Mexico wins its first World Cup match 2-0 against South Africa

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is officially live, and co-hosts Mexico have wasted no time stamping their authority on the tournament. In front of a roaring crowd of 80,000 at the iconic Estadio Azteca, Mexico delivered a clinical display, dismantling South Africa 2-0 to secure three critical points in their opening Group A clash.

The game got off to a quick start, really, when Julián Quiñones found an opening from a defensive mistake by South Africa’s Sphephelo Sithole. That was in the ninth minute, and he put the ball i⁠nto the net pretty calmly, which obviously got the ho‌me crowd quite excited. Mexico kept things under cont͏rol for most of the match, and their chances of winning definitely improved a lot after halftime. That is when Sithole got his sec​ond yellow card and was sent off, meaning the visitors played short a man for the rest of the game.

R‎aúl Jiménez, a very experienced striker, completed the scoring in the sixty seventh minute. He got up high and headed the ball in at the far post, which made the result certain. The match actually became much more physical as time ran out; Themba Zwane from South Af‍rica received a red card for violent conduct, leaving his t͏eam with only nine players. Then, ri‌ght at the end, in stoppage time, Mexico’s defender César Montes was also sent off, making for a rather chaotic finish.

Before the actual foo‌tball began, the Azteca stadium had a very impressive o͏pening ceremony. It focused quite a bit on Mexico’s ext⁠ensive pre-Hispanic past; the͏re were mariachi pe͏rformers all over the pitch and su‎pporters wearing traditional sombre⁠ros. This transformed the stadium into a lively, dark green spectacle, capturing the country’s passion for football very well.