One Game, Five Conclusions: Will Mexico vs South Africa Set the Tone for a Chaotic World Cup? | OneFootball

The first game of the 2026 World Cup proved to be a routine win for Mexico over South Africa, but it was a highly eventful game. Here are five things we noticed.

The World Cup Takes No Prisoners

Yaya Sithole had a night to forget.

Four years after making his South Africa debut, the Tondela midfielder got his first taste of World Cup action. But that experience would only last 49 minutes, as he was sent off for fouling Brian Gutiérrez as the Mexican was racing through on goal.

This was the first red card brandished in a World Cup opening match since Marco Etcheverry for Bolivia against Germany in 1994, while he became just the third South African to receive a red card in the competition after Itumeleng Khune in 2010 (vs Uruguay) and Alfred Phiri in 1998 (vs Denmark).

To make matters worse, he had already played a key role in Mexico’s opening goal, too. His error, dallying on the ball and losing possession to Érik Lira on the edge of his own box after an unhelpful pass from goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, led to Julián Quiñones firing into the net.

Sithole is just the third player to make an error leading to a goal and receive a red card in the same World Cup match since such records began (1966), after Ivory Coast’s Cyrille Domoraud vs Serbia and Czechia’s Tomas Ujfalusi vs Ghana, both in 2006.

Red-Card Records Under Threat

Of course, he wasn’t the only player to be dismissed in the game.

After Sithole was given a red card, Themba Zwane was sent off following a VAR review just 23 minutes after coming on as a substitute for violent conduct. Then, referee Wilton Pereira Sampaio rather harshly deemed César Montes’ challenge on Khuliso Mudau a last-man tackle and brandished a third red card of the match in added time.

It was the first time a team has received two red cards in a World Cup match since Portugal and Netherlands both had two players dismissed in a 2006 round-of-16 meeting. That is also the only World Cup game in history to see more reds dished out by the referee than this match.

Red Records to Tumble?

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Unbelievably, this means that after one game of the 2026 World Cup, we’ve seen just one red card fewer (3) than in the whole of the 2022 tournament (4). In terms of straight red cards given by the referee, the 2026 finals have already seen the same tally as the last two tournaments in 2018 (2) and 2022 (1) combined.

So we’re now on course for 312 red cards at this tournament… right?

Four Red Cards in a World Cup Match

Portugal vs Netherlands – 25 June 2006

Three Red Cards in a World Cup Match

Brazil vs Czechoslovakia – 12 June 1938Hungary vs Brazil – 27 June 1954South Africa vs Denmark – 18 June 199Italy vs USA – 17 June 2006Croatia vs Australia – 22 June 2006Mexico vs South Africa – 11 June 2026

A Gulf in Quality Too Great

The expanded format of this World Cup was always going to throw up a few more mismatches than we’re used to, but this one suggested that there could be even more than expected.

The gap between the teams wasn’t exactly massive according to the Opta Power Rankings, with Mexico 21st in the world coming into the tournament and South Africa 60th, but the evidence on the pitch indicated this was barely a contest.

Mexico were completely dominant from start to finish, South Africa failing to lay a glove on their opponents, managing just three shots worth 0.07 xG over the 90 minutes. They weren’t helped by Sithole’s early error or the two red cards they received, but they also never really looked in with a chance.

The gap between two teams’ Power Rankings is the biggest to come in Group A, but all but one other group has a bigger gulf separating two opponents. There will be more one-sided games than this.

Mora That, Please

Gilberto Mora burst onto the scene a year ago when he was thrown in the deep end at the CONCACAF Gold Cup. After sitting on the bench throughout the group stage, he was sensationally given a start in the quarter-final against Saudi Arabia as a 16-year-old.

He performed so well that he kept his place in the starting lineup against Honduras in the semi-final before going on to start in the final against the United States on the way to winning the title. No player created more chances from open play for Mexico than he did across those three knockout stage matches (4), and a star was born.

Now, a year later, in front of an expectant home crowd at the Azteca, Mora entered the pitch as a second-half substitute to become their youngest ever World Cup player, and the sixth youngest across all teams in the history of the competition – just five days older than the legendary Pelé when the Brazilian made his World Cup bow in 1958.

Mora may not have started this match, but there’s a strong chance he’ll have a role to play in Mexico’s quest to go deep into this tournament.

Relaxed Attitude to Timings

The 2026 World Cup was scheduled to kick off at 1pm local time in Mexico City. It in fact started almost six minutes after that, at precisely 13:05:56.

That is not the level of punctuality that European fans are usually accustomed to seeing from their football matches.

The opening ceremony may have had something to do with the delayed start, while the referee also had to clear the pitch of every member of both teams’ squads after they had come onto the pitch for the national anthems, and that would have taken a while.

But even so, this was a particularly laissez-faire approach to scheduling. And add in the two drinks hydration breaks, taken midway through each half – despite temperatures only reaching around 24 degrees Celsius (75 Fahrenheit) at the Estadio Azteca – and the game ended at 15:03:33pm. That’s two hours, three minutes and 33 seconds after kick-off, for a match that was supposed to last 90 minutes, with a 15-minute break.

There’s already going to be a lot of football at this World Cup. And it could all take a very long time, too.

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