The Mexican national team, led by Javier Aguirre, faces a unique opportunity in its history of World Cup appearances. The team's goal is to obtain nine points in the group stage, which has never been achieved before. In the past, the closest they came to this achievement was during tournaments in Korea and Japan in 2002 and in Russia in 2018. In 2002, after winning the first two matches, Mexico drew with Italy. Similarly in Russia, after victories over Germany and South Korea, the team lost to Sweden in the final group match. Why is this so important? When determining the final positions of teams eliminated before the semi-finals, FIFA uses a virtual ranking based on the points obtained in the tournament. If Mexico had finished its participation in the quarterfinals and had previously scored all points in the group, it could have secured it a historic fifth place, ahead of the other eliminated teams.
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