Mexico Beats South Africa, Final Match Stats, Highlights & World Cup Group A Scenarios

The first match of the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup ended with Mexico defeating South Africa 2-0 at Estadio Banorte in Mexico City on Thursday.

Mexico thoroughly dominated this match. El Tri had 16 shot attempts to Mexico's three and four shots on goal to South Africa's two.

Mexico's goals occurred in the ninth minute (forward Julián Quiñones) and 66th minute (forward Raúl Jiménez).

In the ninth minute, South African goaltender Ronwen Williams passed the ball to midfielder Yaya Sithole. However, Mexico midfielder Érik Lira charged at Sithole, creating a turnover. Quiñones took care of the rest, shooting the ball through Williams' legs for the 1-0 lead in the ninth minute.

Mexico knocked on the door a few more times in the first half but got denied.

South Africa then found itself at a significant disadvantage after Sithole denied a clear scoring opportunity for midfielder Brian Gutiérrez. He received a red card, and South Africa was down to 10 men.

Jiménez soon came through in the 66th minute with a header off a cross from midfielder Roberto Alvarado.

Any feint hope South Africa had for a miracle to get a point out of this match evaporated when midfielder Themba Zwane got a red card following a VAR review after striking Alvarado in the face. The team then went down to nine men.

Mexico even got a red card to make it three overall. Center back César Montes was shown a red for denying a goal-scoring opportunity for defender Khuliso Mudau.

With the victory, Mexico now leads the Group A table with three points, and South Africa is in last with zero points. They comprise the group with South Korea and Czechia, who will play on Thursday at 10 p.m. ET in Estadio Akron in Guadalajara, Mexico.

This year's tournament is at 48 teams for the first time in history. Twelve groups make up this year's field. Thirty-two teams will make the knockout round: The top two teams in each group, and the best eight third-place teams. So Mexico is in a good spot right now after the big win.