There is an emphasis on ‘focusing on the football’ now that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is underway; it proved very difficult to fight that urge from the moment the first whistle went and all of our football instincts kicked in.
There has been so much controversy in the build-up to this summer’s World Cup in North America, with Mexico and Canada dragged into a debate about the biggest host nation: the United States.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has a bizarre relationship with US President Donald Trump, who was awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize to keep him sweet months before the tournament kicked off.
And between then and the tournament starting on Thursday, Trump triggered a major conflict in the Middle East and put Iran’s participation at the tournament in serious jeopardy.
Ignoring the unpleasantness of the politics involved would be wrong – but it was a wonderful evening at the Azteca when football did manage to take centre stage, much to Infantino’s delight.
It was nice to have the opening fixture at an iconic football stadium, contested between a World Cup stalwart and their opponents in the opening fixture 16 years ago, when South Africa’s Siphiwe Tshabalala produced an incredible moment for All of Africa™.
The stars were out across the world as Fox Sports got their coverage underway, with Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexi Lalas teaming up as the first team of pundits. They also had Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez and Peter Schmeichel together in one location, and Stuart Holden with Clint Dempsey in another.
That was a fun 15 minutes to whet the appetite before ITV’s introduction spiked everyone’s World Cup fever and the top pundits were lined up; The Overlap trio Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Ian Wright were on duty alongside Mark Pougatch.
ITV also had Alan Richman of Man v. Food fame to give an American perspective. Why? We’re not sure. The delayed bout of World Cup fever was too strong for us to care.
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Pougatch and the pundits got the political debate out of the way early on before the first(!) opening ceremony of the night, which really wasn’t bad at all.
The first mention of 1966 came at 19:23 before a nice segment starring Sir Geoff Hurst, the representative of England’s only World Cup win 60 years ago, followed by an earnest chat about the South African team and their biggest threats against a Mexico side expected to win the opening fixture on home soil.
Incredibly, Mexico have only lost twice in competitive matches at the famous Azteca, the ground where Pele and Diego Maradona lifted the World Cup trophy.
It’s a shame the final will not be played at this fantastic arena, but the USA are the main characters here, as the world will be made painfully aware of when they kick off their campaign against Paraguay on Saturday morning.
Mexico were drawn in a favourable Group A with South Africa, the Czech Republic and South Korea, and facing the weakest of their opponents on matchday one to raise the curtain on the 2026 World Cup was ideal.
We expected it to be comfortable, but not quite as comfortable as it turned out to be, with Bafana Bafana barely laying a glove on Mexico across 90 minutes. Figuratively anyway.
Raul Jimenez gave the African nation a warning with an early volley before Sphephelo Sithole – whose ‘international career’ section on Wikipedia is now 90 per cent about Thursday’s 2-0 defeat to Mexico – gave the ball away in a disastrous position to let Julian Quinones open the scoring and send the home support wild.
A second Mexico goal felt likely and Sithole’s red card five minutes into the second half made it inevitable. Wolves striker Jimenez made it 2-0 17 minutes later and, after what felt like another 17 years, South Africa were down to nine men.
Mexico got in on the act as the most debatable of the three red cards was shown to Cesar Montes in the second minute of injury time.
And with the best-placed third-place team a factor in reaching the knockout stage, Mexico are in an incredible position to progress, as they usually do at the World Cup, and prolong an incredible record even further. Thursday’s win was their 61st World Cup finals match, the most played by a team never to win the title.
Mexico will hopefully loosen up after a crucial win on matchday one and spectators around the world can do the same. Focusing primarily on the football is impossible and wrong in today’s world, but the first day of the 2026 World Cup was a success, and that is a bonus at least.
