The 2026 FIFA World Cup has gotten off to a sensational start. It's a bigger World Cup, with more teams and more matches than ever before, and that means more action than ever. With so much happening every day, ESPN India attempts to pick out the one magical moment that defined the day's action.
For Day 1, we pick Raúl Jiménez's goal for Mexico against South Africa.
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The tears flowed freely. A wild, ecstatic roar came before that, but it was the tears that defined the moment. As Raúl Jiménez looked up to the sky, a raucous Azteca exploding around him, the tears in his eyes told quite the story. But first, the goal...
Deep into the second half of the 2026 FIFA World Cup opener, with Mexico dominating South Africa (by then down to 10) but still struggling to move the needle past 1-0, a nervous buzz was going around the mighty Azteca stadium. This was the kind of game that gives fans an eerie feeling, one where they get this gnawing certainty that even though their team is palpably better than the opposition, with only a narrow lead a slip-up was surely around the corner.
Their players' actions added to that feeling. Apart from Julián Quiñones' finish (which was itself not the best), Mexico had been rushed in front of the South African goal, the pressure of the moment telling as World Cup football returned to the Azteca after 40 years. Jiménez, making his sixth World Cup appearance (but first start) and leading the line, seemed especially nervous, desperate to break his Cup duck and snatching at half-chances all afternoon.
So, in the 67th minute, when Jiménez mis-trapped a pass pinged into his feet, it felt like this would be another bad day in the office for him at this, the biggest stage of them all... but just as that thought was forming in the collective mind of the already agitated fans, Jiménez stretched out a leg to rescue his poor touch and poked it square to Quinones.
The Colombian-turned-Mexican scorer of the opening goal, this World Cup's first, displayed nifty footwork to control the ball and allow it to bounce out in front of him, to his right and away from immediate South African presence. As he moved forward, he calmly looked up and played it wide to Roberto Alvarado before racing into the box for the return.
Alvarado, though, had another target in mind. Jiménez had not stood still after that touch and poke... he had immediately turned and started jogging forward, but when he saw Quinones dart into the centre of the box, he quickened his stride. Racing in off the shoulder of a completely-occupied-by-Quinones South Africa defence, he timed his movement to perfection and met Alvarado's delicious cross with a solid thump of his head. 2-0 Mexico, three points in the bag, a historic World Cup opening win sealed with an emphatic, duck-breaking, header.
And that's what made it even more poignant. A traditionally brilliant header of the ball, Jiménez had been involved in an aerial duel against David Luiz in the English Premier League in 2020 when a horrific, accidental clash of heads saw him get a skull fracture. The immediate impact left Jiménez unconscious and needing oxygen on the pitch, sparking fears of the worst kind, but he recovered. It was painful, and slow -- he was not allowed to train with others for six months and didn't play for then club Wolverhampton Wanderers for eight. Many thought he couldn't be the same striker again, a life threating injury can, after all, often blunt a footballer's edge, take out their willingness to put body on the line again... but Jiménez never gave up.
The work he put in has been evident for years now (just ask any Fulham fan), and he had scored consistently for Mexico (he's now the second highest Mexican scorer of all time, behind only Javier Hernandez)... but World Cup glory had always escaped him. Until now.
�� Raúl Jiménez was in tears while celebrating his first-ever World Cup goal �� pic.twitter.com/rTU2NUrV65
- ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) June 11, 2026
Six years after that horrific accident, thirteen years after making his Mexico debut, 35 now and no longer the second fiddle or impact sub now, Raúl Jiménez stood up and made his presence felt. On the stage where Pele had set up Carlos Alberto for one of the greatest World Cup goals of all time, where Diego Armando Maradona had scored the greatest World Cup goal of all time, Mexico's very own Raúl Jiménez rose high to meet his destiny.
After that initial roar of celebration, as he looked up to the sky remembering his late father Raúl Jiménez Vega, who died in March, thinking about all that he'd been through, the emotion of it all came crashing through.
The tears flowed. The Azteca cheered. Raúl Jiménez had made his mark.