Gyasi Mer­rique

Of­fi­cial at­ten­dance records say 80,824 spec­ta­tors packed the new­ly ren­o­vat­ed Es­ta­dio Azteca in Mex­i­co City, Mex­i­co, for yes­ter­day’s open­ing 2026 FI­FA World Cup match be­tween Mex­i­co and South Africa.

To the ju­bi­la­tion of a par­ti­san au­di­ence, pre­dom­i­nant­ly decked in the un­mis­tak­able green of ‘El Tri’, they wit­nessed a 2-0 win for Mex­i­co, which un­doubt­ed­ly went some way to­ward al­lay­ing some con­cerns fore­shad­ow­ing the tour­na­ment, while si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly sig­nalling that no mat­ter what, the World Cup is un­der­way.