By Toby Davis
MEXICO CITY, June 11 (Reuters) – Mexico got the World Cup party started as the co-hosts swept away South Africa 2-0 on Thursday 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.
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.”
DAY OF FIRSTS
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 therefore 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 on Thursday, 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.
MEXICO GET OFF TO FAST START
An opening ceremony that featured Shakira and Burna Boy performing the World Cup anthem had pumped up the crowd still further before Mexico swiftly got down to business.
The game was barely minutes old when Jimenez stung the fingertips of South Africa goalkeeper Ronwen Williams with a volley from 12 yards, but the tournament’s opening goal was not long in coming.
Sithole was robbed on the edge of his own box by Lira, preferred in the heart of midfield to captain Edson Alvarez, and he quickly fed Quinones who danced inside before drilling a low finish beneath Williams.
South Africa were clinging on for dear life as the first half came to a close and the second began in a similar vein.
Brian Gutierrez drew the first red card when his marauding run towards the box was stopped in its tracks by Sithole, whose clumsy tackle from behind earned him his marching orders to complete a miserable afternoon’s work for the midfielder.
The crowd had begun to get a little restless at Mexico’s failure to turn their numerical advantage into another goal but that frustration was relieved when Jimenez bagged his first World Cup goal, with a powerful downward header past Williams from a devilish cross by Roberto Alvarado.
The game’s finale was dominated by the dismissals with Zwane sent off after a VAR check for a supposed arm to the face while Montes was sent off for Mexico for denying a goalscoring opportunity.
(Reporting by Toby DavisEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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