Mexico and South Africa Just Made World Cup History - and Not in a Good Way

The World Cup is underway, and though the pomp and circumstance before the game had fireworks, so did the actual game between the hosts Mexico and challenger South Africa.

While Mexico limped away from the game with a 2-0 scoreline and an almost guaranteed ticket already to the Round of 32, what will be remembered about this tournament’s first game won’t be the opening ceremony or any of the goals scored.

It’ll be remembered for making history in a different way.

For the first time ever, the World Cup opened up with a game that delivered three red cards.

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It was one of the more sloppy openers in World Cup history, as Mexico got in the board within the first 10 minutes from an errant unforced error between the South African goalie and defense that let Julián Quiñones strike in the first goal of the tournament.

South Africa as a whole looked discombobulated the entire 90-plus minutes, failing to find any sort of rhythm in the offensive end and haphazardly defending on the other side. Things got out of hand coming out of halftime, when Yaya Sithole hauled down Brian Gutierrez right outside the box to receive a red card and, for all intents and purposes, end any sort of hope South Africa had at getting back into the game.

Once they fell to 10 men, Mexico scored once more with Raúl Jiménez, the veteran ace of the squad, scoring his first World Cup Goal.

After that, though, it was a slog, as Mexico will wish they had scored more, while South Africa will like to forget the game ever happened following a second red card that put them down to nine men. Mexico then followed suit in the dying minutes, with César Montes joining the party.

Mexico will continue their Group A play next Thursday against South Korea. South Africa will play European opponent Czechia.

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This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 4:50 PM.