The Mexico national football team will start the 2026 FIFA World Cup with their opening match against South Africa on June 11 at Mexico City Stadium. On the Mexican side, they want to use this ability to co-host the World Cup as a bounce-back from their 2022 showing.
Four years ago, Mexico crashed out in the group stage and will be looking to have a better World Cup this time around as host nation. Nonetheless, they have a challenging group with South Korea, South Africa, and Czechia in Group A.
Despite that, Mexico will have the home crowd behind them in all three group-stage matches, which is why the team feels obligated to top this group.
“[We want to] make history,” AZ Alkmaar defender Mateo Chávez said on June 9 (h/t Lizzy Becherano of ESPN). “That’s the goal [winning the group]. That’s the No. 1 objective: Winning the group. We’re favorites against South Africa because we’re playing at home.
Mexico enters the World Cup having played two friendlies, one against Australia and the other against Serbia, which they both won. As a result, they are riding some positive momentum into the group stage.
Mexico Doesn’t See Themselves as the Favorite in Group A
While Chávez expressed confidence that Mexico has playing at home, center-back Johan Vázquez downplayed any talk of their squad being the favorite against South Africa and the likely team to win the group.
“We respect all our opponents, not just South Africa, who we know are a very physical opponent, a strong opponent who will counter-attack well,” Vázquez said. “We are aware of all their situations, and we must always treat them with respect. We’re not just focused on being first; we need to take it one step at a time, one game at a time, and achieve our first objective [the victory].”
Mexico Keeping Outside Noise Out of Dressing Room
The last time that Mexico hosted a World Cup was in 1986, when they reached the quarterfinals, falling to then-West Germany in a penalty kick shootout. As a result, it’s no surprise that many hope this Mexican side can replicate that performance at home and perhaps go on a deeper run.
Even with the home crowd and favorable group, Mexico manager Javier Aguirre is urging his squad not to pay attention to the outside noise regarding whether they are the favorite in this group or not.
“Javier [Aguirre] mentioned it, that in these types of situations you have to know how to play with [the pressures],” Chávez added. “Since the Gold Cup, he told us that everyone says we are the favorites.
“We also have to know how to maintain these types of situations, because many times we find ourselves on the other side, that we are not the favorites, that we face great teams, and when now you are the favorite you also have to learn to play with that, to propose and have the courage to be the one who goes forward and proposes.”
It will be interesting to see how this team responds at home and whether they take advantage of the crowd by scoring early to put South Africa in an uncomfortable situation.
Mexico Sends Clear Group A Signal Ahead of World Cup Opener