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"It was soft": South Africa coach slams red card madness
SEN • June 12th, 2026 11:57 am
Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio made World Cup history after handing out three red cards in the opening match of the tournament on Friday (AEST).
There were more red cards than goals in the Bafana Bafana's 0-2 loss to co-hosts Mexico at the Azteca Stadium, with Sphephelo Sithole, Themba Zwane and Cesar Montes all dismissed.
For context the last two World Cups had four red cards apiece, and the last time three people saw red in one game at this level was 1998.
While two reds were definitive professional fouls, many will argue Zwane was hard done by given he was fouled first and his red only came after a sideline VAR review not through Sampaio stopping play.
What is clear is that FIFA officials have been told to officiate by the book which didn't sit well with the South African side post match.
"The first red card you have to accept it, there is a player going alone to the goal and Yaya fouled him but the second we have to discuss," South Africa Coach Hugo Broos said afterwards.
"The Mexican player blocked my player...I think it was soft to give a red card.
"It's not nice for both players to get a red card in the first game of the World Cup. Now we have two players who cannot play the next game.
"But, we still have a lot of players, so if we show the same mentality and play the same way as today, I'm sure we will have great results in the next two games."
Despite the deficit, South Africa did themselves proud to keep the scoreline at just 2-0.
“If you make mistakes, they will punish you," Ronwen Williams, South Africa goalkeeper said afterwards. "They will hurt you at this level. I think the most important thing is that now we know what we’re up against, because we’re not used to this.
"We haven’t been part of the World Cup for a very long time. We went down, but we kept fighting. We didn’t give them anything towards the end. We had a few decent chances as well.
"We’ll keep fighting, we’ll keep going as a team, and we’ll be better.”
Mexico could have done more. Scoring twice against a significantly depleted team may become an opportunity missed down the line.
In front of more than 80,000 fans there was a huge moment for Gilberto Mora, who, at 17 years and 240 days, became the sixth-youngest player to make a World Cup appearance.
Pele (17 years and 235 days), Salomon Olembe (17 years and 185 days), Femi Opabunmi (17 years and 101 days), Samuel Eto’o (17 years and 99 days) and Norman Whiteside (17 years and 41 days) were younger than him.
