Mexico’s U-17 national team narrowly advanced to the Round of 32 at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar after a tense group stage that saw losses to South Korea and Switzerland. A favorable combination of results on the final matchday allowed El Tri to progress as one of the tournament’s eight best third-place teams.
Next, coach Carlos Cariño’s squad will face Argentina on Friday — a historically difficult opponent for Mexico. In recent months, Argentina eliminated Mexico from the U-20 World Cup and also defeated the senior team during the group stage of Qatar 2022. However, at the U-17 level, history favors Mexico, who have won two of their three encounters against La Albiceleste and are two-time world champions — while Argentina has yet to lift the trophy.
In 2005, Mexico shocked the world by defeating Brazil to win its first U-17 World Cup under coach Jesús Ramírez, with future stars like Carlos Vela, Giovani dos Santos, and Héctor Moreno. The team repeated the feat in 2011 on home soil under Raúl “Potro” Gutiérrez, capturing a second world title.
“This generation talks a lot about those past champions. If they did it, why can’t we?” said forward Lucca Vuoso before the tournament.
Mexico has also reached the U-17 World Cup finals twice more (2013 and 2019) and advanced past the group stage 10 times.
Argentina, meanwhile, enters the knockout stage as one of the favorites, having finished the group round unbeaten with wins over Belgium (3-2), Tunisia (1-0), and Fiji (7-0). Mexico’s only victory came against Ivory Coast (1-0), and they secured their spot after Mali’s 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia — with El Tri advancing thanks to a better fair play record (no red cards) despite being tied in points and goal difference.