Many Mexico fans in North Texas are holding on to hope that the team could play locally during the 2026 FIFA World Cup knockout rounds, but the bracket has some bad news.
As social media posts and fan theories circulated this week about a possible El Tri match at AT&T Stadium, the answer appears to be simple: Mexico cannot play a match in Dallas.
The reason has less to do with who Mexico might face and more to do with where the team finished.
Mexico secured first place in Group A after defeating South Africa and South Korea, becoming the first nation to clinch a spot in the Round of 32, according to FIFA rankings.
By winning the group, “El Tri” was automatically assigned to a specific side of the knockout bracket.
That route begins with a Round of the 32 match on June 30 in Mexico City against one of the tournament’s best third-place teams.
If Mexico keeps advancing, the path then moves to Miami for the quarterfinals and Atlanta for the semifinals before a potential appearance in the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Dallas is not part of that route.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think there is any chance of Mexico playing in Dallas because they won their group and are on the other side of the bracket,” Ovin Senevirathne, a Dallas resident and football soccer fan, told The Dallas Morning News.
“Once Mexico won its group, the possibility of the team playing here was gone,” said David Cruz, a Dallas resident and football soccer fan.
There may have been a scenario in which Mexico could have ended up in Dallas, Cruz said. It had to be finished in a different position in the group. “A second-place finish, for example, could have sent the team to another section of the bracket that could include Dallas, but only if they play in the semi-final,” Cruz said.
AT&T Stadium will host two knockout matches: a Round of 32 game on June XX and a Round of 16 match on July 6, as well as one of the tournament’s semifinals on July 14. But those matches are in different directions of the bracket and cannot include Mexico, given its place in Group A, according to the FIFA official bracket.
For the first time, the tournament features 12 groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group, along with the eight best third-place finishers, advance to the Round of 32. Because those third-place teams can come from different groups, there are hundreds of possible bracket combinations, creating confusion among fans trying to predict future matchups.
Mexico’s World Cup road now runs through Mexico City, Miami, and potentially Atlanta – not Dallas.