Mexico’s victory over South Africa in the 2026 World Cup opener marked a rare occurrence that had only happened three times before in the competition’s history.
The 2026 World Cup kicked off when Mexico hosted South Africa at the Azteca Stadium on Thursday evening, a match that lived up to the high expectations surrounding this tournament.
Aside from the Mexicans’ 2-0 victory – making them the first team to secure three points in this tournament – the match was marked by the three red cards shown by Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio.
Yaya Sithole was shown a red card at the start of the second half, leaving the South Africans down to 10 men, before his teammate Zwane was sent off in the dying minutes following a VAR review for violent conduct.
Mexico’s Cesar Montes was also shown a red card in stoppage time, meaning the match went down in history as only the third in the competition’s history in which the referee showed exactly three red cards.
One of the two previous occasions took place in Toulouse during the 1998 World Cup, when South Africa held Denmark to a 1-1 draw in the second round of the group stage. Although the South Africans were involved in this rare feat just as they were against Mexico, on that occasion it was Philippe Troussier’s side that received a red card, whilst the Danes were shown two.
Miklos Molnar was shown a red card in the 66th minute, just two minutes before South Africa’s Phiri was also sent off. Morten Wieghorst reduced Denmark to nine men after being shown a red card in the 85th minute, making it the first match in history to feature a total of three red cards.
In the group stage match that ended in a 2-2 draw between Croatia and Australia in the 2006 edition, referee Graham Poll also showed three red cards, all three resulting from a second booking.
Croatia’s Simic received his second yellow card in the 85th minute, as did Australia’s Emerton just two minutes later. To cap off the madness of those final five minutes, Simunic was booked twice in quick succession in the last minute of normal time to become the third player sent off.
Finally, three red cards were also shown in the 2006 World Cup match between eventual winners Italy and the United States. Daniele De Rossi was sent off before Mastroeni and Pope reduced United States to nine men. The match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Pre-card era exceptions
The four matches mentioned above are the only ones in the competition’s history in which three red cards were shown, although they are not the only ones in which three players were sent off.
Before 1970, when the card system was introduced, there was no physical card to indicate the sanction. If a player committed an offence warranting a sending-off, the referee would tell him to leave the pitch. This could cause problems, particularly in international competitions, as there was not always clear communication between referee and player due to language barriers.
Even so, there were only two matches in which three or more players were sent off before the card system was introduced. Back in the 1954 tournament, Hungary’s 4-2 victory over Brazil in the quarter-finals saw three players sent off.
Jozsef Bozsik and Nilton Santos were both sent off in the 71st minute, just minutes before the Brazilian Humberto Tozzi was also sent off by the referee.
The other precedent occurred in the 1938 tournament during a 1-1 draw in the quarter-finals between Brazil and Czechoslovakia, dubbed the ‘Battle of Bordeaux’ and known as one of the most violent matches in football history due to the brutality of the fouls.
Zeze Procopio was sent off after 14 minutes, and Arthur Machado and the Czechoslovakian Jan Riha were sent off just before full-time, marking the first time in World Cup history that three players had been sent off.
Portugal v Netherlands hold the record
The only World Cup match in history in which there were more red cards than in the matches mentioned above took place in the 2006 edition, when Portugal knocked the Netherlands out in the round of 16 with a narrow victory.
Costinha was sent off just before half-time for a second yellow card, before the Dutchman Boulahrouz suffered the same fate as the Portuguese player in the 63rd minute.
Barcelona icon Deco was also sent off in the 78th minute after being shown a second yellow card, and the Dutchman Van Bronckhorst joined the fray by picking up his second yellow card just before the final whistle, ensuring that this match went down in the competition’s history with a total of four players sent off.