- The match features three red cards at the Azteca stadium.
- South Africa receive two red cards in the match.
- Mexico defender Montes also showed off the late game.
Mexico got the World Cup party started as the co-hosts swept South Africa 2-0 on Thursday in a three-red card encounter as the pyrotechnic smoke from the opening ceremony gave way to a cloud of red mist at a thunderous Azteca Stadium.
The game kicked off the quadrennial football extravaganza, yet the scrappy encounter is likely to be remembered not for its exciting football but for its flurry of dismissals.
Julian Quinones’ early strike set the tone for a dominant Mexican display in the Group A encounter with Raul Jimenez’s header midway through the second half removing any lingering tension for the home crowd.
Still, South Africa were reduced to 10 men when Sphephelo Sithole was sent off early in the second half, with his team-mate Themba Zwane following him off the field before Mexico’s Cesar Montes was sent off in the dying moments.
The ill-fated encounter spoiled an otherwise festive atmosphere, but the home crowd nevertheless celebrated an opening win that will set them up nicely to get out of a group that also includes South Korea and the Czech Republic.
“It’s a moment I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” said Mexican midfielder Erik Lira. “All I felt was that everything it took to get here had been worth it.”
The first days
It was a day of firsts for the World Cup as the first 48-team edition, and the first to be held in three countries, got underway at the first stadium to host three World Cup openers.
It was fitting, then, that the first of a record 104 matches saw Mexico claim a first win in the opening game of the tournament after seven previous failures, and of course it was the first World Cup opener to see three red cards.
The clash was a repeat of the tournament opener in 2010 when South Africa held Mexico to a 1-1 draw in Johannesburg, yet this meeting was played in a stadium with World Cup history stamped all over it.
The Azteca has witnessed some of the tournament’s most iconic moments, from Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ and 1986 heroics to Pele’s all-conquering Brazil side of 1970.
While there was none of the era-defining quality of the show on Thursday, that mattered little to the hordes of green-clad supporters who had already been driven into a frenzy of excitement before a ball was kicked.
With the match played against the backdrop of protests that had threatened to bring Mexico City to a standstill, the supporters were taking no chances, with many already hovering around the stadium almost seven hours before kick-off.
Mexico gets off to a fast start
An opening ceremony where Shakira and Burna Boy performed the World Cup anthem had pumped up the crowd further before Mexico quickly got going.
The match was barely minutes old when Jimenez fingered South Africa goalkeeper Ronwen Williams with a volley from 12 yards, but the opening goal of the tournament was not long in coming.
Sithole was robbed on the edge of his own box by Lira, preferred in the heart of midfield to captain Edson Alvarez, and he quickly fed Quinones, who danced inside, before drilling a low finish under Williams.
South Africa hung on for dear life as the first half ended and the second began in similar fashion.
Brian Gutierrez drew the first red card when his marauding run towards the box was stopped in his tracks by Sithole, whose clumsy tackle from behind gave him his marching orders to complete a miserable afternoon’s work for the midfielder.
The crowd had begun to grow a little restless at Mexico’s inability to turn their numerical advantage into another goal, but that frustration was eased when Jimenez scored his first World Cup goal with a powerful downward header past Williams from a devilish cross from Roberto Alvarado.
The game’s finale was dominated by sending offs with Zwane sent off following a VAR check for a suspected arm to the face, while Montes was sent off to Mexico for denying a goalscoring opportunity.
