:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71660750/1244832884.0.jpg "Mexico World Cup history: How El Tri have fared at men's World Cup")
The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be underway this weekend with host nation Qatar facing Ecuador in the opening match on Sunday, November 20. Historically, every World Cup features what is referred to as the “Group of Death” which features a number of competitive teams vying to advance past the opening round of the tournament. Some have pegged Group C as this year's candidate, which features Mexico making its 17th World Cup appearance.
El Tri's 17 appearances in the tournament are the fifth-most in the history of the competition, and Mexico is currently riding a streak of eight-straight appearances in the World Cup. They made their debut in the competition back in 1930, which was also the inaugural World Cup to be played with Uruguay as the host. That year, Mexico finished 13th and was eliminated in the group stage.
They have yet to hoist the trophy in their country's history nor have finished within the top four. Mexico's best finish has been in reaching the quarterfinals in both the 1970 and 1986 tournaments, which also mark instances in which they were the host nation. In those tournaments, El Tri fell 4-1 to Italy and lost to West Germany in penalties, respectively.
Since then, Mexico has finished no further than the Round of 16 in seven-straight World Cups, with the hopes that they can break that streak in this year's tournament. The last we saw of El Tri was in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where they made it out of Group F and eventually fell 2-0 to Brazil in the knockout stage.