Mexico's Julian Quinones bags first goal of World Cup as hosts get off to flyer

[p]The 2026 World Cup is finally underway with Mexico, one of the host nations, facing South Africa [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/mexico-O6iHcNkd/south-africa-W2ijYvlr/?mid=h4EoUB7T"]in the opening game at the legendary Azteca.[/a][/p][p]It’s a replay of the 2010 World Cup’s opening game, in which South Africa's Siphiwe Tshabalala scored a sensational 55th-minute goal to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.[/p][p][b]This time around, the opposite happened, and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/quinones-julian/dQkfXJPR/"]Quinones[/a] was the man to score the first goal at the 2026 World Cup.[/b][/p][image alt="Mexico's Julian Quinones celebrates scoring" id="179dd08c-e2b7-4361-bfac-e3b7b417affa" credit-line="Reuters / Kai Pfaffenbach" guid="66c6fe1c-8005-4705-bfac-21eced45c361" original-width="3663" original-height="2301" /][p]The forward capitalised on some sloppy defending from the South Africans to slip the ball between the legs of [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/williams-ronwen/lQRX0UzA/"]Ronwen Williams[/a].[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/soccer-fifa-world-cup-2026-day-1-live-updates/rLoXAGEO/"]Follow the opening day of the World Cup with our LIVE updates![/a][/b][/p]