Mexico will take on Paraguay in the international friendly ahead of next summer’s World Cup.
SAN ANTONIO — The FIFA World Cup may not be coming to San Antonio, but South Texas soccer fans will soon have a chance to catch Mexico’s national team in person as they prepare for the 2026 tournament.
For the first time in six years, El Tri is set to hit the pitch at the Alamodome, where they’ll face off against Paraguay in a friendly exhibition match the evening of Nov. 18. Tickets for the game, which starts at 7:30 p.m., go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. CT here.
San Antonio officials say more than 56,000 fans were in attendance when Mexico’s national team last visited in September 2019, when it lost to Argentina, 4-0. The November game is part of the ongoing MexTour that will also see El Tri playing at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Oct. 11.
“The MexTour match will be played during the November international FIFA window, allowing both countries to bring their full-strength squads as they prepare for the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” a press release states.
Mexico automatically qualified for the 2026 World Cup as one of three countries set to host games, along with Canada and the U.S. Paraguay punched its ticket this month for the ninth time in tournament history. El Tri has had an up-and-down 2020s on the field, having won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2023 and 2025 but failed to make it beyond group stage in the 2022 World Cup for the first time since 1978.
Mexico and Paraguay last played in August 2022 in Atlanta, where Paraguay scored the match’s lone goal. Mexico, however, leads the nations’ head-to-head with an all-time record of 11-5-5.
This will mark the sixth time Mexico plays at the Alamodome.
San Antonio isn’t hosting World Cup games next year; that honor goes to AT&T Stadium and Houston’s NRG Stadium, along with other sites around the country. But Toyota Field – home of the San Antonio FC – is slated to serve as a potential training site during the group stage; that will be further determined after the Final Draw in December.