Mexico Beats South Africa 2-0 in Chaotic World Cup Opener — Three Red Cards at Azteca

The 2026 FIFA World Cup has started, and the opening match delivered exactly the kind of drama you’d expect from a tournament of this size.
Mexico beat South Africa 2-0 at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on Wednesday — but the scoreline doesn’t tell the full story. Three red cards, a nine-man South Africa side in the final minutes, and a full house of Mexican fans going absolutely wild. That’s how the biggest soccer tournament in history kicked off.

The Goals

Julián Quiñones opened the scoring in the first half, giving El Tri the lead in front of their home crowd. Then came the moment that will be remembered for years — Raúl Jiménez, 35 years old, scored his first-ever World Cup goal on home soil. The striker was in tears on the pitch afterward. Six years ago, a serious head injury nearly ended his career. On Wednesday night, he scored at a World Cup in Mexico City.

The Red Cards

This match was physical from the start. Three red cards were shown in total — two for South Africa and one for Mexico. South Africa’s Sithole was sent off for pulling back a Mexican attacker who was clean through on goal. By the final whistle, South Africa was down to nine men. Mexico finished with ten.
It is only the second time in World Cup history that three straight red cards were shown in a single match. The last time it happened, South Africa were also involved — against Denmark in 1998.

What It Means

Mexico needed this. El Tri had not won a World Cup opening game in years. Doing it at home, at the Azteca, with a clean sheet — this is exactly the start they wanted.
South Africa showed fight but lost their discipline at the worst possible time. Playing nine men against a confident Mexican side on home turf, the result was never going to change.
Next up for Mexico is South Korea on June 18 in Guadalajara. That will be a much harder test. But for now, Group A belongs to El Tri.
The 2026 World Cup has 103 more games to go. It started well.
Source: ESPN, CNN, NBC News, Al Jazeera