Raúl Jiménez breaks World Cup scoring drought in Mexico's 2-0 win

Raúl Jiménez’s first World Cup goal was not just a statistic, it was a release. The 35-year-old striker broke down in tears after scoring in Mexico’s 2-0 victory over South Africa at Mexico City Stadium, finally ending a drought that had followed him through three previous World Cups and years of personal hardship.

Mexico set the tone early in the opening match of the 2026 tournament. Julián Quiñones put the hosts ahead in the ninth minute, and Jiménez delivered the second in the 67th minute, finishing a night that carried far more emotional weight than a routine group-stage win. The goal arrived in front of a home crowd at Estadio Azteca, where Jiménez had been chasing this moment in a Mexico shirt for years.

The match also carried a historical echo. Mexico and South Africa met in a World Cup opener for the second time, exactly 16 years after their first such meeting in Johannesburg on June 11, 2010, when the sides drew 1-1. This time, Mexico finished the job, and the result gave the tournament host an opening-night win that was as symbolic as it was important.

Jiménez entered the 2026 World Cup without a goal in the competition despite appearing in Brazil 2014, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022. His World Cup minutes before 2026 had often come from the bench, and his scoring breakthrough came after a stretch defined by obstacles that would have ended many careers. He had recovered from a fractured skull in 2020 and endured the death of his father in March 2026, making the emotion around the goal impossible to miss.

Javier Aguirre called it a “perfect day” for Jiménez, a fitting description for a striker whose tears told the story as clearly as the scoreboard did. The evening was not calm, either: the match ended with three red cards, adding chaos to a debut that began with hope, turned into relief and ended with one of the tournament’s most resonant early images. For Mexican fans, Jiménez’s goal was more than the second in a 2-0 win. It was proof that persistence can survive pain, disappointment and time.