Mexico: 2, South Africa: 0
After a long opening ceremony, the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City was ready to host the opening match of the 2026 World Cup. It was Mexico and South Africa, a rematch of the famous 2010 opening game in South Africa.
Mexico was the better team from the start, and got the opening goal of the tournament right away, as left winger Julian Quinones buried home a chance in the ninth minute. Quinones had multiple chances to add to the Mexico advantage, but South African goalkeeper Ronwen Williams made some important saves to keep South Africa in it.
Mexico led 1-0 at halftime, despite having the majority of the chances and ball possession. A big chance right at the start of the second half led to South African central midfielder Sphelphelo Sithole receiving a red card for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity, and Bafana Bafana was down to 10 men.
El Tri still couldn’t get the second goal to let the home crowd ease the nerves after the red card, until the 35 year old striker Raul Jimenez headed in a cross from right winger Roberto Alvarado to make it 2-0, Jimenez’ first ever World Cup goal despite playing for the national team since 2013.
There were 2 more red cards in the match, bringing the total to 3 players being sent off, setting a precedent that the referees may not be tolerant of anything.
The final whistle blew, and Mexico won their first ever opening match, securing the 3 points in a game they certainly needed to win.
Player of the Match: Julian Quinones (Al Qadsiah)
Embed from Getty ImagesSouth Korea: 2, Czechia: 1
South Korea and Czechia was a game that was going to be very important to how the Group A standings ended up, with both teams being very evenly matched. Whoever won this game would be set up nicely to make the knockouts.
There were big chances for both teams in the first 25 minutes of the game, but the match cooled off until halftime, and a 0-0 draw seemed imminent.
It was Czechia who scored the opening goal of the match in minute 59. It was the captain, centre back Ladislav Krejci, who headed in a long throw-in from wing back Vladimir Coufal, to give Czechia their first World Cup goal in 20 years.
South Korea scored the tying goal in Guadalajara in the 67th minute, scored by defensive midfielder In-Beom Hwang.
A substitute, Hyun-Gyu Oh scored the winning goal in the 80th minute to secure the important 3 points for South Korea, and complete the comeback. The Taegyuk Warriors will likely just need one more win in the group to qualify for the knockout stage, where Czechia will likely need to get a result against Mexico.
Oddly enough, the first yellow card of the game was not issued until the 96th and last minute of the game, compared to the opening match where 3 red cards in the game.
Player of the Match: In-Beom Hwang (Feyenoord)