The Football World Cup opened in Mexico with singing, dancing, goals and many red cards

Five goals, three red cards. With a 2-0 victory for host country Mexico over South Africa and a few hours later a 2-1 win for South Korea against the Czech Republic, the Football World Cup started last night and last night with a goal-rich performance. And therefore also with many severely punished violations.

Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio showed three red cards in the opening match in the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City: two for South Africa, and one for Mexican captain César Montes in the final phase. That is almost as many as during the entire World Cup four years ago in Qatar. Then four red cards were handed out in 64 matches.

In the second match in group A, Feyenoord player Hwang In-Beom played a leading role. In the attractive match against the Czech Republic, he scored the equalizer and provided an assist for the winning goal in the eightieth minute.

Over the next 38 days until the final on Sunday, July 19, 102 more matches will follow in Mexico, the United States and Canada. With 48 participating countries, it is the largest and longest edition of the World Cup ever.

In a sold-out Aztec Stadium – where legendary World Cup matches were also played in 1970 and 1986 – this edition of the final tournament started with a spectacular opening ceremony, with singing, dancing and world stars – and a flute concert for FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Large protests outside the stadium did not materialize – or were suppressed by a large police force.

Tonight and tonight Canada and the US will also organize their own opening ceremonies. At 7 p.m., host country Canada will play its first match against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto. The US national team kicks off against Paraguay in Los Angeles at 3 o’clock tonight.

Remarkably, President Trump will not be present at the opening match in his own country – at least that was what was reported on Thursday international media. That will be a setback for Infantino, who in the run-up to the World Cup did everything he could to please Trump in order to make it a flawless World Cup this summer.

This is far from the case in the run-up to the tournament. For days it has been highly uncertain whether all participating teams, their staff and their fans have free access to the US. Teams and individual players were very strictly checked upon arrival and sometimes held up for hours. Tickets for Iran supporters were withdrawn and Somali referee Omar Artan was banned from entering the country altogether.

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