On Saturday afternoon, thousands of fans gathered in the Angel of Independence square in Mexico City to celebrate what essentially was a youth football title. Yet it felt like more than that as the crowd cried and cheered for its beloved soccer team. The notion that Mexico's most important soccer accomplishment came in a tournament where mostly under-23 players participated and that was lacking countries such as Argentina, Germany and France, among others, seemed absurd to many.

But Mexico's 2-1 win against Brazil in the Olympic gold-medal game Saturday was the biggest in its history, as much a symbolic win as an actual one, because it ushers in an era where Mexico will no longer be seen as a huge underdogs in international soccer. Some are saying El Tri, on the heels of a remarkable year-and-a-half run, will be a dark horse in Brazil in 2014.

The recent haul has been remarkable: U-17 World Cup champions, U-20 World Cup third place, Gold Cup champions, CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament champions, Toulon tournament champions (the first CONCACAF team to do so), Milk Cup champions and, finally and most impressively, Olympic champions.

Several players on the squad are already some of the most decorated in Mexican history.