Mexico's win over South Africa on Thursday broke a record many may have not seen coming as the glass ceiling for red cards in a World Cup opener was smashed.
In front of 85,000 at Estadio Azteca in the 2026 World Cup's curtain raiser, three players were given their marching orders. The previous record came in 1990, when two reds were shown to Cameroon in the opener they miraculously went on to win 1-0 against the then-defending champions Argentina.
South Africa's Yaya Sithole saw red in the first half before his teammate Themba Zwane was sent off in the second after Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio had a look at a swipe that caught the face of Roberto Alvarado on the VAR monitor.
Mexico secured the win thanks to goals from Julián Quiñones and Wolves returnee Raúl Jiménez, but they capped off the opening day disciplinary drama with defender César Montes' red in the dying stages for the denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity.
It is an extraordinary number considering just four red cards were handed out over the entirety of the last World Cup in 2022, meaning 2026 is just one shy of that total after one game.
Aside from the game's status as the first of the tournament, it is the seventh in World Cup history to have three or more players sent off, with South Africa remarkably now being involved in two of them.
Those inside the Azteca can also say they saw the first game since the infamous 'Battle of Nuremberg' in the 2006 World Cup that saw a single team receive two red cards, with Netherlands and Portugal having two players sent off each in that game.
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A historic start to the 2026 World Cup
The red cards from referee Sampaio weren't the only moments of note under the afternoon sun in Mexico City with a number of other intriguing stats emerging from the Group A opener.
From Jiménez's long-awaited World Cup strike to the much-anticipated substitute appearance of the highly-rated Gilberto Mora, it was a game to remember.
Raúl Jiménez (35y 37d) is the oldest player to score on his first start at a World Cup since Yahya Golmohammadi for Iran in 2006 vs Mexico (35y 84d). He is also the fourth oldest player to ever score for Mexico at a World Cup.
Gilberto Mora (17 years, 240 days) is the youngest player to ever turn out for Mexico at a World Cup and the sixth-youngest in tournament history.
This was Mexico's first win at a World Cup by multiple goals since 2014 vs Croatia (3-1 win).
Julián Quiñones scored the third earliest goal by Mexico at a World Cup and earliest since Rafael Márquez scored in the 6th minute vs Argentina in 2006.
With the Mexico win, host nations are now 17-6-1 (W-D-L) in their opening World Cup matches.
This was the fifth clean sheet for Mexico in their last fourth World Cups.
Information from ESPN Global Research contributed to this report.