- Match with three red cards at the Azteca Stadium.
- South Africa receives two red cards in the match.
- Mexican defender Montes was also sent off at the end of the game.
Mexico got the World Cup party started when the co-hosts defeated South Africa 2-0 on Thursday in a match with three red cards as the pyrotechnic smoke from the opening ceremony gave way to a cloud of red fog in a vibrant Azteca stadium.
The match was the kick-off for the quadrennial football extravaganza, but the difficult encounter will probably be remembered not for its exciting football but for its flurry of dismissals.
Julián Quiñones’ early goal set the tone for a dominant display from Mexico in the Group A encounter, with Raúl Jiménez’s header midway through the second half removing any lingering tension for the home crowd.
However, South Africa were reduced to 10 men when Sphephelo Sithole was sent off early in the second half, and teammate Themba Zwane followed him off the field before Mexico’s Cesar Montes was sent off in the dying moments.
The moody encounter ruined a party atmosphere, but the home crowd was able to celebrate an early victory that will prepare them well for exiting a group that also includes South Korea and the Czech Republic.
“It’s a moment that I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” said Mexican midfielder Erik Lira. “The only thing I felt was that everything it took to get here was worth it.”
first fruits day
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, began in the first stadium to host three opening World Cup matches.
It was therefore fitting that in the first of a record 104 matches, Mexico achieved its first victory in the tournament’s opening match after seven previous failures and, of course, it was the first World Cup opening match in which there were three red cards.
The match was a repeat of the opening match of the 2010 tournament, when South Africa drew 1-1 with Mexico in Johannesburg, but this match was played in a stadium with World Cup history emblazoned all over it.
The Azteca has witnessed some of the tournament’s most iconic moments, from Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ and the heroic acts of 1986 to Pelé’s total conquest of Brazil in 1970.
While none of that era-defining quality was on display on Thursday, it mattered little to the hordes of green-clad supporters, who had already been revved up with frenzied excitement before a ball was kicked.
With the match played against a backdrop of protests that had threatened to paralyze Mexico City, fans were taking no risks and many were already around the stadium almost seven hours before kick-off.
Mexico off to a fast start
An opening ceremony in which Shakira and Burna Boy performed the World Cup anthem had further energized the crowd before Mexico quickly got down to business.
The match had only been going on for a few minutes when Jiménez stung the fingertips of South African goalkeeper Ronwen Williams with a volley from 12 metres, but the first goal of the tournament was not long in coming.
Sithole was mobbed on the edge of his own area by Lira, preferred in the heart of midfield to captain Edson Álvarez, and quickly fed Quiñones, who danced in before drilling a low shot under Williams.
South Africa held on with all their might as the first half came to an end and the second began in a similar vein.
Brian Gutierrez received the first red card when his run into the box was stopped by Sithole, whose clumsy tackle from behind earned him the order to leave to complete a miserable afternoon of work for the midfielder.
The crowd had begun to grow a little uneasy about Mexico’s failure to convert their numerical advantage into another goal, but that frustration was alleviated when Jiménez scored his first goal of the World Cup, with a powerful downward header past Williams following a diabolical cross from Roberto Alvarado.
The end of the match was dominated by sending offs, with Zwane sent off after a VAR check for an alleged arm in the face, while Montes was sent off for Mexico for preventing a scoring opportunity.
