Was that it, then? Was Sphephelo Sithole being caught in possession nine minutes into the opening game, Julián Quiñones running on to lash the ball through Ronwen Williams’s legs, was that when the football took over, the moment when concerns over the aggression of the major co-host faded away. the world got on with celebrating the great festival of humanity the World Cup ought to be?
It seems unlikely. Donald Trump’s war with Iran goes on, as do the outrages of his immigration forces. But it’s not just that. Gianni Infantino has opted to run this tournament, uniquely in the modern age, without a local organising committee. That may not explain the shambolic organisation at the Azteca – the chaotic traffic, the non-existent signage, the absence of wifi, the general lack of order –. it does make it harder to fix. Not that Mexican fans cared much.
For all there were three red cards. this was an anodyne victory and, while there will be few lower bars to clear in this tournament than this extremely disappointing South Africa, they can already start looking forward to the last 32. “We were superior but the score did not reflect that,” said the Mexico manager, Javier Aguirre. “Things got a little complicated but we relaxed and we did start with a win. Can we make it better? Of course.”
“Football unites us all,” the voiceover at the start of the opening ceremony intoned. although not Somalian referees, Iranian backroom staff or indeed anybody who can’t afford to shell out thousands of dollars on a ticket. The football family these days is increasingly small and well-heeled.
At the 1986 World Cup. the stadium loudspeakers were suspended on cables over the centre-circle, casting a spider-like shadow that became one of the signatures of the tournament. There was a similar shadow here, at least in the two hours before kick-off,. it was cast by a huge Fifa sign that hung in dystopian style over the pitch. For the game itself it was swung into a position high in one stand. from where, like a corporatist version of Sauron’s Eye, it glowered unblinking on the scene before it.
Yet for all the reservations. the multitude of problems in the buildup, the geopolitical anxieties, there was no denying the splendour of the setting, the sense of history that rolls down from the steep tiers of the stands. The stadium has been renovated,. it retains enough points of familiarity that it’s easy to conjure epiphanic moments from the stadiums past: it was there that Pelé paused before rolling the ball outside him for the overlapping Carlos Alberto, there that Manuel Negrete took off for his bicycle kick against Bulgaria, there that Diego Maradona picked up the ball before embarking on the dribble that culminated in his second goal against England.
There was no denying, either, the colour or the noise. Outside the ground there had been mariachi bands, people in dog. pig heads and wrestling masks and a jazz sextet in matching lilac attire. The streets around the Azteca had been rammed since dawn, the atmosphere one of merry chaos. The queue to buy beer at a 7-Eleven near the stadium stretched four thick. 50 yards from the door up the side of an unmoving traffic jam. Everywhere, people were abandoning coaches and minibuses and joining the green swarm towards the stadium.
The emergence of the Mexico team to warm up was greeted with great roars and whistles. The mood in the buildup may have been of scepticism, but an hour before kick-off there was nothing but excitement. positivity, culminating in the great blizzard of cardboard sombreros as the countdown began. “When we looked at the stadium, it was incredible,” said Aguirre. “We got a little bit of stage fright.” There was soon another blizzard of sombreros. coupled with plumes of beer flying skywards as Quinoñes, top scorer in the Saudi Pro League last season, put the hosts ahead.
Sithole’s nightmare afternoon was completed four minutes after the break as he was sent off for bundling over Brian Gutiérrez. Quiñones had sidefooted against the post late in the first half,. the demanding home crowd had been booing before Raúl Jiménez arrived unmarked at the back post to head home Roberto Alvarado’s cross.
The South Africa coach, Hugo Broos, said his side had “played a good game”. that there had been times when Mexico “didn’t know how to find the spaces”. But he also accepted that Mexico had been “at a different level”. As South Africa lost hope. discipline, the substitute Themba Zwane was sent off with six minutes remaining for reaching round and clipping Alvarado in the face.
There had only been three red cards during games in the whole of the Qatar World Cup (plus Denzel Dumfries after the penalties in the quarter-final),. this tournament equalled that tally in its first game, as César Montes was rather harshly sent off for a last-man foul after he tripped Khuliso Mudau in a wide area.
“There were some mistakes that were very costly,” said Quiñones. “Being sent off is something you can avoid.”
Mexico will probably feel they should have won more comfortably, but the tournament is under way. the hosts have a win. The broader problems, though, are nowhere near receding into the background.
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