- The match features three red cards at the Azteca Stadium.
- South Africa receives two red cards in the match.
- Mexican defender Montes was also sent off late in the match.
Mexico got the World Cup party started as the co-hosts swept aside South Africa 2-0 on Thursday in a three-red card encounter as the pyrotechnic smoke of the opening ceremony gave way to a cloud of red mist in a bustling Azteca Stadium.
This match kicked off the quadrennial football extravaganza, but this disjointed encounter will probably be remembered not for its exciting football but for its wave of dismissals.
Julian Quinones’ opening goal set the tone for a dominant Mexican display in the Group A encounter with Raul Jimenez’s header midway through the second half eliminating any lingering tension for the home crowd.
Yet South Africa were reduced to 10 men when Sphephelo Sithole was sent off early in the second half, with teammate Themba Zwane following him off the field before Mexico’s Cesar Montes was sent off in the dying moments.
The ill-tempered encounter spoiled a celebratory atmosphere, but the home crowd was able to celebrate an opening victory that will take them out of 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.”
Day of firsts
It was a day of firsts for the World Cup, as the first 48-team edition, and the first to take place in three countries, kicked off in the first stadium to host three World Cup opening matches.
It was fitting, then, that the first of a record 104 matches saw Mexico secure their first victory in the opening match of the tournament after seven previous failures and, of course, it was the first World Cup opener to receive three red cards.
This match was a repeat of the 2010 tournament opener, when South Africa held Mexico to a 1-1 draw in Johannesburg, but this encounter took place in a stadium where World Cup history is etched everywhere.
Azteca has witnessed some of the tournament’s most iconic moments, from Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ and 1986 exploits to the conquest of Pelé’s Brazilian team in 1970.
Although there was nothing of that striking quality on display on Thursday, that mattered little to the hordes of green-clad supporters, who had already been plunged into frenzied excitement before a ball was kicked.
With the match being played against a backdrop of protests that threatened to paralyze Mexico City, fans were taking no chances, with many already gathering around the stadium nearly seven hours before kickoff.
Mexico starts quickly
An opening ceremony that featured Shakira and Burna Boy performing the World Cup anthem got the crowd even more excited before Mexico quickly got down to business.
The match was only a few minutes old when Jimenez stung the fingertips of South African goalkeeper Ronwen Williams with a 12-yard volley, but the first goal of the tournament was not long in coming.
Sithole was robbed on the edge of his own box by Lira, favored 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 were clinging to life as the first half drew to a close and the second began in similar vein.
Brian Gutierrez drew the first red card when his marauding run towards the box was stopped short by Sithole, whose clumsy tackle from behind earned him his marching order to end a miserable afternoon’s work for the midfielder.
The crowd had begun to worry about Mexico’s inability to turn their numerical advantage into another goal, but that frustration was relieved when Jimenez scored his first World Cup goal, with a powerful downward header past Williams from a fiendish Roberto Alvarado cross.
The finale of the match was dominated by sending-offs, with Zwane being sent off after a VAR check for an alleged arm to the face, while Montes was sent off for Mexico for denying a scoring opportunity.
