Mexico’s World Cup Curse Explained
William Smith
Published Mar 27, 2026
When Brazil got knocked out losing against Belgium 2-1, it looked like they were continuing what seems to be the side effects of Mexico’s fifth-game curse.
El Tri’s squad has qualified to the Round of 16 seventh straight World Cups, an achievement just surpassed by the five-time World Cup champions, Brazil. However, the Mexican national team has been bounced straight away every single time in the fourth game, taking the name of the infamous “Quinto Partido”—or fifth game—curse. Nevertheless, after the elimination of one of the favorite teams of the Cup, this curse might affect not only the Aztec selection but the teams that eliminate them as well.
Since 1994, Mexico has faced in the knock out stage six different countries, which were all eliminated before even getting the chance to lift the cup at the final game. And this is not a matter of facing the weakest competitors of the tournament at the last-16 stage, throughout these Cups El Tri faced off three out of the eight World Cup champions in four games.
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In 1994, the only world cup that has taken place in the United States, Bulgaria sent home the Mexican national team after winning the penalty shootout 3-1. Afterward, they beat Germany and Italy to reach the semifinals, where they finished their participation losing against Sweden.
The following edition of the tournament that took place in France, the Mexican and German selection met in their fourth game, where El Tri lost despite scoring the first goal of the match. However, Germany participation finished when they faced off Croatia in the next round.
In the first co-hosted World Cup of the history by South Korea and Japan, Mexico lost against the United States, who couldn’t move beyond the next stage getting defeated by Germany 1-0.
In 2002 and 2006, Argentina moved into the quarterfinals eliminating the Mexican team, beating them by an astonishing shot in overtime in the former. Only to be knocked out in the following round by the German team twice.
In 2010, El Tri got a painful loss by an unbelievable Netherlands comeback with a final score of 2-1. After that, the Dutch team managed to reach the semifinals where they couldn’t beat an Argentinian selection led by Messi.
This year, Mexico got knocked out for the seventh straight time, by Neymar’s team who couldn’t beat Belgium in the eight-final round; implying that the “Quinto Partido” curse could concern more than the Mexican selection.
