World Cup begins with Mexico hosting South Africa in opening match

The largest World Cup in tour­na­ment his­to­ry kicked off Thurs­day with co-host Mex­i­co tak­ing on South Africa in the open­ing match.

Amid es­ca­lat­ing protests and so­cial ten­sions in Mex­i­co’s cap­i­tal, more than 80,000 fans made their way to Mex­i­co City Sta­di­um — bet­ter known as Azteca Sta­di­um. It got a much-need­ed facelift ahead of the 48-team tour­na­ment that Mex­i­co is co-host­ing along­side the Unit­ed States and Cana­da.

The icon­ic venue will be the first sta­di­um to host three World Cup open­ers — af­ter do­ing so at the 1970 and 1986 tour­na­ments.

It is the eighth open­ing match of a World Cup for the Mex­i­cans, who had pre­vi­ous­ly lost five and drawn the last two, in­clud­ing against South Africa in the 2010 World Cup.

South Africa is play­ing in its first World Cup since host­ing the 2010 tour­na­ment. Bafana Bafana al­so played in the 1998 and 2002 edi­tions.

Mex­i­co ar­rived with an eight-match un­beat­en streak and has not lost since last No­vem­ber, when Paraguay beat them in a friend­ly.

The Mex­i­can team is led by the 67-year-old coach Javier Aguirre, who is in his third stint with the na­tion­al team. —MEX­I­CO CITY (AP)

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Sto­ry by CAR­LOS RO­DRIGUEZ | As­so­ci­at­ed Press