Mexico got the World Cup party started as the co-hosts swept away South Africa 2-0 on Thursday in a tempestuous clash with three red cards as the pyrotechnic smoke of the opening ceremony gave way to a cloud of red mist at a rocking Azteca stadium.
The match fired the starting gun for the quadrennial 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 match with Raul Jimenez’s header midway through the second half removing any lingering tension for the home crowd.
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 match 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.
The hosts’ performance, however, failed to impress Mexico’s demanding coach Javier Aguirre.
“This was a 4-0 match, we didn’t play good enough, but people are happy,” he told reporters. “It’s the start of the World Cup – we’ve put the nerves behind us and now we have three points. We’re thinking about what’s next.”
Aguirre’s side next face South Korea in Guadalajara on June 18, when South Africa play the Czechs in Atlanta.
