El Tri vs La Tri: Why are Mexico and Ecuador called by the same famous nickname?

When Mexico and Ecuador meet at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Tuesday, there’s a good chance you’ll hear commentators talking about El Tri and La Tri. It sounds like one team has stolen the other’s nickname, right? “Get your own!” someone screams.

Not quite, though.

In fact, both names come from exactly the same idea. Both countries proudly identify with the three colors of their national flags, even if one nickname is more famous around the world than the other.

Why is Mexico called El Tri?

Mexico’s best-known nickname is simply a shortened version of El Tricolor (i don’t think I need to translate that), a reference to the green, white and red of the Mexican flag.

References to the team as Tricolor date back to the 1950s, with 1956 often cited as the point when the nickname first entered regular football use. It gradually became more common in newspapers and broadcasts before eventually being shortened to the now-familiar El Tri.

The nickname became even more fitting in the 1980s.

For years Mexico usually played in green shirts and white shorts, but the team often alternated between green, white and red elements rather than displaying all three colors together. In 1984 the national side began regularly pairing the traditional green shirt and white shorts with red socks, creating a kit that visibly reflected the Mexican flag from head to toe. That helped cement both El Tricolor and El Tri in the minds of supporters.

Today, regardless of occasional kit redesigns, “El Tri” remains by far the most common nickname for the Mexican national team.

Why is Ecuador called La Tri?

Yes, you’ve guessed it: because Ecuador’s flag also has three colors.

Yellow, blue and red have represented Ecuador since the 19th century, so the national team also became known as La Tricolor, later shortened to La Tri.

Unlike Mexico, Ecuador’s home shirt is predominantly yellow, which can make the nickname seem less obvious at first glance. But the reference has never been about the jersey alone – it’s about the country’s tricolor flag. The Ecuadorian Football Federation, fans and local media all regularly use La Tri as the team’s everyday nickname.

Why are they El Tri and La Tri?

The answer is simply grammar.

As I explained, both nicknames come from the same place – the three colors of each country’s flag – but Spanish doesn’t force one version over the other. Tricolor is an adjective, so it can be either masculine or feminine depending on the noun it describes. For example, the flag would be ‘la bandera tricolor’ and the national team ‘la selección tricolor’. But the team ‘el equipo tricolor’ or the country ‘el país tricolor’.

Over time, Mexico simply settled on El Tri, while Ecuador adopted La Tri. Today they’re just established football nicknames rather than grammatical rules, and fans in each country wouldn’t dream of swapping them around.

But the more important question right now is which one will prevail in Mexico’s iconic Estadio Azteca to take their place in the last 16 of World Cup 2026?

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