Marquez played for several teams in professional soccer leagues: in Mexico for Atlas in Guadalajara and for Leon; for Monaco, Barcelona and Verona in Europe and for the New York Red Bulls.
Here’s a graphic on the legacy of Javier Aguirre, the outgoing coach, whose record was 60 wins, 20 ties and 18 losses.
Mexico City was built on a lake. Over the centuries most of the lake has dried up. The problem now is the city is sinking.
We already knew that and even a tourist can notice it. I remember visiting Mexico City and seeing an old colonial church with one side lower than the other. It was sinking.
Now there is new NASA footage which shows it.
From the Daily Galaxy: “Parts of Mexico City are sinking by more than half an inch every month, and a newly launched radar satellite has now measured exactly where. Data released April 29 by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows the NISAR satellite tracking urban land subsidence across one of the world’s largest cities with a level of detail that earlier space-based systems could not consistently achieve in dense or cloudy environments.”
NISAR is a satellite jointly developed by NASA and ISRO (the Indian Space Agency). It was launched in July 30th, 2025 from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre. NISAR sounds like an Indian word but it’s actually an English acronym for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar.
“The readings were taken between October 2025 and January 2026, during Mexico City’s dry season. Areas sinking fastest appear in dark blue on the published imagery, with some zones recording ground subsidence exceeding two centimeters per month. Benito Juarez International Airport sits at the center of the frame, with Lake Nabor Carrillo visible to the northeast.”
“…Mexico City is built on a drained ancient lakebed, and relentless groundwater pumping combined with the weight of development above has compacted the soft sediment beneath it for generations. An engineer first documented the sinking in 1925.”
“By the 1990s and 2000s, parts of the city were dropping roughly 14 inches, or 35 centimeters, per year, enough to fracture Metro tunnels, buckle roads, and split water mains across the metropolitan area. The damage is not cosmetic. It accumulates in infrastructure that serves millions of people daily, and the sediment driving it has no natural mechanism for recovery once compressed.”
The article explains why this radar satellite was an advance over previous radar satellites.
“Previous radar satellites have tracked Mexico City’s subsidence, but with real limitations. Cloud cover, dense vegetation, and darkness all degrade optical sensors and higher-frequency radar systems. NISAR’s L-band radar, operating at a 24-centimeter wavelength, cuts through all three without losing signal quality.”
“The satellite also carries an S-band instrument at 9.4 centimeters, making it the first ever launched with a dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar configuration. Together, the two instruments give researchers more ways to separate genuine ground motion from atmospheric interference, improving confidence in the measurements, particularly in regions where a single instrument would struggle.”
“It passes over the same point on Earth’s surface twice every 12 days, building a consistent record that researchers can compare over time to detect motion measured in millimeters. Craig Ferguson, deputy project manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said the Mexico City imagery confirms the sensors are performing as designed. He pointed specifically to the L-band’s value for coastal regions where land subsidence and rising seas occur simultaneously, compounding flood risk in ways that are difficult to untangle without precise ground-movement data.”
Then there’s NISAR’s antenna reflector:
“The satellite’s most striking physical feature is its antenna reflector: a drum-shaped structure 39 feet, or 12 meters, across. NASA calls it the largest radar antenna reflector ever sent to orbit. A wider antenna captures more of the returning radar signal, which translates directly into finer surface measurements across larger areas, a critical advantage when the goal is detecting motion of just a few millimeters across an entire city.”
“The Mexico City results are preliminary. JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] notes that the yellow and red areas visible in the imagery are likely noise artifacts that should diminish as the mission collects more passes and builds a stronger baseline. The dark-blue subsidence zones, by contrast, align with decades of prior measurements and the known behavior of compressed lakebed sediment.”
“David Bekaert, a project manager at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research and a member of the NISAR science team, called Mexico City a proof-of-concept for what the satellite will do worldwide. ‘Mexico City is a well-known hot spot when it comes to subsidence, and images like this are just the beginning for NISAR,’ he said. ‘We’re going to see an influx of new discoveries from all over the world, given the unique sensing capabilities of NISAR and its consistent global coverage.’ ”
“NISAR data is archived and openly accessible through the Alaska Satellite Facility DAAC. Mexico City’s next dry season will produce another comparable set of measurements, giving scientists a cleaner year-over-year look at how the city’s sinking lakebed is responding — or not — to any changes in water use or urban load above it.”
By the way, Mexico City is not the only sinking city in the world. Others include Jakarta, Indonesia; Lagos, Nigeria; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Venice, Italy; Bangkok, Thailand; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Alexandria, Egypt; and in the United States: Houston, Virginia Beach, New Orleans and Miami, Florida.
Mexico’s national soccer team played five games in the 2026 World Cup, and made it to the Round of 16, when it was defeated by England, thus eliminating Mexico from the tournament.
Of course it’s disappointing to players and fans, but if you look at the big picture it doesn’t look so bad.
Mexico played five games, and in four out of five of those games, it was never scored on. It wasn’t until the game in which it was beat that it was scored on.
I. Mexico vs. South Africa. This was the very first game of the entire World Cup, played on June 11th, 2026, in Mexico’s City’s Azteca Stadium. Mexico won 2-0, with goals by Julián Quiñones and Raul Jimenez.
2. Mexico vs. South Korea. This was on June 18th and was played in Zapopan (part of the Guadalajara metro). Mexico won the game 1-0, with the goal scored by Luis Romo.
3. Mexico vs. Czech Republic. This game was played on June 24th, back in Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Mexico won 3-0, with goals by Mateo Chavez, Julián Quiñones and Alvaro Fidalgo.
4. Mexico vs. Ecuador. This game was on June 30th, 2026, in Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, part of the Round of 32. Mexico won 2-0, with goals by Julián Quiñones and Raul Jimenez. After the triumph, over a million fans were celebrating in the streets of Mexico City. Sadly, four people in the massive crowd died, three from suffocation and one from a combination of factors.
5. Mexico vs. England. This was played on July 5th, in Estadio Azteca, part of the Round of 16. England won the game 3-2. Mexico’s goals were scored by Julián Quiñones and Raul Jimenez. England’s were scored by Jude Bellingham (2) and Harry Kane. England played about half the game with 10 players against Mexico’s 11, because in Minute 54, England player Jarell Quansah got a red card and was expelled from the game. When that happens there is no substitute. Also, 3 minutes from the end, Mexico player Santiago Gimenez was injured (later taken to hospital) and so in the last 3 minutes, each team had only 10 players. This game eliminated Mexico from the World Cup.
TOTAL TEAM SCORING
In its five World Cup games, Mexico scored ten total points.
Highest scorer was Colombian-born Julián Quiñones, who scored 4 points. Quiñones plays for Al-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia.
Second-highest scorer was Raul Jimenez, with 3 points. Jimenez, born in Tepeji, Hidalgo state, Mexico; plays for the Wolverhampton Wanderers, “Wolves”, in England.
Luis Romo, Mateo Chavez and Alvaro Fidalgo scored one goal apiece. Romo was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico; and plays for CD Guadalajara, the “Chivas”. Chavez was born in San Pedro Garza Garcia, part of the Monterrey, Mexico metro and plays for AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands. Fidalgo was born in Spain and plays for Real Betis in Spain.
Note that in 3 of the games, Quiñones and Jimenez were the 2 scorers.
The Coach
Mexico’s national team was coached by Javier Aguirre, “el Vasco”, who resigned after the loss to England:
On July 5th, 2026, Mexico played against England in the Mexico City Stadium, as part of the Round of 16 phase of the World Cup. England won 3-2. Therefore, Mexico is out of the World Cup.
Mexico’s first goal was scored by Julián Quiñones at Minute 42.
Of England’s 3 points, 2 were scored by Jude Bellingham (at 36 and 38 minutes). The other point was a penalty kick scored by Harry Kane at 60 minutes.
England played about half the game with 10 players against Mexico’s 11, because in Minute 54, England player Jarell Quansah got a red card and was expelled from the game. When that happens there is no substitute. Yet England still won.
England star Harry Kane described the game thusly: “It was a crazy game. We had to fight. We had to find something. I can’t really talk. Yeah, the occasion, the team, everything against us. We found a way.”
Team England celebrating. Harry Kane is #9. Source: Eduardo Jimenez
Team Mexico is out of the World Cup. The list of national teams continues to get smaller, and the final game is scheduled for July 19th, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Also, there are no more World Cup games scheduled in the 3 Mexican stadiums used in the World Cup.
The night before the game, a group of Mexico fans gathered in front of the hotel where the Ecuador team was staying, and made a lot of racket from about midnight, for several hours, to keep the Ecuadorian players from sleeping. They used loudspeakers, horns, motorcycles, and even fireworks. It’s a Latin American soccer custom called a “serenata”. The Ecuadorian soccer federation lodged a complaint with FIFA, the international governing body of soccer.
After Quiñones’ goal, the Mexican fans were yelling and jumping so much that they were picked up on Mexico City seismographs. You know, the instruments designed to measure earthquakes. Here’s what showed up at RasberryShake, the nearest seismograph to the stadium:
The crowd’s celebration over Jimenez’ goal was also picked up by the RasberryShake seismograph. The graph below shows what the RasberryShake seismograph picked up after Quiñones’ goal and below that what it picked up after Jimenez’ goal:
On June 24th, 2026, Mexico played its third World Cup game. It was against the Czech Republic team and was played in Mexico’s famous Estadio Azteca/Estadio Banorte, known officially in the World Cup as Estadio Ciudad de México.
Estadio Ciudad de México/Estadio Azteca/Estadio Banorte. Source: Team Mexico
Neither side scored until Minute #55 (out of 96 minutes) when Mateo Chavez scored one for Mexico.
June 24th was also the 64th birthday of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. She watched the Mexico-Czech Republic game with her husband Jesús María Tarriba. Here is President Sheinbaum celebrating the team:
In Mexico’s second World Cup game, on June 18th, the Mexico team beat South Korea 1-0.
On her Twitter X account, President Claudia Sheinbaum posted a photo and video of her and her husband Jesús María Tarribawatching the game. President Sheinbaum, wearing a custom-made soccer jersey with the number “1” and “Presidenta”, cheers the goal scored by Team Mexico’s Luis Romo.
President Sheinbaum’s attendant comments to the video are “Así vivimos el gol de nuestra Selección. ¡Viva México!” ( This is how we experienced the goal of our National Team. Long live Mexico!)
President Sheinbaum and her husband reside in living quarters inside the Palacio Nacional (National Palace), which is pictured at the top of this website.
Mexico’s second World Cup game was played on June 18th, 2026. It was played in Zapopan (part of the Guadalajara metro) in this stadium:
Estadio Akron, known in World Cup as “Estadio Guadalajara”. Source: Alejan98
The game was against the South Korea team, which had previously won its first game against the Czech Republic.
While the South Korean team was practicing in Zapopan (Guadalajara metro) several days before the game, a drone appeared, presumably to spy on the team.
From the Seoul Economic Daily: “An illegal drone appeared over the training ground during the South Korean national football team’s closed practice session in preparation for its match against Mexico, causing a commotion.”
“According to the national team, an illegal drone appeared over the training ground during the closed session held that day, the team said Monday (Korea time). A team security officer spotted it, and a Mexican military drone-jamming officer stationed at the on-site base camp brought the drone down by emitting radio waves.”
“The team’s safety officer, along with local police and military personnel, moved to the crash site to secure the downed drone, but two men presumed to be the operators recovered the drone and fled. Their escape was captured on footage filmed by the team’s video staff inside the training ground, but their exact nationality or identity has not yet been confirmed.”
Apparently the drone didn’t film any secret South Korean soccer strategies.
” ‘The situation ended during the warm-up stage before tactical training began, so there was no impact on the team’s tactical exposure,’ a national team official explained.”
ESPN reports other drones: “several drones had been neutralized in recent days after attempting to enter security zones around stadiums in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey — the tournament’s three host cities in Mexico — as well as team base camps and fan festivals.”
When the game rolled around on June 18th, Mexico won the game 1 to 0. The Mexican goal was scored by Luis Romo.
Luis Romo celebrates his goal. Source: Hector Lopez
This triumph seals Mexico’s right to advance to the second round, the Round of 32. In fact Team Mexico is the first of all the teams to qualify for the Round of 32 (beginning June 28th). (See How Does the World Cup Get from 48 Teams to One Winning Team?)
Before that round, however, the Mexico team is slated to play the Czech Republic team, on June 24th in Mexico City.
Later, South Korea beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in Zapopan (Guadalajara metro). That means that the Mexico team has 3 points in the World Cup and the South Korea team has 3 points in the World Cup.
Mexico’s next scheduled game is against South Korea on June 18th, in Zapopan (Guadalajara metro).
It’s the eve of the 2026 World Cup, to be held in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, from June 11th to July 19th. (See previous articles about the World Cup here , here , here , here , here and here).
The 2026 World Cup is to be the biggest World Cup yet, with 48 teams competing in 104 games.
What about the Mexican team? As I pointed out in my previous article, only 8 national teams have won the World Cup, and Mexico, like most countries, is not one of those 8. The farthest Team Mexico has gotten is reaching the Quarterfinals twice, in 1970 and 1986, which were both World Cups played in Mexico.
Every World Cup is a new one, so all the teams and their fans can be optimistic, at least at the beginning. Will a new team win the World Cup, or one of the 8 which has already won it? Brazil is the all-time champion, with 5 World Cup triumphs through the years.
The Mexican team has been selected, it has 26 players, including 3 goalies (the only players allowed to touch the ball with their hands). At any given time, a team can only have 11 players on the field (including one goalie).
Here is Team Mexico:
Mexican National Soccer Team for World Cup 2026. Source: futbolasado
However the team does, the New York Post selected the Top Ten team jerseys, and the Mexico team placed #6. (The U.S. team placed #4). Here are the Mexico team jerseys, by Adidas:
Team Mexico’s coach is Javier Aguirre, called “El Vasco” (The Basque). The Basques are a tribe of people in northern Spain who traditionally spoke a non-Indo-European language.
Many Mexicans have Basque ancestry, but usually their Basque ancestors arrived to Mexico a long time ago. In the case of Javier Aguirre, however, his parents were Basques who migrated from Spain to Mexico, before Javier was born in Mexico City. Javier Aguirre named his three sons traditional Basque names: Iker, Ander, and Iñaki.
In his younger days, Coach Aguirre played professional soccer in Mexico and on the Mexico national team in the 1986 World Cup.
In his coaching career, Aguirre coached professional soccer in Mexico, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.
As for national soccer teams, Aguirre has coached the teams of Japan and Egypt; and has coached the Mexican national soccer team twice before, during which times he coached Team Mexico in the 2002 and 2010 World Cups.
In the 2026 World Cup, Team Mexico is assigned to Group A, along with South Africa, South Korea and the Czech Republic. In the first phase of the World Cup, each of those 4 teams plays each of the other 3 teams. (See my previous article How Does the World Cup Get from 48 Teams to One Winning Team?)
On June 18th, Mexico is scheduled to play South Korea in Zapopan (Guadalajara metro), and then to play the Czech Republic on June 24th, back in Mexico City. After that, we can see which teams proceed to the next stage.
How will Team Mexico do in this World Cup? It’s almost time to find out.
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