Javier Aguirre knows exactly what awaits his Mexico side when it hosts the World Cup opener against South Africa on Thursday in Mexico City to kick off Group A.
Forty years and one week ago, Aguirre played all 90 minutes of host Mexico’s impressive 2-1 victory over Belgium to open El Tri’s 1986 World Cup campaign, a match decided by a 39th-minute goal from legendary Mexico striker Hugo Sanchez.
Now in his third stint as the manager of the national team he once played for, Aguirre has tried to instill a family ethos — in part because he knows what they’re about to go through will be unparalleled in the rest of their playing careers.
“There’s nothing like playing in your home country,” Aguirre said in Spanish at Wednesday’s pre-match news conference. “There are a lot of people here who were not born yet the last time we had a World Cup here, and this is what I have told to them time and again.
“I think the message has trickled down, and I have convinced them, and they have used the word family organically. So this tells me that they feel very comfortable. It’s a very strong word.”
Aguirre took over the program again after repeated losses to the United States and others in continental competitions early in the 2026 World Cup cycle, and his return has coincided with a return to continental supremacy.
El Tri swept the 2025 CONCACAF Nations League and CONCACAF Gold Cup titles, defeating Panama in the former final and the USA in the latter.
Striker Raul Jimenez — who took years to recover his full form after a scary head injury suffered playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers in November 2020 — scored six times across four matches between the semifinals and finals of those competitions.
The hope is that those experiences give El Tri the same feeling that Aguirre said they carried onto the Estadio Azteca pitch 40 years ago.
“I remember how confident we were when we went on the field,” he recalled. “We felt that the game was not going to go wrong.”
It’s also a full-circle moment for South Africa. When it became the first African nation to host a World Cup in 2010, South Africa opened with a 1-1 draw against Mexico in Johannesburg.
It failed to qualify for the next three World Cups before surprising much of the world by besting Nigeria in Group C of Africa’s qualifying setup. Even so, they enter as the decided group underdogs.
“We don’t have pressure,” said Bafana Bafana midfielder Teboho Mokoena. “The pressure is on Mexico, the host. So for us as a team, we know what is expected of us, and we know how much we’ve prepared for this game and this tournament. So of course, we’re just looking forward to the game tomorrow.”
South Korea vs. Czech Republic in Zapopan, Mexico: In the other Group A encounter on Thursday night, South Korean attacker Son Heung-min will appear in his fourth World Cup and try to help his nation advance from the group stage in consecutive tournaments for the first time. They face a Czech side led by Leverkusen striker Patrik Schick, who scored five qualifying goals.
–Field Level Media
