One fact about the 48 participating teams in the FIFA World Cup - #1: Mexico

Did you know that the Mexican national team is infamously known for having something of a curse?

That curse is colloquially known as the "Maldición del Quinto Partido", which in Spanish, it means "Curse of the Fifth Game", and it's a belief that Mexicans have invented, which believed that El Tri might not make it past the Round of 16, if the team manages to get out of the group stage.

It started all the way back in the 1986 edition (hosted by them); after Mexico eliminated Bulgaria in the R16, they faced off against West Germany in the quarter finals, instance for which they'd be eliminated by the Mannschaft.

From then on, it was deemed impossible for El Tri to make it past the Round of 16, having been taken out by other teams across the editions (sans 1990), such as Bulgaria (1994), Germany (1998), United States (2002), Argentina (2006 and 2010), the Netherlands (2014), and Brazil.