THE OTHER NATIONAL TEAM · MEXICO
During the men’s World Cup, FemGol will trace the history of some of the women’s national teams from the countries taking to the pitch. Because a country’s football doesn’t fit in a single team.
For a few hours, all of world football will speak with a Mexican accent. The men’s World Cup kicks off this Thursday in Mexico City with Mexico against South Africa, turning the host nation into the centre of sport’s biggest shop window. There will be an opening ceremony, memories of 1970 and 1986, and a national team carrying the weight of a night it has spent years waiting for.
But Mexico are playing another match too.
It will not be tonight, and it will not have all the cameras pointed at it. It will be played in November, when the women’s national team face the decisive stretch of qualifying for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. For the Tri, this is not simply about chasing another place at a tournament. It is about returning somewhere they have been away from for far too long.
Mexico have played at three Women’s World Cups: United States 1999, Germany 2011 and Canada 2015. They never made it past the group stage. Nor did they qualify for France 2019 or for Australia and New Zealand 2023. If they reach Brazil 2027, they will be back at a World Cup twelve years after their last appearance.
Twelve years is long enough for almost everything to change. The last time Mexico went to a Women’s World Cup, the Liga MX Femenil did not yet exist.
An open door, not a guaranteed ticket
Mexico have come through the first part of the road to Brazil without a slip. In April they beat Puerto Rico 6-0 at the Nemesio Díez stadium in Toluca and closed out Group A of Concacaf qualifying with four wins from four matches.
That game also produced an image that captures where this team is. Charlyn Corral came off the bench and needed just two minutes to score with a scissor kick. She would add a second goal before the end. It was not a decisive strike in a tight match, but it was a reminder that some footballers outlast every change of era.
The win took Mexico through to the Concacaf W Championship, to be played in November. There they will meet the United States, Canada and the five other teams that have come through their groups. The format allows no let-up: the four sides that win their quarter-finals earn a direct place at the World Cup; the losers must seek a second chance through a play-off.
Mexico are not in Brazil yet. But they have reached the door.
Charlyn Corral, before and after the league
For Spanish audiences, Charlyn Corral needs little introduction. She spent four seasons at Levante and later signed for Atlético de Madrid. In the 2017/18 campaign she was the Spanish league’s top scorer with 24 goals.
Her career explains an important part of the history of Mexican women’s football. Corral had to leave the country to build a professional career. When she arrived at Levante in 2015, Mexico had just played their last World Cup; when she returned in 2021 to join Pachuca, the Liga MX Femenil had already transformed the landscape.
Now, at 34, she is still making the difference. She finished Concacaf qualifying as top scorer with 13 goals, having struck seven in a single match against Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. She is not merely a survivor of the previous era. She may also be one of the players who carry Mexico into the next one.
The league that did not exist in 2015
The turning point came in 2017. That year the Liga MX Femenil was born, a competition created to build a stable club structure and develop home-grown talent. Before its league debut there was a Copa MX Femenil that served as a dress rehearsal. Pachuca won that tournament, and Daniela Espinosa, of América, scored the competition’s first goal.
Nine years on, the growth can no longer be measured solely by the league’s existence. It is starting to be measured beyond Mexico too.
Club América have just delivered the most emphatic demonstration. On 17 May they won the Liga MX Femenil Clausura 2026 after overturning the final against Rayadas de Monterrey: beaten 1-0 in the first leg, they settled the return with a 3-0 win sealed by Irene Guerrero, Geyse Ferreira and Scarlett Camberos.
Six days later, América lifted another trophy. This time they beat the Washington Spirit 5-3 in the final of the Concacaf W Champions Cup and became the first Mexican club to win the continent’s premier women’s competition. The match had everything: América went 2-0 up, the Spirit fought back to lead 2-3, and the Mexican side answered with three more goals. Spain’s Irene Guerrero came off the bench to make it 4-3 in the 79th minute.
Scarlett Camberos, who had also scored for the national team against Puerto Rico, was named player of the tournament.
The title gives América a place in the 2027 FIFA Women’s Champions Cup and a possible route to the 2028 Women’s Club World Cup. But its meaning goes beyond a future calendar. For years, Mexican women’s football looked to the United States as its inevitable reference point. Winning a continental final against an NWSL club does not erase the gaps or solve every problem. It does show that the conversation has changed.
Turning growth into a national team
A competitive league does not guarantee a great national team. Nor is it enough to attract big names, fill stadiums for the showpiece matches or export the odd player. The next step is harder: turning the growth of the clubs into sustained international results.
Mexico do not yet belong among the world’s leading powers. Their record makes that clear. Three World Cup appearances without ever getting past the group stage, and two consecutive absences, weigh more than any optimistic speech.
But the country trying to return to a World Cup is no longer the one that said goodbye in Canada in 2015.
Back then it had no consolidated professional league. Now it has clubs capable of competing with the best in their confederation. Back then Charlyn Corral had to leave to find a structure worthy of her talent. Now she shares a national team with players who have grown up seeing that a professional career inside Mexico is possible too.
Tonight, as the ball starts rolling against South Africa, the country will turn towards its men’s team. That is only natural. A home World Cup is beginning, and some moments deserve all the space.
But there is another Mexican national team playing for something important too.
They are not opening their World Cup today. They are trying to get back to it.
