In association football, the term Hexagonal (known in English as ''The Hex'') was often used to refer to the final round of FIFA World Cup qualification among the six remaining teams in

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...

. The six-team round robin format was used by CONCACAF since the

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

process, up until the 2018 tournament. For 2022, this round was expanded to eight teams or an octagonal. It was modeled after the

CONCACAF Championship The CONCACAF Championship was an association football tournament that took place between 1963 and 1989. The competition is sometimes referred to as CONCACAF Campeonato de Naciones. The first Championship took place in 1963 and was CONCACAF's firs ...

which used the format ever since its second edition in 1965, and served as the World Cup qualifying tournament from 1974 to 1990. The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and Costa Rica were present in every Hexagonal. Mexico was the only national team that qualified for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

in every Hexagonal. The Hexagonal, or Hex for short, was named for the

hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A '' regular hexagon'' has ...

(a six sided shape) due to there being six teams remaining in the tournament at the time.

United States vs. Mexico rivalry

Mapfre-stadium-hosts-USA-Mexico 11-11-2016

The United States and Mexico were the most successful teams in the Hexagonal, with Mexico qualifying for every World Cup since 1994. Indeed, the Mexico–United States soccer rivalry has been hotly contested during the Hexagonal. Matches between the two opponents hosted by Mexico often sell out the 100,000 seat

Estadio Azteca Estadio Azteca () is a multi-purpose stadium located in Mexico City. It is the official home of Association football, football clubs Club América and Cruz Azul as well as the Mexico national football team. The stadium sits at an altitude of a ...

in Mexico City; matches hosted in the United States are often held in cold northern cities such as Columbus, Ohio. Episodes of this rivalry during Hexagonal matchdays include the ''Dos a Cero'', a streak of four consecutive 2–0 victories for the United States at the

Columbus Crew Stadium Historic Crew Stadium, previously known as Columbus Crew Stadium and Mapfre Stadium, is a soccer-specific stadium in Columbus, Ohio, United States. It primarily served as the home stadium of the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer from 1999 ...

between 2001 and 2013. The streak ended on November 11, 2016 as the Mexicans defeated the Americans 1–2. Another noteworthy event occurred on 15 October 2013, the final matchday of the Hexagonal on the road to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The Mexicans were out of the World Cup as they were losing against Costa Rica in San José and Panama were defeating the Americans, both matches by 2–1. However, during stoppage time,

Graham Zusi Graham Jonathan Zusi (; born August 18, 1986) is an American professional soccer player who currently plays as a midfielder or defender for Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City. From 2012 to 2017, Zusi represented the United States n ...

and Aron Jóhannsson scored for the United States, resulting in an American victory by 3–2, which helped Mexico qualify to the intercontinental play-off series against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The United States national team Twitter account mocked the Mexicans by tweeting #YoureWelcomeMexico and tagging their Mexican counterparts' profile. Because of the significance of his goal, Zusi received recognition from some Mexican fans as "a saint". Zusi also revealed that Mexican player

Marco Fabián Marco Jhonfai Fabián de la Mora (; born 21 July 1989) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Liga MX club Mazatlán. He is an Olympic gold medalist. Fabián is a graduate of C.D. Guadalajara's youth aca ...

thanked him for the goal.

1998

The first hexagonal round was played in 1997, between 2 March and 16 November. Mexico topped the round robin undefeated, being the only team to do so. Jamaica qualified to their first (and so far, only) FIFA World Cup. It was Canada's only participation in the hexagonal round, and their last appearance at the final stage of a FIFA World Cup qualification until

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

, in which he qualified for the

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

after 36 years.

2002

The second edition of ''The Hex'' was played in 2001, between 28 February and 11 November. It was topped by Costa Rica, who totaled a record 23 points. The Costa Ricans marked the first defeat Mexico ever had at a World Cup qualification match at home soil, in a match known as '' El Aztecazo''.

2006

*United States finished ahead of Mexico based on results between tied teams which were the first tiebreaker. *Mexico, United States and Costa Rica directly advanced to the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

. *Trinidad and Tobago advanced to the AFC-CONCACAF play-off, where they would defeat

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

2–1 on aggregate to advance to the World Cup.

2010

The six teams that reached the fourth round formed one double-round-robin, home-and-away group nicknamed the "Hexagonal." The top three teams qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The fourth place team qualified for a home-and-away

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

against the fifth-place team from CONMEBOL.

2014

In the fourth round, the three group winners and three runners-up from the third round competed in a double round robin, including a home and away match against the other five teams between 6 February and 15 October 2013. The draw for 'The Hex' was conducted by FIFA on 7 November 2012. The top three teams qualified directly for the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals, while the fourth-placed team advanced to a home-away series against the winner of Oceania, which ended up being

. Teams are ranked first by total points in all games, then, if tied, by best goal differential in all games, then by total goals in all games. If still tied, the same criteria are applied to games among the tied teams (including head-to-head away goals scored).

2018

* Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama qualified directly for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. * Honduras advanced to the CONCACAF–AFC playoff; they would be defeated by Australia 3–1 on aggregate. * The United States failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since the Hexagonal was introduced; they had qualified for every World Cup between 1990 and 2014.

Replacement and future

The Hexagonal was initially the top-seeded round in the CONCACAF qualifiers for the

2022 World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first ...

, but, following FIFA's decision on 25 June 2020 to postpone the September international window due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

(except UEFA), CONCACAF noted that "The challenges presented by postponements to the football calendar, and the incomplete FIFA rankings cycle in our confederation, means our current World Cup qualifying process has been compromised and will be changed." The confederation eventually announced on 27 July its new qualifying format for the World Cup, replacing the Hexagonal with an eight-team final round, dubbed the ''Octagonal''''.'' For the

2026 FIFA World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in three ...

, Canada, the United States, and Mexico may automatically qualify as co-hosts and if so, they will not participate in qualifiers for the final tournament, which will be expanded to 48 teams. The number of places allocated to CONCACAF for the 2026 tournament has been increased from three and a half to six including the hosts (if all three qualify), meaning three non-hosting CONCACAF teams will earn their berths in the final tournament from the CONCACAF qualifiers, along with two intercontinental play-off berths (one for each confederation except UEFA and one additional berth as CONCACAF is the host confederation).

Records

Ranking of teams

;Notes

All-time table

3 points per win, 1 point per draw and 0 points per loss.

Team

* Most appearances: , and : 6. * Most times qualified to FIFA World Cup: : 6. * Winners: ** : 3 (2006, 2010, 2014). ** : 2 (1998, 2018). ** : 1 (2002). * Most points: , 110. ** Most points home: , 75. ** Most points away: , 36. * Most won matches: , 32. ** Most won matches home: , 24. ** Most won matches away: , and , 8. * Most drawn matches: , 18. ** Most drawn matches home: , and , 7. ** Most drawn matches away: , 12. * Most lost matches: , 26. ** Most lost matches home: , 9. ** Most lost matches away: , 17. * Most goals scored: , 100. ** Most goals scored home: , 70. ** Most goals scored away: , 33. * Most won matches in a tournament: (7 in 2002), (7 in 2006) and (7 in 2006, 2014). * Fewest won matches in a tournament: (0 in 2006) and (0 in 2014). * Most drawn matches in a tournament: , 6 (1998). * Fewest drawn matches in a tournament: , 0 (2018). * Most lost matches in a tournament: , 8 (2006). * Fewest lost matches in a tournament: , 0 (1998). * Most points in a tournament: , 23 (2002). * Fewest points in a tournament: , 2 (2006). * Most goals scored in a tournament: , 23 (1998). * Fewest goals scored in a tournament: , 4 (2006). * Most goals covered in a tournament: , 22 (2010). * Fewest goals covered in a tournament: , 6 (2006). * Best goal difference in a tournament: , +16 (1998). * Worst goal difference in a tournament: , -17 (2006). * Best result: 6–0 (1998) and 6–0 (2018). ** Best result home: 6–0 (1998) and 6–0 (2018). ** Best result away: 0–3 (1998), 0–3 (2006) and 0–3 (2010).

Individual

* Top scorer: Carlos Pavon, 12. * Top scorer in a tournament:

Carlos Hermosillo Carlos Manuel Hermosillo Goytortúa (born 24 August 1964) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is also known as ''El Grandote de Cerro Azul'' ("The big tall one from Cerro Azul"). He is the fifth all-time le ...