Mexico vs South Africa. The opening match.

2-0 nailed on. GL.

Backed Mexico to score 2 or more @ 1.8 gl all.

gone africa at 9/1 for a shock squad.

GL

Water break a must in future during the Mexican anthem

Some Mexico fans not that confident apparently, but I think they should win 1-0 or 2-0, altitude might be favourable for them.

howler by the defender

this messing out at the back is stupidity

jesus, the africans are going to take a right beating here.  we've lost.

look way off this level.

they don't look up to much

1-0. Sewth Efrica look woeful here.

Nice attempt at the accent there , sofaking

Bet356 Evens on a Mexico goal already paid out

First goal.
Time to reveal my bet: i had 230e bet on Mexico to win.

yup 1 in the bag  2 to go

S Africa going to get a red if they keep that up.

Mexico don't look anything special, but don't need to be.

1-0 QT.

End of 1st quarter

decent first 22 mins

hydration break walofs

sorry 2 097 of 3 landed just need mexico to win now

nobody needs a drink after 20 minutes ffs

It's not about dehydration, it just allows more advertisements to be shown...always follow the $$$$$$

Sihole

Jun 11, 2026 -- 8:33PM, Petraco wrote:

It's not about dehydration, it just allows more advertisements to be shown...always follow the $$$$$$

yep

Yaya Sithole born in Durban.....named after his place of birth by his Dyslexic mother

radio comms bigging up Mexico a bit, but there's little quality on either side in this game, tbh.

Jun 11, 2026 -- 8:38PM, Des Pond wrote:

radio comms bigging up Mexico a bit, but there's little quality on either side in this game, tbh.

none des

since that drink break zero tempo

prob unders tournament despite all the rammel that's here

Every player wearing the same pink boots - must be one heck of a sponsorship deal .

Sorry 1 player with blue boots and 1 with white boots must not have been offered enough money .

I can see why Mexican fans are cool on their chances overall. They are not a great side at all.

bit of home advantage only thing going for them

sth korea and the czechs should play out a draw later on. 

they'll both take this south african lot to the cleaners so guaranteed 4 points which will get them both through.

1-0 HT.

Gutierrez looks like a Conference league player.

New trainer coming on rule seems to be working. Much fewer dying swans.

heat going to ruin all the game s

Not as bad as I though it would be, once they got the early goal Mexico seem to want to sit back a bit and just get the point, thats allowed South Africa to come at them a bit, but don't really have the quality to do any damage, when Mexico do decide to attack, they do it quickly and look fairly dangerous, Mexico should really win this from here, unless they get too defensive and let in a silly goal.

quite a few indoor stadiums

they said 23c in mexico today

I thought Ian Wright retired from punditry a year or so back

See him on everything.

inveterate attention-seeker, can't help himself.

Ian wright screaming and moaning about the world cup how bad it is , seems he is happy to take the cash though

nothing for England to worry about if they meet this lot in the last 16. If Mexico get that far, which  I doubt, based on that 1st half showing.

Jun 11, 2026 -- 9:01PM, tobermory wrote:

I thought Ian Wright retired from punditry a year or so back See him on everything.

Now he's on the half time ads I like him but it's a bit much

Where is the ITV studio?

New York

Thanks

another good chance passed up

red card

Oh dear red South Africa

pretty harsh, Mexico player did his best to collide with him

Mexico keeper nearly chucked one in there.

Mexico taking the piss here surely very lame

What are mexico playing at boring everyone

Overs DOOMED here.

Guttierrez off, about time

2-0

Good goal

Aaaaand Mexico won.

Good (betting) start for the world cup. Wohoo

Best game of the tournament...so far.

fair play to the africans.  woefully out of their depth, man down. 

still only 0-2.

pathetic this

"violent conduct" pmsl

utterly embarrassing

encouraging for the Czechs and South Korea, they must fancy their chances against a pretty ordinary Mexico side.

What language was the ref speaking when he addressed the crowd? the only thing I heard was 'decision: red card', before that I couldn't work it out, was is Spanish, he looked nervous speaking whatever language it was anyway, South African player looking at him as if to say 'wtf is he saying'.

Also notice how old the South African players look, look at least 40 years old half the team.

I won 9 cents on this game. Good start.

he was speaking English, but not very fluent.

another shocking decision

pmsl

mccoist - don't mind telling you that's a good foul

ref - red card

go on yersel ally !!

hasn't even been close to a 3 red card game doesn't bode well for the rest of the tournament

Another red card, this ref wont get another game, not good tv viewing players sent off

If it was English all the way, seems strange in a stadium full of Spanish speakers, should get a spanish speaking ref

a poor game . A mediocre side beats a terrible one.

if he sends another 6 mexicans off south africa might have half a chance of scoring ...

Any one bought cards  having a good match

This refereeing

How many would finished the Argentinian Cameroon game in 90

Does that mean a 3 game ban for the players sent off? ruins their World Cup if it does.

Jun 11, 2026 -- 7:58PM, Lifter wrote:

2-0 nailed on. GL.

Cheers. Goodnight.

Ref Brazilian apparently

the ref analyst on ITV supported all 3 red cards

that's the most batsheet crazy thing about it all

1st red card fine
the other 2 total fkin nonsense imo

someone care to tell me how the match can finish bang on 97:00

Mexican committed the foul at 91:09
game restarted at 93:34

Yes took forever to take a joke free kick and yes it was a red all day

More reds than goals, lovely.

I don't think any of them are red.

The first the defender cannot get out of the way if the forward goes straight across him, he cannot avoid the contact. But he also has to try and get back, nothing they can do whatsover.

Dont be silly

I didn't think so either.

That game was never gonna be much good, but decent games will be ruined if they are giving out soft reds.

How? the forwards are told to go straight across the defender and get the contact and the red card. Defender cannot avoid it.

If that was only a yellow card, the the forwards wouldn't do it and try and get a shot away instead of initiating contact.

Maleuk01...that is just good centre forward play...cut across the last defender, he either checks his stride and gives you a 2 yard start to go one on one with the keeper...or he makes contact and down you go for, hopefully, a penalty/free kick and a dismissal...
You're right in saying it's a bit unfair on the defender but it's usually his own fault that he's got in that situation in the first place...bad positioning etc
Defenders usually get off with wrestling down forwards from corners/free kicks so I  suppose it evens itself out

Awful game, Mexico pretty average, South Africa were awful. The Referee, was no better and because of his performance this evening, we'll be lucky to see 22 men on the pitch, by the end of any game, as all we are going to see is players diving, trying to get opponents sent off. 1 sending off, would have been around correct to me.

The defender can avoid it if he stops. That's the whole point of the red card. You have to stop and let him in on goal if you are that out of position or else get a red. Most of them try to make it look clumsy when that makes no difference and there's VAR to review it. And in this case he ran straight into the back of him like a complete idiot.

Lets be fair, arent most World cup games, and Internationals pretty average, I can barely remember any games that even come close to the psg/BM semi.

The two South African player who were sent off, they play for Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. in South Africa, and Tondela - team that's just been relegated to the Portuguese 2nd division, capacity less than 5k. The rest of the squad play in the South African league or for clubs in places like Norway, Cyprus or the MLS.

The vast majority of the Mexican players play in the Mexican league, Jimenez 64 years old starting up front, just left Fulham for a Championship club. The rest of the squad mostly play in places like Belgium, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey. Guy who was sent off plays in Russia.

Given that's the standard of clubs they're playing for, it's hardly a surprise they're going to be bad.

World Cup proper will start from the last 16, even the last 32 will have lots of match ups that are one sided with all these poor 3rd placed teams going through to be walloped.

But it's not worth constantly complaining about, not going to change, either enjoy it or don't watch imo.

Nice opening match to ease us in. Mexico clearly playing within themselves for large spells, understandably pacing themselves for greater challenges ahead. Ultimately we got a comfortable expected victory for the hosts, some drama with the reds, nobody died, and the bookies lost a good few quid. Nearly Everyone's a winner

Bring on 3am

I put it down to corruption and people taking money rather than advance in football south america was the best football now with corruption its gone too much money to be made now corrupting games

not a lot of reffs would give it but red cards like the Mexican red I what we want,he made the challenge ,no attempt at getting ball,outside box,100% confident he wouldn't ee red, if more were given ,defenders would have to be on their game and attackers get more advantage

I quite enjoyed the match, probably because of the various bookie concessions allowing me to have a few bob here and there on Mexico. I'm glad the Mexico player was sent off, for a cynical foul, it looked like there were two S.Africa players ahead of defenders  he might have been able to cross to.

Yes and this is the first tournament where the new laws apply and the DOGSO rules have been changed to allow the ref to consider the position of other attackers. Before it was position of other defenders only that could be considered.