Mexico kicked off their home World Cup campaign in impressive fashion as they recorded a dominant 2-0 win over South Africa in their fiery Group A encounter that had three red cards at Mexico City Stadium.
Goals from Julian Quinones and Raul Jimenez earned co-hosts all three points and as South Africa had Yaya Sithole and Themba Zwane sent off, meaning the South African team only managed to finish the game with nine men.
A roaring crowd greeted the players and there was barely any time for either side to warm up when Mexico scored with a dominant early opportunity on nine minutes, as a misplaced pass by South African captain Ronwen Williams played Sithole into trouble under pressure from Javier Aguirre’s team, the ball fell nicely for Quinones to put the first goal of the 2026 FIFA World Cup between the legs of the South African goalkeeper.
With only a few chances in the first half after some great saves by the South African goalkeeper from Javier Jimenez and Quinones having a low effort bounce off the post, South Africa found it difficult to mount any sustained attacks and did not cause the Mexican keeper any problems.
All hopes of a second half comeback evaporated when South Africa had Sithole sent off on 54 minutes for bringing down Brian Gutierrez, who was away on goal.
Mexico controlled the majority of the possession in the second half and got their second goal of the game with 67 minutes on the clock as an excellent cross from Roberto Alvarado found Raul Jimenez who put his header in off the post to make it his first goal in the World Cup.
South Africa had another player sent off as VAR was used to review an off the ball challenge on Roberto Alvarado from Themba Zwane who was shown a straight red for the offensive behaviour, leaving South Africa with just nine men.
Further chaos ensued when a Mexico defender Cesar Montes was then shown a straight red card for fouling Khuliso Mudau with moments remaining in the game after he took him down after it had run away from the Mexican, it was the third red card of the match.
Despite all the controversy Mexico comfortably picked up three points and now sit in a good position to go through to the next stage of the World Cup. Mexico recorded a massive 16 shots at goal to 2, 1.41 expected goals to just 0.08 and also put in 20 touches in the opposition penalty area in comparison to the South African teams 3.
For the South African team the game could not have gone any worse, defensive errors, no attacking threat whatsoever and then ill discipline cost them any hope of getting points from the opening two games, meaning they will struggle to advance out of the group.
Mexico will look to carry the momentum of the win into the next stage of the competition while South Africa must re-group to ensure their World Cup hopes do not fade.
