The Best and Worst Mexico National Team Moments of 2025

Mexico experienced a tale of two contrasting halves in 2025, setting the stage for the fast approaching 2026 World Cup on home soil.

Gilberto Mora’s (left) breakout was a massive bright spot for El Tri, but Javier Aguirre’s side were far from perfect in 2025. / Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images,

The Mexico national team was a chaotic mess at the start of the year, stumbling through the Javier Aguirre era after he returned to become El Tri’s fourth manager in less than two years. With the 2026 World Cup growing bigger on the horizon, Mexico needed to correct course quickly.

Aguirre came in with the clear mission to rediscover Mexico’s swagger in 2025, looking to restore confidence to a side that had been defined by failures since the turn of the decade. The team went on to play 18 games over the next 12 months, winning nine, losing four and drawing five.

The numbers paint a favorable picture for El Tri, and while 2025 was unquestionably the nation’s most successful of the 2020s, it was far from perfect. With Mexico’s focus now shifting entirely on the June 11 bout vs. South Africa in the opening game of the 2026 World Cup, the lessons learned this past year will be crucial to El Tri’s success in next summer.

Sports Illustrated takes a look back at the best and worst Mexico national team moments of 2025, as El Tri braces for what it hopes will be a historic 2026.

Sign Up to Get Informed With SI FC. dark. FREE NEWSLETTER. New SI FC Newsletter Global Embed

---

Best Mexico National Team Moments

Defeating the USMNT to Clinch 2025 Gold Cup

There have been 18 editions of the Gold Cup. Mexico have won 10 of them.

The US missed the chance to pull within one of their great rivals, with Raul Jimenez and Edson Alvarez sealing a 2-1 victory in the Houston final. pic.twitter.com/O1s4c0ZLHx

— Sports Illustrated FC (@SI_FootballClub) July 7, 2025

Prior to this summer, Mexico’s most recent victory against the U.S. men’s national team in an official match last came in the 2019 Gold Cup final. In the ensuing years, the team managed just one draw and suffered five defeats against its bitter rivals. That streak came to an emphatic end, though, in the 2025 Gold Cup final.

Mexico dominated the USMNT and came from behind to defeat them 2–1 in the final. Aguirre’s men completed a successful tournament by vastly outplaying Mauricio Pochettino’s side, as Raúl Jiménez and Edson Álvarez erased Chris Richards’s early strike.

In many ways, the Gold Cup final highlighted the very best of Mexico’s 2025. Jiménez continued his stellar form in front of goal, Mexico’s defense shut down the USMNT and Marcel Ruiz confirmed his emergence as a valuable midfield alternative for Aguirre.

But arguably the best news to come out of the final—and arguably all of 2025—was the breakout performance of then 16-year-old Gilberto Mora, who stole the show in only his third start for the senior national team. The Tijuana midfielder proved he’s more than ready for the international stage on that day and his performances since left no doubt: he has the quality to be a difference-maker in El Tri’s 2026 ambitions.

Restoring Mexico’s dominance over the region was one of the goals Aguirre set out to achieve in 2025. Winning the Gold Cup against the USMNT was the exclamation point in accomplishing that goal, but the team actually took the first step four months prior.

---

Raul Jimenez Leads Mexico Back to Concacaf Summit in Nations League Finals

Raúl Jiménez was Mexico’s best player in 2025. / Omar Vega/Getty Images

Back in March, Mexico lifted the first of its two trophies in 2025, winning the Concacaf Nations League for the first time ever thanks to an inspired performance by the best player of the Aguirre era: Jiménez.

An imposing 2–0 win over Canada in the semifinals was followed up by a dramatic—yet deserved—2–1 victory against Panama in the final. All four goals Mexico scored were courtesy of Jiménez, including a stunning free-kick against Canada and a stoppage-time, match-winning penalty in the final.

After years relegated to the shadows following life-threatening injury during his time at Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020, Jiménez returned to his best in 2025. His return to prominence was confirmed in the Nations League finals and is one of the best, feel-good stories in recent memory for El Tri. Now, the bulk of Mexico’s World Cup hopes unquestionably rest on his shoulders.

Winning the tournament was meaningful for other reasons as well, though. Aguirre needed this trophy to raise the confidence of a team that had become synonymous with failure in recent times.

With El Tri conquering the aforementioned Gold Cup shortly after, Mexico reclaimed the undisputed throne of Concacaf, a seat it’s owned for the vast majority of history.

---

Worst Mexico National Team Moments

Embarrassing Defeat Against Colombia Highlights End of Year Woes

Mexico was uncompetitive vs. Colombia during the October international action. / Omar Vega/Getty Images

It’s fair to say that the positive news for El Tri ended after the Gold Cup. What followed was a dreadful end of the year that’s best embodied by the 4–0 defeat against Colombia in October, where El Tri was categorically dominated in every aspect.

Colombia handed Mexico the worst defeat of the Aguirre era, exposing every major flaw El Tri still has. Without the injured Jiménez and Mora, who was away at the U-20 World Cup, Mexico looked incapable of generating any danger, mustering just two shots on goal all game.

El Tri’s backline had been the foundation of its success under Aguirre, but Colombia carved through it with ease, exploiting lapses in concentration that defined the tenures of Aguirre’s predecessors. The problem, which Mexico thought it had already fixed, surfaced once again in the latter part of the year.

dark. Next. Mexico’s 2026 World Cup Schedule: Full List of Matches, Locations. Mexico’s 2026 World Cup Schedule: Full List of Matches, Locations

The defeat against Colombia contributed to the team’s shocking six-game winless streak to close out the year, having failed to win a single game after the Gold Cup final.

Sure, Mexico returned to the summit of Concacaf in 2025, but it also won just one of eight games played against opponents from other confederations, a worrying trend with the World Cup just around the corner.

It also became clear Mexico is still incapable of containing teams with superior individual quality. The only way to combat that is by the sum of El Tri’s parts mitigating the lack of its difference-making talent, but that might be easier said than done.

---

Major Injuries Compromise World Cup Roster

Right back Rodrigo Huescas tore his ACL in his second Champions League appearance. / Giorgi Arjevanidze/AFP/Getty Images

This isn’t so much as a moment as it is a trend, but a number of Mexico national team players that were expected to play a role in the 2026 World Cup have suffered major injuries during the second semester of 2025.

It’s well-known that Mexico’s current generation of national team players is far from the most talented in El Tri’s recent history. Aguirre was short on quality players since he took over and, although there’s been breakouts like Mora, injuries have also significantly compromised Mexico in 2025.

Luis Chávez was Mexico’s best player at the 2022 World Cup and had been a regular since, but a torn ACL suffered in the summer has jeopardized his chances of replicating that performance come 2026.

2026 World Cup Projected Bracket: Argentina Dethroned. 2026 World Cup Projected Bracket: Argentina Dethroned. dark. Next

Similarly, Rodrigo Huescas was one of Mexico’s standout players during the September international action and he looked poised to fight for the starting right back spot next summer. Now, his World Cup dreams are all but over after he suffering an identical fate as Chávez, tearing his ACL in early October.

To make matters worse, Jesús Orozco, the only natural left-footed center back Aguirre had considered in recent camps to back-up Johan Vásquez, suffered a major ankle injury in December and is expected to be sidelined for six months.

Alexis Vega and Santiago Giménez are other key players that have experienced fitness issues in recent months. All of a sudden, an already limited pool of alternatives has shrunk even further.

For a team that already wasn’t overflowing with talent, injuries have worsened the situation late in 2025. El Tri can’t afford to lose more players, or its dreams of a historic World Cup campaign in 2026 could be completely dashed even before the tournament starts.

---

READ THE LATEST SOCCER NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MATCH REACTION

feed