{"id":2799,"date":"2026-06-12T06:59:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=2799"},"modified":"2026-06-12T06:59:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:59:36","slug":"world-cup-2026-highlights-reaction-as-mexico-south-korea-start-with-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=2799","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Highlights & reaction as Mexico & South Korea start with wins"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Jimenez leads Mexico to victory<\/span>published at 07:28 BST<\/span><\/p>\n

07:28 BST<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mexico 2-0 South Africa<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Raul<\/span>Image source, <\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Three players were sent off as World Cup co-hosts Mexico defeated South Africa in a dramatic opening match at a packed Azteca Stadium.<\/p>\n

South Africa finished with nine men, while Mexico were reduced to 10 in the closing moments.<\/p>\n

Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio produced the flurry of red cards, dismissing South Africa’s Yaya Sithole for denying a goalscoring opportunity and Themba Zwane for a slap, then sending off Mexico’s Cesar Montes for a late foul.<\/p>\n

Only four red cards were shown in the entire Qatar 2022 World Cup, while three had never been shown in a tournament-opening game before.<\/p>\n

Long before any hint of that turn of events, Mexico delighted their fans with the first goal of the finals after only nine minutes.<\/p>\n

South Africa midfielder Sithole was tackled by Erik Lira and the ball dropped to Julian Quinones whose powerful strike went though the legs of goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.<\/p>\n

Quinones almost made it 2-0 just before half-time, but his 12-yard first-time shot bounced off the foot of the right post.<\/p>\n

The hosts’ task became much easier when Sithole was sent off five minutes into the second half, bringing down Brian Gutierrez when he was going through on goal.<\/p>\n

Striker Raul Jimenez, 35, sealed the victory with his first goal at a World Cup, heading in powerfully from Roberto Alvarado’s cross for Mexico’s second, a moment that appeared to bring tears from the veteran.<\/p>\n

Read the full report here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimenez leads Mexico to victorypublished at 07:28 BST 07:28 BST Mexico 2-0 South Africa Image source, Getty Images Three players…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}