Mexico Beats South Africa 2-0 as 2026 World Cup Opens at Estadio Azteca
The co-hosts opened the biggest World Cup ever staged with a 2-0 win in Mexico City, where Raul Jimenez ended a four-tournament scoring drought and three players were sent off.
Mexico beat South Africa 2-0 at Estadio Azteca on Thursday, June 11, in the opening match of the 2026 World Cup, with Julián Quiñones scoring the tournament's first goal in the ninth minute and Raúl Jiménez heading in the second midway through a bad-tempered second half.
The win handed the co-hosts a clean start at the largest World Cup ever staged: 48 teams and 104 matches spread across Mexico, the United States and Canada, with the final set for July 19. It also ended a long personal wait. Jiménez, appearing at his fourth World Cup, had never scored at one until Thursday.
The tournament's first goal came from a South African mistake. A pass from the goalkeeper got away from its intended target and Erik Lira picked it off, the ball finding Quiñones, who took a single dribble toward the middle of the pitch and drove a right-footed shot into the net, according to Fox News.
It took nine minutes.
South Africa's task got steeper in the 50th minute, when Yaya Sithole was sent off for hauling down Brian Gutiérrez on what would have been a clear breakaway. Down to ten men at altitude in Mexico City, Hugo Broos' team held on until the 67th, when Roberto Alvarado swung in a cross and Jiménez buried the header. The striker, scoreless across three previous tournaments, did not hide what the moment meant.
The cards kept coming. Themba Zwane was shown red in the 84th minute and Mexico defender César Montes followed in the 92nd, leaving the opener with three ejections in all. Sithole and Zwane will miss South Africa's next match against Czechia in Atlanta, while Montes sits out Mexico's meeting with South Korea in Guadalajara.
Before kickoff, the famous stadium, renamed Mexico City Stadium for the tournament, staged the opening ceremony with all 48 competing nations represented on the field and FIFA President Gianni Infantino in attendance with the World Cup trophy. Shakira, dressed in yellow as a nod to her native Colombia, performed the tournament's official anthem, "Dai Dai," with Burna Boy, NBC Sports reported, and a huge roar went up when she appeared.
The fixture was a rerun of sorts. Mexico and South Africa also met in the opening match of the 2010 World Cup, the year South Africa hosted, and Thursday marked the South Africans' first appearance at the tournament since. History favored Mexico once Quiñones struck: El Tri have now won 15 of the 23 World Cup matches in which they scored first, with five draws and three defeats, per Fox News.
For head coach Javier Aguirre, in his third stint with the national team, the result eases some of the weight left over from Qatar, where Mexico failed to reach the knockout stage for the first time since 1978 at a World Cup it played in. For Broos, the tournament is a farewell. The Belgian has already announced he will step down afterward, closing the loop in Mexico, where he played his last World Cup as a player 40 years ago, CBS Sports noted. South Africa, at a fourth World Cup after 1998, 2002 and 2010, is still chasing a first run beyond the group stage.
Group A continued later Thursday in Guadalajara, where South Korea beat Czechia in the day's other fixture. Mexico travels there next to face the Koreans without Montes, while South Africa heads to Atlanta to meet Czechia with two players suspended. Six weeks of tournament football lie ahead, and the hosts could hardly have scripted a better first day.