El Tri Wins the Red Fest: Mexico vs South Africa Opening Game Recap
- therookiereporters
- Jun 16
- 4 min read
The summer everyone has been waiting for is at hand. On the opening day of the World Cup 2026, Mexico host South Africa in Azteca.
16 years ago, on the exact day of June 11th, Mexico and South Africa made the kick-off of the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg. Stars align once again in 2026 and the same teams start the World Cup in Mexico City this time.
El Tri and Bafana Bafana faced each other 4 times before, 2 friendly games and 2 official international tournaments. Their most memorable match up is the 2010 World Cup opening game under the deafening sounds of Vuvuzelas and Peter Drury’s “Goal Bafana Bafana” commentary.
Third-time hosts Mexico make their 18th World Cup appearance, in hopes of redeeming their last disappointing campaign. Since exiting 2022 Qatar in the Group Stage, El Tri made a long way, winning both CONCACAF Nations League and Gold Cup. Led by the manager Javier Aguirre and team captain Edson Álvarez, El Tri is looking forward to impressing, as one of the host nations. In addition to experienced players like Raul Jiménez and Guillermo Ochoa, who is seeking his 6th consecutive World Cup appearance, young sensations such as Obed Vargas and Gilberto Mora will be searching for their World Cup debuts.
Meanwhile, South Africa return to the world stage for the first time, after being the first African country to host in 2010. Despite having most of their squad playing in the South African top flight, which isn’t known by most, they managed to land some younger players to other continents like the Burnley striker Foster in Burnley and Chicago Fire centre-back Mbokazi. Manager Hugo Broos and captain Ronwen Williams will try to lead Bafana Bafana out of an expected 4th place finish in Group A and maybe even book a spot in the knockout stages.
Coming into the opening game, Mexico is in form, most recently beating Serbia 5-1 in Toluca. However, the same can not be said for the African side, as they failed to prevail in any of their last friendly games.
So without further ado, let’s have a look at the first starting elevens of the 2026 World Cup!
Mexico XI: Rangel - Reyes - Montes - Vasquez - Gallardo - Lira - Fidalgo - Gutierrez - Alvarado - Quiñones - Jiménez
South Africa XI: Williams - Mudau - Okon - Sibisi - Mbokazi - Modiba - Adams - Sithole - Mokoena - Foster - Rayners
First Half
The co-hosts begin rapidly with the home crowd behind. Jiménez finds the first goal threat in the 5th minute from a dangerous cross. He finds himself unmarked in the South African box and shoots, but Williams parries the ball out. It only takes 4 more minutes for Mexico to take the lead with left-winger Quiñones, who takes Sithole's lost ball and puts it into the net with a shot that goes between Williams’ legs. With the confidence of his first goal, the goalscorer tries his luck again from distance 10 minutes later, but he barely misses the target. South Africa try to get back in the game, however the long ball and set piece attempts can’t cause anything more than a little chaos in the Mexican box. The host nation comes very close to a second goal towards the halftime whistle without any success. First, Williams saves Jiménez’s touch, then Quiñones hits the post and last, Gutierrez’s weak shot fails to find the target. So, the first half ends with El Tri’s 1-0 lead.
Second Half
In the second half, Mexico continue where they left, as things get even more difficult for Bafana Bafana. As the last player in the defense line, Sphephelo Sithole brings down Brian Gutierrez, who is on a run towards the South African box. The midfielder sees red and leaves his team with a man down in the 50th minute. Despite playing with 10 men, Bafana Bafana seem more alive in the second half, but they can’t prevent Mexicans from extending their lead in the 67th minute. Raul Jiménez finishes Alvarado’s cross with a bullet header at the far post and fires up Azteca for the second time. Just when you think things can’t get any worse for South Africa, they go down another man in the 84th minute. VAR awards the newly-subbed Zwane with a red card after hitting Alvarado on the face during attacking play. Interestingly, Mexico also get caught up in the red card frenzy. During a rare South Africa attack, centre-back César Montes fouls Mudau, who attempts to dribble past the Mexican defender on his way to Mexico’s box. The referee pulls out his red card for the second time and sends off Montes in the second minute of the stoppage time. After 5 more minutes, the final whistle is blown and Mexico wins the opening game with 2-0 scoreline.
With this result, Mexico opened their 2026 World Cup account with 3 points in Group A. El Tri took the victory with a positive, encouraging football for 90 minutes and made a good impression in front of their home crowd. Julian Quiñones is given the “Superior Player of the Match” award, as he made a decent World Cup debut with the opener and his following efforts up front. An emotional Raul Jimenez also put a remarkable performance with his name on the scoreline and it was fascinating to see Gilberto Mora becoming one of the youngest World Cup debutantes in history as well. Although they lost César Montes for the next game in defence, Aguirre’s men put up a promising display in every aspect and made good progress towards booking a knockout stage ticket against South Korea in the second group stage game.
On the other hand, South Africa seemed very messy on defense and paid the price by losing with 2 goals conceded. Sithole didn’t only cause Mexico’s first goal, he also got suspended for the next game against Czechia. Except for a few rare opportunities, Broos’ Bafana Bafana couldn’t match their hosting opponents at all and got off to a rough start in their World Cup return.
In the end, Mexico got one over South Africa at their historic home turf Azteca. The second games will be played in 1 week time and we’ll see how the teams fare with the rest of the group stage.
Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026
