Heading into the 2026 World Cup, the Mexican national team had one mission: Finish first in Group A. Beyond the obvious motivation to not lose a game, finishing top of the group guaranteed that El Tri would not leave the terrifying confines of the Estadio Azteca until the quarter-final round. It's impossible to overstate how powerful the home field advantage is for Mexico at the Azteca; in 89 official competitive games there (not including friendlies), Mexico has lost exactly two games. Two!! (In case you are wondering, 2001 to Costa Rica in World Cup qualifying, and 2013 to Honduras, also in World Cup qualifying.) In the World Cup itself, the advantage is even greater. Heading into Tuesday night's game against Ecuador, Mexico had won seven and drawn two of its previous nine World Cup games at Azteca.
Mexico did win Group A, and thus they were able to steamroll Ecuador, 2-0, in last night's elimination game. Not even Ecuador's familiarity with playing at altitude could save them from Mexico's tenacity and the energizing effects the team always seems to draw from the raucous Azteca crowd.
That Mexico beat an overmatched South American opponent isn't particularly surprising. Sure, Ecuador has one of the best defenses in the tournament, and only gave up two goals in the group stage, but, offensively, La Tri was nothing to write home about. (How fun was it to have a match between El Tri and La Tri? OK, maybe just fun for me.) Ecuador lost 1-0 late to Ivory Coast, forced the best goalkeeping performance of the tournament from Curacao's Eloy Room in a historic 0-0 draw, and beat a German side that was fully checked out, having already confirmed the top spot in the group. For Ecuador to beat Mexico, at the Azteca, this would have to be a slow, gnarly game, ending with a 1-0 win for the visitors or in penalty kicks.
Mexico didn't allow such an outcome to even enter the realm of possibility, and I feel safe in arguing that the 31-minute period between the opening kick and Raúl Jiménez's goal featured the best half hour of soccer played by anyone in this tournament so far. Thanks to a crowd that clearly had Ecuador at least a bit shook, Mexico was able to ratchet up the pressure and completely ignore Ecuador's game plan. Mexico's pressing was rabid without the ball, and their attacks were punishingly direct when in possession. The statistics do a good job here: 63 percent possession advantage for Mexico, eight shots to Ecuador's measly one (off target) attempt, 90 percent pass success against 76, and seven key passes to just one. This was as one-sided as a half-hour of soccer can get, and Mexico made good on it by converting its chances.
It's here that I need to shout out Julián Quiñones, who won the Man of the Match award for this half hour and has broadly been Mexico's best player at the World Cup. The Colombian-born naturalized Mexican citizen, who plays in Saudi Arabia for Al-Qadsiah, was a terror down the left wing against Alan Franco, and from the go, he looked the most likely attacker to open the scoring.
He did just that in the 22nd minute: After a nice bit of hold-up play in his own half, he laid the ball off and hit the burners past Franco. A lofted ball from Roberto Alvarado gave Quiñones the space to attack the box. Still, credit to PSG center back Willian Pacho, who was able to sprint enough to cover the left-footed shot that looked wide open for Quiñones. No matter, though, as the winger used Pacho's momentum against him, cut back to his right, and then fired off a near post rocket that got the Telemundo commentators to lose their minds, professionalism be happily damned.
The second goal was less beautiful but perhaps more emblematic of why Mexico won this game in 30 minutes. If Ecuador had a plan against a more talented attacking side, it was to muck things up and win battles of physicality up and down the field, but whether due to preparation or the adrenaline of playing in front of so many hyped up home fans, Mexico didn't budge. In fact, it took the game physically right to Ecuador, and the second goal only happened because Mexico was a bit faster to the ball and a lot stronger in duels. And so, nine minutes after Quiñones opened the tally, Mexico scored again because it won multiple duels in the air, held off Ecuadorian defenders on the ground, and pressed Joel Ordóñez into a giveaway right outside the box. Even after that giveaway, there was more to do, but Jiménez was able to muscle through a challenge enough to get the ball to Quiñones, who then rode a tackle long enough to give it back to Mexico's second all-time leading scorer, and Jiménez took the bit of green space in front of him to load up a shot that, like the one from Quiñones, had no destination in mind but the back of the net:
(I also want to credit Jiménez for that incredible touch over Pacho that led to Ordóñez's giveaway; that was pretty, even if it didn't really work in the moment.)
There are many teams still left in the World Cup field that can come back from a 2-0 deficit, even at the Azteca against a Mexican side flying this high, but Ecuador definitively was not one of them. The game flipped directly on its head with Mexico up 2-0, especially after halftime; Ecuador had 69 percent of the possession after the break, and Mexico confidently set back into a low block to force Ecuador to create not one but two moments of magic. Ecuador did not do that. For the game, La Tri ended with just one shot on target on seven total attempts, and in fact it was Mexico who seemed more likely to nick a third. The only noteworthy Ecuadorian action of the second came from Hincapié, who became the second player in this World Cup to get sent off for covering his mouth during a verbal confrontation. Blame the atmosphere, blame the better team, or blame the fact that Ecuador simply doesn't have the offensive weapons to keep up when the defense gets shredded as badly as it did early on Tuesday.
Whoever gets the blame, this was both an ecstatic and a pragmatic win for Mexico, who rode its home field advantage into a likely round of 16 showing against England. That match too will be at the Azteca, and though England has shown flurries of dominance, both in its 4-2 opener against Croatia and in a two-goal second half against an already eliminated Panama, Mexico will have its Azteca edge once more. I'm not saying that Mexico is sure to win, or that the Azteca is so powerful that it can nullify Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, and the rest of England's high-profile squad. I'm saying that, as Ecuador found out, there is no tougher place to play in the world than the Azteca, and if the crowd was loud and boisterous on Tuesday, it will not come close to the energy levels that are sure to be seen as Mexico attempts to make the quarter-final round for the first time since 1986, the last time it hosted. Already, thanks to both its performance on Tuesday and the expansion of the tournament, Mexico has thrown off its "fourth match curse," the supposed jinx that made Mexico lose in the first knockout round at every tournament between 1994 and 2018, and now it enters a fifth match that it will believe it can win, even if the Three Lions are on the other side. El Tri's opponents will have to deal with everything the Azteca gives, and everything Mexico takes.
