Bafana opponents Mexico have named their squad — here’s what you need to know

In November 2020 Mexico’s star player at the 2026 World Cup, Raúl Jiménez, was playing in a Premier League match for Wolverhampton Wanderers when he suffered a sickening clash of heads with Arsenal’s Brazilian defender David Luiz.

Back to defend a corner at the near post, the striker went up in a stationary position, Gunners centreback Luiz came steaming in to try to win the offensive header and the result was a horrific collision, the Brazilian’s forehead smashing into the side of Jiménez’s skull like a cannonball.

The Mexican was stretchered off needing oxygen and rushed to a London hospital where doctors scrambled to mend the traumatic injury.

“[There was] the skull fracture, the bone broke and there was a little bit of bleeding inside the brain. It was pushing my brain to the inside and that is why the surgery had to be quick. It was a really good job by the doctors,” he told The Guardian after completing a remarkable comeback at the start of the 2021-22 season.

In Mexico, they had feared “El Lobo de Tepeji” (The Wolf of Tepeji, a nod to his hometown of Tepeji del Río and time spent at Wolves) would not play again. That was what the doctors had cautioned.

Jiménez’s path back from extensive neurological and physical rehabilitation, relearning basic movements and rebuilding his balance to playing again at Wolves, first with a specialised protective headband, then for Mexico at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, became an international story.

Now 35 and at Fulham, where he has scored 33 goals in 102 games, he remains not just the attacking focal point of El Tri, but the embodiment of the grit and fight coach Javier Aguirre wants the co-hosts to display in front of their supporters, prioritised over the style and flair Mexico have been known for.

Aguirre named his final squad on Monday’s deadline day and in keeping with the coach’s natural pragmatism and latterly greater conservatism, there were no surprises. Aguirre showed himself a tough character guiding Mexico to the last 16, where they lost 3-1 to Argentina, in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, after they drew 1-1 against the hosts at FNB Stadium in that tournament’s opening game.

The hugely experienced 67-year-old is in his third stint with his national team and has coached, often winning trophies, in La Liga, Japan, Egypt and the Gulf. Aguirre’s Mexico that Bafana Bafana will encounter at the famed Estadio Azteca in Mexico City in another World Cup opening match on June 11 (9pm SA time) will have less star quality than previous combinations, but will be a block of steel-reinforced concrete to crack.

Mexico, as the power in Concacaf (the Caribbean and central and north America), are renowned for almost always going to the World Cup (they have been to 17 out of the 22 tournaments) and being competitive there, without being able to penetrate far into the knockouts. They reached the last 16 without going further in seven tournaments since 1994, only in 2022 exiting in the group stage.

That was followed by a disastrous group-stage exit at the 2024 Copa América and Aguirre was brought back to restore discipline and stability. His recipe to take the co-hosts past the last 32 and 16 is not to own loads of possession, but to attack through periods of intensity on transitions. The team will be set up to be extremely tough to break down, attack in bursts and prioritise pragmatism.

“At a World Cup, the team that plays the prettiest football does not always win. The team that knows how to compete does,” the coach has said. “You have to learn how to suffer.”

Mexico will play a flexible 4-3-3 that can become a 4-2-3-1 or even a 4-4-2 depending on the game situation and opponents.

Aguirre wants Mexico to be resilient and uncomfortable to face. If you’re their opponents you can expect Mexico to be rigid and frustrating to launch attacks against, and expect pacey, pointed, direct attacks back at you when you lose the ball in their territory. A bit like handling a prickly pear.

Their defence is their most settled department. Johan Vásquez’s experience in Serie A with Genoa makes him the stalwart at centreback, next to the physical presence of Lokomotiv Moscow’s César Montes. Full-backs Jesús Gallardo and Israel Reyes play like wingbacks, with intensity getting forward on the overlap.

In midfield, West Ham’s Edson Álvarez has been a vital anchor. Latterly Aguirre has played Cruz Azul’s box-to-box player Érik Lira more in the holding role, where he is a workhorse covering the back four and can be crucial carrying the ball forward in transitions.

Forward midfielders include Tijuana’s 17-year-old Gilberto Mora, the youngest player at the World Cup, who will become Mexico’s youngest at a finals tournament if he plays, as he also auditions for clubs in Europe already casting their eye in his direction. The 22-year-old Brian Gutiérrez of Guadalajara and Real Betis’s Álvaro Fidalgo can also provide movement between the lines. Alexis Vega (Toluca) and César Huerta (Anderlecht) provide the pace and width on the wings.

While Jiménez is the fulcrum up-front, Aguirre alternates him at centre-forward with Armando González, the 23-year-old Guadalajara star also attracting interest outside Liga MX.

AC Milan’s 25-year-old striker Santiago Giménez is another quality attacker for Aguirre to try to accommodate in his front-line.

It is a decent line-up. Mexicans, though, seem divided on their national team’s chances as co-hosts.

Those who are optimistic view Group A and its opposition as winnable, believe home ground advantage will be telling and are excited by the blend of European-based veterans and emerging talent in a framework of tough, no-nonsense football they believe can yield results.

Those who fear it will not be a strong campaign base their misgivings on Mexico’s inconsistency in their friendlies in 2025, though they have been more convincing going unbeaten in 2026; compounded by crucial injuries to Álvarez (ankle) and goalkeeper Luis Malagón. They have concerns about Aguirre’s conservative style of play.

The other factor is the Azteca crowd. When it held the 1986 final where Diego Maradona’s Argentina beat West Germany, the famous ground could hold 115,000 spectators. Modernisation and renovations in the 2010s and for this tournament have reduced that to a still impressive 87,000.

At a World Cup, the team that plays the prettiest football does not always win. The team that knows how to compete does

—  Javier Aguirre

Mexican supporters are famously loud and colourful —everyone in the Azteca will be wearing green and looking to provide an aesthetic and audible wall of noise. Their fans can also be fickle and demanding — parts of the crowd booed Mexico in their drab 0-0 draw against Portugal in late March.

For both sides, a major element of the opening match will be psychological.

A host nation can ride the wave of home support but also crumble under the pressure. Mexico’s toughness could help them in that respect. They are pugnacious, and used to playing under constant criticism and pressure at home.

Bafana, playing their first World Cup in 16 years since hosting in 2010 and first as qualifiers for 24 years since Japan and Korea in 2002, will be under lights in an unprecedented manner.

They have to settle their nerves, then find a way to express themselves. If there is a hint of ordinariness to Aguirre’s Mexico, it will take putting them under pressure to expose it, which could get the home crowd on the hosts’ backs.

It’s a major undertaking for Bafana coach Hugo Broos’s World Cup babes in the wood. Then again, that’s what the tournament is all about.