It was a day to remember at the Mexico City Stadium as co-hosts Mexico defeated South Africa in the FIFA World Cup 2026 opener by 2-0. Julian Quinones andย ย Raul Jimenez scored for the El Tri as they blanked the Bafana Bafana in front of a packed Mexican crowd. While Javier Aguirre’s men displayed a stunning show on the pitch, there was much more to remember about this contest other than the goals.
On a rare occasion at the World Cup, three red cards were shown in the tournament’s opener as the referee had a busy time sending the players off. Referee Wilton Sampaio showed two red cards to South Africa, while he kept one for Mexico. This marked the first-ever FIFA World Cup game that witnessed three straight red cards in the last 28 years. The previous such instance of three players sent off in a World Cup game was in 1998 when South Africa and Denmark played a 1-1 draw in a group stage outing.
What incidents happened in the opener?
South Africa’s World Cup opener against Mexico turned from bad to worse as two of their players were shown red cards in the clash at the Estadio Azteca. Midfielder Yaya Sithole was first sent off at the start of the second half in the 50th minute for his challenge on Mexico’sย Brian Gutierrez. Later in the dying stages of the game,ย Themba Zwane was shown the red card in a horror outing for the Bafana Bafana.
Sithole’s incident took place at the start of the second half when he chasedย C.D. Guadalajara midfielderย Gutierrez, who was running with the ball alone with no defender behind to stop him from scoring.ย Sithole caught his opponent in the back, tangled him for a fall and was shown the red card for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity. He became just the third South African to be shown a red card in the history of the FIFA World Cups.ย And Sithole was quickly joined by Themba Zwane, who became the fourth.
Zwane was sent down the tunnel in the 84th minute when he swiped out and hit Roberto Alvarado in the face. Alvarado blocked Zwane from running around him. Zwane tried moving Alvarado out of the way with his hand and made contact with the face of the Mexican.
Later, Mexican captain Cesar Montes was sent off for his challenge onย Khuliso Mudau, who was running with the ball near the box of the Mexican goal.ย Montes brought him down, thinking he made a fair challenge, but it was deemed not to be fair, as the referee sent him off for the third red card of the day.
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