We’ve been watching this tournament build for a week, and the opening act already has more going on than most group stage finales. Mexico vs. South Africa, Estadio Azteca, June 11 — 3:00 PM ET on Fox. The curtain-raiser for the first World Cup on North American soil since 1994. And in the 72 hours before kickoff, both teams arrived at the same place: behind schedule, carrying institutional bruises, and pretending everything is fine.
This is the Mexico vs. South Africa World Cup 2026 opener. One team has a statistical impossibility draped around its shoulders. The other just spent a week arguing with an embassy. For our full World Cup coverage, visit our full World Cup coverage.
Has Mexico Ever Won a World Cup Opening Match?
No. Mexico has played the tournament’s ceremonial opening game seven times and has never won. Their all-time record as the first game of the entire World Cup: 0 wins, 5 losses, 2 draws. The losses go back to 1930 (1-4 vs. France), 1950 and 1954 and 1962 (all losses to Brazil), and 1958 (0-3 vs. Sweden). The two draws came in 1970, when Mexico hosted and played to a 0-0 with the Soviet Union, and 2010, when they drew 1-1 with South Africa in Johannesburg. Thursday is their eighth attempt. They have never won one.
The distinction matters here. Mexico is actually a competent group-stage side in their regular openers: five wins in their last seven first games across all competitions. But the specific role of opening the entire tournament? That’s a different thing. Seven cracks at it. Zero wins. The pattern is old enough to vote.
(Thursday’s opponent is the same team from the last time this happened. The venue is reversed. This detail does not appear to concern FIFA, which scheduled this matchup anyway.)
What Actually Happened With South Africa’s Visas
South Africa’s squad was set to depart Johannesburg on a charter flight May 31 from OR Tambo International Airport. They didn’t leave that day. A portion of the traveling party, including assistant coach Helman Mkhalele, the team doctor, head of security, and one analyst, had not received their Mexican visas in time for departure. The players themselves eventually cleared customs by evening, but the full delegation was grounded.
Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie did not take the delay quietly:
“This @SAFA_net travel & visa debacle is embarrassing & grossly unfair towards the players & coaching staff. I have informed @SAFA_net that I need a report and action must be taken against those responsible for this mess. We are being made to look like fools.” — @GaytonMcK, May 31, 2026
The full party resolved their visa issues and the charter departed June 1, one day late. Mkhalele’s US visa had separately been denied with no reason given; he eventually secured it and joined the squad June 2. South Africa is now based at Pachuca, a high-altitude training camp about 90 minutes from Mexico City, which is the correct call for acclimatization given Mexico City’s elevation of 2,240 meters. That part they got right.
Iran’s squad faced similar US visa complications during this same window, per Al Jazeera, so this isn’t entirely a SAFA-specific story. The broader tournament infrastructure for non-European, non-CONCACAF teams trying to enter North America appears to have had some friction points. That said, “the system is imperfect” and “your people didn’t sort the paperwork in time” are not mutually exclusive explanations.
(This is South Africa’s first World Cup since 2010, when they hosted. They failed to qualify in 2014, 2018, and 2022. The visa situation is their reintroduction to the tournament. Timing is everything.)
The Only Man Playing Both 2010 and 2026
Guillermo Ochoa is 40 years old. He will start Thursday for Mexico, which will be his sixth World Cup appearance, matching Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and potentially making him the first goalkeeper in history to appear at six World Cups. He is retiring after this tournament.
In 2010, when Mexico last played South Africa in a World Cup opening game, Ochoa was on the squad. He was benched. Siphiwe Tshabalala scored a goal for South Africa in that game that has been replayed so many times it has its own cultural weight: the jubilation, the Johannesburg crowd, the moment that announced the tournament. Rafael Márquez equalized for Mexico. The match ended 1-1.
Ochoa watched from the bench. Sixteen years later, he is the starter, and the game comes to him.
The 2014 version of Ochoa is what most people carry with them: his performance against Brazil in Fortaleza, where he kept a heavily favored Brazilian side scoreless through most of a game Mexico had no business drawing. That save from Neymar’s header in the first half became the kind of clip that outlasts the tournament itself. He has been the connective tissue of Mexican soccer across an era when the program has won plenty of CONCACAF titles and repeatedly exited World Cups in the round of 16.
(Raúl Jiménez, 35, is Mexico’s lead striker: 125 caps, currently with Fulham. The generational bridge on this squad runs deep. Mexico has been fielding versions of this team for a while.)
Thursday, he starts. Against the same opponent, in the same tournament role, on home soil. The storyline almost writes itself, which is exactly the kind of thing you should be suspicious of heading into a match.
What Three Days of Chaos Tells Us About June 11
Here’s what we can synthesize from both sides’ pre-tournament weeks. Mexico is carrying a statistical albatross into a game they’re supposed to win on home soil, in front of a full Estadio Azteca, in a group that also contains South Korea and Czechia. South Africa arrived late, trained at altitude as a corrective, and will line up without the full preparation window they’d have preferred.
Neither of these situations is disqualifying. Mexico’s “curse” is a pattern, not a mechanism. The team that plays the tournament’s first game deals with opening-night jitters that no other group-stage side faces, and the historical run of losses spans vastly different eras of Mexican soccer. The visa chaos, while genuinely embarrassing for South African Football Association administration, didn’t prevent the squad from getting meaningful days of training in Pachuca before Thursday.
What both situations reveal is institutional. Mexico’s curse is partly about the psychological freight the program has accumulated around its World Cup role: good enough to host, never quite right when the lights are highest. South Africa’s visa situation is about administrative preparation at a federation level that should have been handled weeks earlier. You can read the betting handle numbers around this tournament and find Mexico among the betting favorites to advance from Group A; those numbers don’t move much based on visa paperwork, but they do price in the opener-curse narrative at the margins.
The match itself sets up as a genuine test for a Mexico side that needs to establish momentum early in a group they’re expected to win. A draw would be fine on points but bad for morale given the home advantage. A loss would be the eighth failed attempt at breaking the curse, in front of their own crowd, in their own tournament. Group A has real stakes: South Korea and Czechia are not soft touches, and dropping points in game one tightens the path.
Watch Ochoa. Not just for the saves, but for what his presence does to the team around him. When Mexico has had a steady, experienced keeper, their defensive organization has followed. When they’ve been uncertain between the posts, the back line has reflected it. He has been the anchor of this program through its entire modern era, and the USMNT’s own roster chaos puts into relief how valuable continuity looks heading into a tournament like this.
South Africa needs to avoid a slow start. They qualified for this tournament for the first time in 16 years, they arrived with disrupted preparation, and they’re walking into the Azteca as heavy underdogs. A competitive, organized first 45 minutes would tell us something real about how Bafana Bafana have used the last week.
The World Cup starts Thursday. Both teams got here in disarray. One of them will win anyway.
