Mexico’s next World Cup match is Thursday night in Guadalajara, where it will face South Korea after opening with a 2-0 win over South Africa. For Raúl Jiménez, the night carried a sharper edge: his goal was his first in a World Cup, and it came in his fourth World Cup.
That is why fans are searching now for when does Mexico play again. The answer is immediate, and the stakes are clearer than they were before the opening match. After a group-stage exit in 2022, Mexico can at least be relatively sure of making the last 32, which makes Thursday’s game less about survival than about position and momentum.
The opener had enough to satisfy on paper. Mexico won 2-0, and Jiménez’s breakthrough gave the team a moment it had waited a long time to see. South Korea arrive with their own form line after beating Czechia 2-1 in their first group game, which gives the matchup in Guadalajara a current weight beyond the headlines around Mexico alone.
But the night also exposed a split between the result and the mood. There was booing in the stands during a 17-minute spell after Sphephelo Sithole’s red card and before Mexico’s second goal, a stretch when the game should have been settling into control. That reaction mattered because it showed how quickly a crowd can turn when a lead feels delayed, even in a win.
Some of that strain was already visible around the stadium atmosphere. Fans in Mexico City noted that yellow shirts in the stadium were scarce, and the celebrations carried a different mix than in past tournaments. A lot of the people in Roma Norte appeared to be Mexicans living in the US, while some regular Liga MX fans were priced out of attending. The sense was not that interest was missing, but that access was.
Mexico’s earlier connection with South Korea still hangs over this matchup. South Korea’s unexpected 2-0 victory over Germany in the 2018 World Cup helped Mexico into the last 16, and the memory turned into a street celebration in Mexico City, where fans chanted, “¡Coreano, hermano, ya eres mexicano!” South Korea’s ambassador was carried shoulder-high along the street in front of the embassy, and a group of South Korean fans later visited the wrestling arena, where the DJ played Gangnam Style to welcome them.
Now the same pairing returns with a more practical question attached to it. Mexico has a chance to build on its opening win and move closer to the last 32 with less fuss than it needed in the first game, but the noise around tickets, crowd mix and Aguirre’s approach will not disappear just because the scoreboard looked clean. Thursday night in Guadalajara will tell whether the result changed the mood, or only postponed the argument.
