¿Y si, si?

When Mexico plays, the Estadio Azteca becomes something beyond football. It is a collective ritual where 87,000 people vibrate in unison. The goal roar can be heard from Tlalpan to Satelite. Green flags wave in every corner of the world where there is a Mexican with Wi-Fi.

El Tri's fanbase cannot be explained by statistics alone. It is explained by families waking up at 4 in the morning to watch a match from Russia. By fathers painting their children's faces before the game against Germany. By a national identity that, every four years, finds its purest expression.

The fans — images

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Mexico has played in 17 World Cups. Only twice have we reached the quarterfinals, and both times we were playing at home. 1970 and 1986 are the two peaks of our World Cup history. What came after was a chain of round-of-16 exits that broke our hearts in different ways every time.

In 1986, with Hugo Sanchez at the top of his career and Manuel Negrete scoring one of the most beautiful goals in tournament history, Mexico reached the quarterfinals at home. We lost on penalties to West Germany, but that tournament defined an entire generation. The reference point for everything that came after.

In 1998, Cuauhtemoc Blanco trapped the ball between his ankles and slipped past two South Korean defenders. The Cuauhteminha immediately entered world football's imagination. In 2018, Hirving Lozano scored against the defending world champions in the 35th minute. The celebration was so intense that seismic sensors in Mexico City registered activity. It was not an earthquake. It was millions of Mexicans jumping at the same time.

Since 1994, Mexico has played seven round-of-16 matches in seven straight World Cups, and lost all seven. We call this tragic consistency "the fifth match": the game that is always there, the game we never manage to get past. Argentina has eliminated us three times. Cruelty has a first and last name.

In Brazil 2014, Guillermo Ochoa delivered a performance UEFA rated as the best by any goalkeeper in the group stage. He stopped an impossible Neymar header. But Mexico fell 0-1 to Argentina in the round of 16. Always Argentina. Always in the fifth match.

For the first time since 1986, Mexico is co-hosting the tournament. The Estadio Azteca, the same stadium where the best moments of our World Cup history were born, will host matches from the group stage onward. Home advantage guarantees nothing, but historically it has mattered.

The new 48-team format changes the math: the first and second place teams advance from every group, plus the best third-place teams. The margin for error is wider. The road to the round of 16 is broader. For a team at Mexico's level, that can be the difference.

And then there is the generation. Edson Alvarez anchors the midfield from Europe. Santiago Gimenez scores in the Eredivisie. Chucky Lozano has spent years competing at the highest level. It is the most cosmopolitan generation in El Tri history. If there is a moment, it is this one.

It is getting close. Pop ducks to calm the World Cup anxiety.

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