FOOTBALL – Mexico got the World Cup party started as the co-hosts swept away South Africa 2-0 yesterday in an encounter with three red cards as the pyrotechnic smoke of the opening ceremony gave way to a cloud of red mist at a thrumming Azteca stadium.
The match fired the starting gun for the quadrennial football extravaganza, yet the scrappy encounter will likely be remembered not for its thrilling football but for its flurry of dismissals.
Julian Quinones’s early strike set the tone for a dominant Mexican display in the Group A encounter with Raul Jimenez’s header midway through the second half removing any lingering tension for the home crowd.
Quinones plays professionally for Saudi Pro League club Al Qadsiah and is understood to be a frequent visitor to Bahrain.
Yet South Africa were reduced to 10 men when Sphephelo Sithole was sent off early in the second half, with his teammate Themba Zwane following him off the pitch before Mexico’s Cesar Montes was dismissed in the dying moments.
The ill-tempered encounter spoiled an otherwise party atmosphere, yet the home crowd got to celebrate an opening victory that will set them up nicely to make it out of a group that also includes South Korea and the Czech Republic.
“It’s a moment I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life,” said Mexico midfielder Erik Lira.
“The only thing I felt was that everything it took to get here had been worth it.”
It was a day of firsts for the World Cup, as the first 48-team edition, and the first to be held in three countries, got underway in the first stadium to host three World Cup openers.
It was fitting that the first of a record 104 matches had Mexico clinch a first win in the tournament’s opening match after seven previous failures and of course, it was the first World Cup opener to feature three red cards.
The fixture was a repeat of the 2010 tournament opener, when South Africa held Mexico to a 1-1 draw in Johannesburg, yet this encounter was played out in a stadium with World Cup history stamped all over it.
The Azteca has witnessed some of the tournament’s most iconic moments, from Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ and 1986 heroics to Pele’s all-conquering Brazil side of 1970.
While there was none of that era-defining quality on show yesterday, it mattered little to the hordes of green-clad supporters, who had already been revved into frenzied excitement before a ball was kicked.
With the match played against a backdrop of protests that had threatened to bring Mexico City to a standstill, supporters were taking no chances, with many already hovering around the stadium nearly seven hours before kickoff.
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