A single match can transform a press room into a rehearsal space for a plan that’s still being finalized. Mexico has participated in 18 of the 23 World Cups, but for the first time—along with powerhouses France and Argentina—it won all of its group stage matches and kept a clean sheet.
Its next obstacle in the Round of 32 is Ecuador, a team that qualified as one of the best third-placed teams, with a historic victory over Germany, and whom it hasn’t faced in the world’s biggest football tournament since Korea-Japan 2002.
In addition to playing at home in the Estadio Ciudad de México, the national team has another factor in its favor: the 2,240 meters of altitude in Mexico City, conditions that the Ecuadorians haven’t faced for more than 460 days, or the equivalent of a year and three months.
At the High-Performance Center, the players know that a qualifying campaign can be decided by the smallest of margins. Despite the fact that the Ecuadorian national team is accustomed to playing at home at a higher altitude—Quito’s 2,850 meters—the South American squad established its World Cup base in Ohio, and their journey through the tournament hasn’t taken them to a level close to the country’s capital.
The coaching staff, led by Sebastián Beccacece, tried to move up their departure from the United States to have more acclimatization time, a request that was denied, and they will arrive just 24 hours before the match for a place in the round of 16.
Knockout rounds often teach a lesson in soccer: it’s not always the team that plays best that wins, but the one that lasts one more minute. Ecuador is obligated to do so, but the Mexican squad awaits with undiminished hope.
“Now comes the most important part,” says Toluca’s full-back, Jesús Gallardo. “It’s like starting another tournament. I don’t know if we’re favorites, but we’re calm playing at home. We haven’t won anything yet. Ecuador is a great team; we know the players they have, and we don’t underestimate them.” But any opponent they could have drawn would have been just as difficult.”
If there are matches that exist before they are played, the next one for El Tri is one of them.
Mexico has only lost two of 88 matches at the Estadio Ciudad de México, none of them in a World Cup. In the two editions of the tournament they hosted (1970 and 1986), the national team was also not eliminated when playing in their home stadium.
The history with Ecuador has 28 chapters; they are the team Mexico has faced most often among all the CONMEBOL nations. Mexico holds the advantage in those encounters (15 victories). La Tricolor has only managed to win four times, while eight other matches ended in a draw.
Regarding a World Cup, the two nations will face each other for the second time after 24 years. They met in the group stage of Korea-Japan 2002, with Mexico winning (2-1).
However, the Ecuadorians have not lost in their Four recent encounters: three draws and one win. The victory was a 3-2 win in a friendly in the United States, while the last official match, in 2024, ended in a goalless draw in that year’s Copa América.
“There are no second chances. Everything we did in the first round is in the past. We learned what we needed to learn,” says Guadalajara striker Armando González. “Ecuador is a tough opponent; they’re in the World Cup for a reason, and they topped such a difficult group. To win, you have to play well. If we do what we’ve been working on, the result will show.”
Source: jornada
