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Like its neighbours to the north, the North American country of Mexico has had
a long-standing love affair with the sport of football. As such the Mexico
national football team, which is governed by the Federación Mexicana de
Fútbol Asociación, is currently ranked number 25 in the world by FIFA.
In fact, the Mexican national football team reached round one of the inaugural
FIFA World Cup in 1930. In a group with France, Chile and Argentina, it beat
France by 4–1, lost to Chile by 3–0, and was knocked out of the tournament when
it was defeated by Argentina.
The Mexico national football team failed to qualify for the 1934 World Cup and
withdrew from the 1938 World Cup. However, from 1950 to 1966 it made it to the
first round of every tournament. In the 1970 World Cup hosted in Mexico, spurred
on by an enthusiastic home crowd, the team made it to the quarter-finals.
In 1974 Mexico failed to qualify for the World Cup, reached round one in 1978,
and failed to qualify in 1982. In the 1986 World Cup, again hosted in Mexico,
the team once again excelled by reaching the fourth round. Since then, the team
has made it to round two of four consecutive World Cups - in 1986, 1990, 1994
and 1998.
Renowned players in Mexico's national football team include Claudio Suárez,
Pável Pardo, Jorge Campos, Ramón Ramírez, Alberto García Aspe, Cuauhtémoc
Blanco, Oswaldo Sánchez, Carlos Hermosillo, Jared Borgetti and Gerardo Torrado.
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