In the nearly 100-year history of the World Cup, there are only two examples of North American teams winning in the 90 minutes of the knockout rounds - one of which was the North American Civil War.

In the nearly century-old history of the World Cup, teams from Europe and South America are actually mainly eating at the main table, while teams from Asia, Africa, and North America sit at the side table if they are lucky, but if they are not lucky, they can only stand and wait with drinks, without any sense of presence. Why do we remember so clearly the cases of Morocco and South Korea reaching the semi-finals? Just because there are few. Brazil and Germany entering the semi-finals are not even news.

Therefore, the overall World Cup results for teams from Asia, Africa, and North America are very mediocre. In every World Cup, if teams from these continents qualify from the group, it is something worthy of special mention. Take North America as an example. In the history of the World Cup, only Mexico, the United States, and Costa Rica have experienced group promotion. Of course, Cuba also reached the knockout rounds in the black and white era, but there was no group stage in that World Cup. The preliminary round was one-on-one, and the winner advanced. After Cuba entered the knockout rounds, they lost to Sweden 0:8. In fact, after the North American team reaches the knockout round, although they will not experience the humiliation of 0:8 every time, their performance in the knockout round is indeed hard to describe. Cuba 0:8 Sweden was not the first time that a North American team was humiliated in the knockout rounds. As early as the first World Cup, although the United States reached the semi-finals, at that time, the group leader directly advanced to the semi-finals, so the semi-finals were the first knockout round. As a result, the United States lost to Argentina 1:6. Of course, North America's World Cup performance has improved since Mexico's rise. In particular, Mexico has reached the top 16 of seven consecutive World Cups from 1994 to 2018, creating quite a miracle. Looking around the world, only Brazil can do this during the same period.

But the other side of this miracle is gray. Although they can reach the top 16 every time, they can only stop in the top 16 every time. In other words, Mexico has lost in the quarter-finals of seven consecutive World Cups. In fact, excluding the top four results of the United States in ancient times, the best result of a North American team so far is the top eight. This shows that they have a precedent of getting through the first round of knockout rounds. But there are only three cases. Moreover, there are only two cases of winning in 90 minutes. Let’s start with the case of not winning for 90 minutes. It was the 2014 World Cup. Costa Rica became a dark horse. In the group stage, it defeated the three major World Cup champions Uruguay, Italy and England and entered the top 16. In the quarter-finals, they met another dark horse, Greece, and the score was 1:1 in 120 minutes. In the end, Costa Rica passed the penalty shootout. But unfortunately, in the quarterfinals, they lost to the Netherlands on penalties, and their dark horse journey ended. Let’s look at two examples of winning games in 90 minutes. The first example was the 1986 World Cup, when Mexico reached the quarterfinals. Although in terms of results, they were only equal to those in 1970, the quarterfinals in 1970 were the first knockout rounds, while in 1986 there were the top 16. In the round of 16, Mexico defeated Bulgaria 2:0. This is also the first time a North American team has won in 90 minutes in a World Cup knockout round. The second example is actually the North American Civil War. In the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup, Mexico and the United States met on a narrow road. As a result, the United States won 2:0. This is the second time a North American team has won in 90 minutes in a World Cup knockout round, and the win was against its North American partners. From this perspective, the 2026 World Cup is an opportunity to break records. Whether it is the United States, Mexico or Canada, they all have a chance to win in the 90 minutes of the knockout round. Also, don’t forget about the other teams.