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, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

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

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification The 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations. Each confederation — the Asian Football Confederation, AFC (Asia), Confederation of African Football, CAF (Afr ...

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, also known as CONCACAF Nations Championship, was an association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for men's senior national teams from North America, Central America and the C ...

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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

were present in every Hexagonal. Mexico was the only national team that qualified for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

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 is de ...

(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 () (officially known as Estadio Banorte for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium located in Coyoacán, Mexico City. It is the official home of football team Club América, as well as the Mexico national team. The stadium ...

in Mexico City; matches hosted in the United States are often held in cold northern cities such as

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. 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 u ...

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 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 () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. 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 Association football, footballer who plays as an Midfielder#Attacking midfielder, attacking midfielder. He is an Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's tou ...

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 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, in which he qualified for the

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

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

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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 eith ...

against the fifth-place team from

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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 The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

. * Honduras advanced to the CONCACAF–AFC playoff; they would be defeated by

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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 was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

, 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

(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''. FIFA subsequently announced that a January–February window will be used for all confederations except UEFA. For the

2026 FIFA World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's Association football, soccer championship contested by the List of men's n ...

, Canada, the United States, and Mexico automatically qualified as co-hosts, 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, 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 Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewhere ...

, 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"). Hermosillo is the all-ti ...