ever-present since 1990; reliably contributing to the colour and fanfare of the greatest show on earth.
That’s the good stuff. The consensus view, however, is that it is outweighed by the bad. “Our relationship with the World Cup is mostly one of heartache,” says Richard Guel, leader of Pancho Villa’s Army (PVA), the largest Mexico national team supporters’ group in the United States.
Mexico are up there with the great World Cup underachievers. They have made it to two quarter-finals, both on home soil, the most recent in 1986. Since then, they have never gone beyond the last 16, their campaigns never lasting beyond four matches. For 40 years now, the ‘quinto partido’, the fifth game, has been their white whale, forever out of reach.
“Every time we have that opportunity to go further, something happens beyond our control,” says Mexico fan Jaime Diaz. “Take 2014. That was our dream team. We were beating the Netherlands, going through, and all of a sudden everything broke loose. They scored an equaliser and then got a penalty that wasn’t, right at the end.
“We always get let down. And we always seem to lose in the funniest ways, the most bad-luck ways, against the most annoying opponents. Argentina, who we like to see as rivals, knocked us out in 2006 and again in 2010. We lost to the U.S. in 2002. I don’t know what we did to the football gods to make them so angry.”
Mexico fans react to being knocked out of the 2022 World Cup at the group stage (Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)
Diaz calls it a curse. Plenty in Mexico subscribe to that theory. The failures have been woven into the national psyche. Interestingly, though, they have not engendered fatalism: every new World Cup is seen as a chance for a do-over, a potential staging post on the way to a glorious future.
It is no coincidence that one of the most popular tunes at Mexico games is the folk song Cielito Lindo. “Canta y no llores” — sing and don’t cry — goes its indelible refrain, a tiny manifesto for the value of staying positive.
“We’re always going to go with hope, not letting what happened in the past mess with us,” explains Diaz. “We’ll still be cheering just as loud the next time, if not even louder.”
Landy Magana Perez agrees. “It’s painful,” she says. “But we’re still here, still loyal. There is heartbreak but there is always that hope that brings you back.”
If Mexico typically flatter to deceive on the pitch, it’s a completely different story in the streets and in the stands.
“We’re not that good at football but we have some of the best fans in the world,” says Erick Vales, a content creator under the alias El Mando Mexicano. “We win in the party aspect of things. When we get together, expect to see tacos, carnitas, maracas. Everybody has drums but we have a full-on mariachi band playing. It’s a huge party.”
That description will be familiar to anyone who has been at a World Cup in recent decades. Mexico fans are famous for travelling in force, turning cities around the world into little Leons, mini Monterreys. This year, though, the action will be at home: El Tri play all of their first three games on Mexican soil and will stay there for the start of the knockout stages if they win Group A.
“Life is going to stop,” laughs Vales. “It’s going to be like nothing we’ve seen. Every household is going to be waiting for that first game against South Africa. It’s going to be amazing.”
Diaz echoes that view. “You will be surrounded, eaten up by all the green, all the drums, all the smoke,” he says. “It’s a great time, with drums and dancing and good music, good food, good vibes. It’s a brilliant atmosphere.”
Mexico fans will bring plenty of noise to this World Cup, as they did to Qatar in 2022 (Francois Nel/Getty Images)
The Mexican football scene is defined by bitter rivalries and partisanship. Debates rage about El Tri, too. “There’s a lot of division and disagreement,” says Guel. “Everybody is a couch manager and they just tear it apart.”
The World Cup, however, always puts any aggro on ice. “When it starts, there are no sides,” says Diaz. “We’re all wearing the same jersey. You forget which players play for which clubs; the heckling and barking stops.”
Societal friction, too, fades into the background. “The national team brings people together, regardless of religion or politics,” says Guel. “It’s very important to the Mexican people.” Magana Perez agrees: “There is this massive sense of unity around it.”
There is also, inevitably, optimism about what the team can achieve this summer. Mexico might have been eliminated in the group stage in 2022, but belief is evergreen — even if the addition of a round of 32 has made their old friend, the fifth game, less relevant than before.
“Now we can’t even think about it as the ‘quinto partido’ because of the extra teams,” says Vales. “It’s the sixth game we have to aim for. If we don’t make it that far, with the advantages of playing at home and playing at altitude, it’s a failure.”
That matches Magana Perez’s ambitions. “Given the squad we have, we should be aiming for game six,” she says. “That’s where the bar is.”
Can Mexico get there? Will it be three quarter-finals from three World Cups played at home? We will find out soon enough. One thing is guaranteed, however: whatever happens, Mexico’s fans will never stop dreaming, never stop showing up.
“We take the national team on like a second family,” says Guel. “In any family, there are wonderful moments but also painful memories and it’s the same in football. There is heartbreak: a penalty that wasn’t, an offside call that denies you a victory. But win, lose or draw, we’ll be there.
“It’s like family: unconditional support. It’s beautiful to be a Mexico fan. There’s nothing like it.”
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