Mexico reached the World Cup draw with momentum and, on paper, a path that should keep their tournament alive deep into June. They are unbeaten in 2026, with five wins and two draws, and were placed in a group with South Africa, the Czech Republic and South Korea.
That is why the search interest around Mexico and the fifa rankings conversation is climbing now: the co-hosts begin the tournament on Thursday, 11 June against South Africa, and the shape of the group gives them a real chance to set the tone at home. For Javier Aguirre, it is the kind of opening that can turn form into belief before the harder tests arrive.
Mexico have already shown in 2026 that they can handle pressure. They won the Gold Cup last summer with a 2-1 comeback victory over the USMNT in the final, then followed that three months later by winning the Nations League campaign. That run included a 2-0 semi-final victory over Canada and a 2-1 final win over Panama, powered by a Raul Jimenez brace.
Jimenez has become central to Mexico’s push. He has 44 goals in 125 caps and is eight strikes short of Javier Hernandez’s all-time record. In a side built around experience as much as energy, his scoring touch matters because Mexico know what the numbers do not hide: they have been stubbornly good at reaching the World Cup knockout rounds, but they have still not won a knockout match for 40 years.
That is the fault line running through this campaign. Mexico made it out of the group stage at every World Cup between 1994 and 2022, yet they failed to reach the quarter-finals in each of those tournaments. Four years ago, they finished third in their group on goal difference and went home early, which made the present run feel less like history repeating and more like an invitation to finally change it.
Aguirre knows the scale of that challenge. He has twice coached Mexico at World Cups, in 2002 and 2010, and his team will again be judged by whether it can move beyond comfort and into something more durable. Winning the group would send Mexico into the round of 32 and round of 16 on home soil at the Azteca, a route that would make their start against South Africa look even more important.
The draw leaves Mexico with enough reason for optimism and enough history to keep it in check. They have form, they have home advantage, and they have a striker close to a national milestone. What they do not yet have is proof that this version of the team can turn a favourable group into the knockout win that has eluded them since the last century.
