Mexico gets off to roaring World Cup start with a 2-0 win over South Africa in the opening match

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico made an immediate impression on the largest World Cup in history, giving the roaring home crowd at the iconic Azteca Stadium a huge jolt of excitement four years after a major disappointment.

Mexico's players understood the intense pressure and high expectations they were facing on Thursday in the opening match of the first 48-team World Cup tournament. But they embraced their role and got off to a winning start by beating South Africa 2-0 in a match that also produced three red cards.

“I made an effort to explain to them what a World Cup and an opening match on home soil meant, but they are young and had to experience it for themselves," said Mexico coach Javier Aguirre, who played for his team the last time Mexico hosted the tournament in 1986. "I can no longer talk about having played in a home World Cup, because they already know what it’s like.”

Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez scored the goals for Mexico, which is co-hosting the 2026 tournament with Canada and the United States.

The Mexicans rebounded from the massive disappointment of being eliminated after the group stage four years ago in Qatar. That followed seven straight trips to the round the 16 — an achievement that became more of a curse for failing to reach the quarterfinals.

But there is hope this year. Mexico has reached the quarterfinals twice in its history, and both times it was the host country — in 1970 and 1986. Aguirre was on that team in 1986.

In front of a capacity crowd of 80,824, Mexico got working fast and took the lead in the ninth minute when Quiñones scored. Jiménez added the second goal on a header in 66th — his 46th for Mexico but first in three World Cup tournaments.

“We didn’t play well in the first half, but we could have gone into the break leading 3–0 and no one would have complained — we were far superior,” Aguirre said. “In the second half, it felt like we relaxed a bit, but starting with a win is good, and we can certainly improve.”

With his goal, Jiménez moved into a tie with Jared Borgetti for second place in scoring for Mexico's national team. He is six goals shy of leader Javier “Chicharito” Hernández.

Jiménez wears a protective headguard because he was seriously injured in November 2020 while playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers in a Premier League match against Arsenal. He fractured his skull and had to have surgery. He was out for eight months and returned in July 2021.

South Africa players Sphephelo Sithole and Themba Zwane were both given red cards, forcing the team to finish the match with only nine players. Mexico defender César Montes was then given a red card in injury time.

It was the first time there were three red cards given in the opening match of a World Cup tournament. And it’s the most in a World Cup game since four were handed out when Portugal played the Netherlands at the 2006 tournament in Germany.

“This level is much higher than whatever level we played before. We played a good team, and we played a good game. I saw a desperate Mexico,” South Africa coach Hugo Broos said. “We must improve in the next days. We’ll get over the disappointment.”

Quiñones, a 29-year-old forward who was born in Colombia, was the top scorer in the Saudi league this season. He was one of six starting players who made their World Cup debut for El Tri.

Mexico now has three points in Group A and will next play South Korea next Thursday in Guadalajara. South Africa will play the Czech Republic on the same day in Atlanta.

“It would be important (to win the group), but right now the only thing we’re thinking about is the match against Korea — being better than them and trying to win,” Aguirre said. “We’re going to take it step by step and see what the future holds.”

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Mexico's Raul Jimenez celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the World Cup Group A soccer match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Mexico's Roberto Alvarado vies for the ball with South Africa's Aubrey Modiba, left, during the World Cup Group A soccer match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

South Africa's Iqraam Rayners, left, controls the ball against Mexico's Alvaro Fidalgo during the first half in the World Cup Group A soccer match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexico's Julian Quinones (16) celebrates with Israel Reyes after scoring their opening goal against South Africa during the World Cup Group A soccer match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexico's Raul Jimenez, left, jumps for the ball with South Africa's Ime Okon during the World Cup Group A soccer match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Mattias Grafstrom, the Secretary General of FIFA poses before the World Cup Group A soccer match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City, Thursday, June 11, 2026. ((AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Mexico's coach Javier Aguirre speaks during a press conference at the stadium in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Relatives of Mexico's disappeared march before the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Mexico City, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Alejandro Cegarra)

Playes of South Africa visit the stadium in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, a day before their opening FIFA World Cup match against Mexico. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Thousands of Puerto Ricans are struggling with water shortages so severe that the governor of the U.S. territory has activated the National Guard and emergency responders are fielding calls every day.

Officials have not publicly pinpointed the cause, with shortages largely affecting some areas in the island's most populated cities, including the capital San Juan. The island's utilities company extracts water from rivers, reservoirs and underground aquifers that have in the past provided sufficient supply for the island's 3.2 million people.

Residents are being forced to buy potable water, spend money at laundromats and haul heavy buckets up several flights of stairs to wash dishes, flush toilets and take showers. The elderly and disabled struggle the most, with community leaders noting that some have been hospitalized as water shortages persist.

Jorge Figueroa, a community leader for several impoverished San Juan neighborhoods, stood by his car one recent morning fielding questions from residents wondering when the next water truck would swing by.

“They are playing with people's health and lives,” Figueroa said.

Some customers in San Juan began reporting intermittent service more than a year ago, with the governor acknowledging the infrastructure has lacked investment and maintenance for decades.

The water outages have grown so severe that Mayor Miguel Romero sued Puerto Rico’s Water and Sewer Authority in late May.

People like Jeannette Mercado Rodríguez have spent up to two weeks without water as Puerto Rico's searing summer starts and meteorologists are already issuing heat advisories.

“This is really exhausting; it’s maddening,” she said.

The 52-year-old is among the lucky ones: a water truck is stationed near her public housing complex, Las Margaritas. But she still has to haul five buckets and 10 2-liter (half-gallon) bottles up to her third-floor apartment every day. She recently injured her shoulder doing so.

“We can’t take it sometimes,” Mercado said, confiding that she has broken down and cried. “There are older people here, bedridden people.”

Nearly 40,000 customers were hit with water outages on the first weekend of June. That prompted Gov. Jenniffer González to activate the National Guard, which began distributing water via four trucks with a capacity of 2,000 gallons (7,570 liters) each.

Puerto Rico’s Tourism Company brought in additional water trucks with a capacity of 12,800 gallons (48,453 liters) to help serve hotels and short-term rentals.

The need for water is so great that even Puerto Rico’s Department of Agriculture sanitized two large trucks that transport milk and instead used them to deliver potable water.

Despite those measures, water remains scarce for many in San Juan and beyond. At least one stationary tanker in an impoverished community sat empty for a couple of days, with residents cheering the water truck when it arrived, calling municipal workers “heroes.” Other residents also complain that the government doesn't inform them when a water truck will stop by, with those at work missing out.

“This has been a disaster,” said Luz Laborde, president of a neighborhood association in Santurce, a working-class community in San Juan. “This is inhuman … It’s destroying the emotional state of a people.”

Dozens of Puerto Ricans young and old crowded into a courtroom on a recent morning, eager to hear a ruling on the lawsuit that San Juan's mayor filed against the island's water and sewer company as they questioned when their water would return.

“We are exhausted,” said Marcia Soler París, a 61-year-old community leader. “We shouldn’t be living this way. We don’t deserve this.”

Every day at dawn, phones ping as people in San Juan and elsewhere share whether they have water, just a trickle or nothing at all.

Soler calls the emergency management office every other day to request a water truck for her and her neighbors. She lives with her daughter, who has three boys ages 13, 10 and 4, and they play soccer every day. Like many, they don't have a cistern.

“I don’t know what it is to see a stream of water,” said Soler, who recently spent $40 at a laundromat and was forced to buy plastic cups and plates for her family.

The extra costs are straining the budgets of many on the island of 3.2 million people where more than 40% live below the poverty line.

Soler said some of her neighbors bedridden and caregivers are forced to use towels and wet wipes to clean them. Another neighbor is blind, so people ferry water up to her apartment.

For years, chronic power outages have been a big frustration for many Puerto Ricans. Water woes also are at the top of the list now.

At Villa Kennedy, a nearby public housing complex, Elizabeth Sánchez, 79, explained how she injured her waist carrying buckets of water. Her husband can no longer help because he injured his back for the same reason.

“What we are going through is horrible,” she said as she began to cry.

In February 2025, Puerto Rico's governor appointed Luis González Delgado as executive president of the island's Water and Sewer Authority.

Months later, former regional director Roberto Martínez Toledo was replaced. But Martínez was recently appointed to a new committee ordered by a judge to work with the agency to investigate and solve the chronic water shortages.

The mayor of San Juan, who is a member of the governor's party, said that if Martínez hadn't been removed from his position, “we wouldn't be here talking about this issue.”

The new head of the water and sewer agency blamed Martínez for some of the problems.

“(The crisis) could have been avoided if Roberto Martínez had answered the phone the first day I called him,” González told reporters this week, adding that he is willing to work with him.

Some Puerto Ricans are demanding González resign as they clamor for Martínez to return to his old job, while a growing number are blaming the governor for the situation. On Wednesday night, the governor announced that all projects aimed at fixing water-related infrastructure have started with an investment of $217 million.

Those without water say they are still being billed for it.

“That's another outrage,” said Laborde, the community leader. “You lose no matter what.”

Municipal worker José Luiz López Obrero walks back to a water truck after he finishes up filling a cistern at the Villa Kennedy public housing complex in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Danica Coto)

Juan Lugo, a driver with San Juan's special projects department, delivers free, non-potable water to residents in the Villa Kennedy public housing complex in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Danica Coto)

Bryan Pérez hauls a five-gallon water jug to his apartment in the Villa Kennedy public housing complex in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Danica Coto)