World Cup 2026 roars to life with chaos and class as Canada’s turn arrives
A record-breaking red-card storm in Mexico City and a South Korean comeback in Guadalajara opened the biggest World Cup ever. Here is what set the stage before Canada takes its bow.
The largest World Cup in history finally got underway on Thursday, and it wasted no time delivering drama. Two Group A fixtures opened a 39-day, 104-match tournament spread across Canada, the United States and Mexico, and both offered an early taste of the unpredictability that 48 teams are likely to produce. For Canadian fans counting down to their own team’s debut, opening day was equal parts spectacle and scouting report.
Mexico make history in more ways than one
It began, fittingly, at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, where more than 80,000 supporters packed the stands for a curtain-raiser that Shakira and rock band Maná helped launch. The match itself, Mexico against South Africa, turned into one of the most chaotic opening games the tournament has ever seen.
The football was settled early. In the ninth minute, Erik Lira robbed a South African defender trying to play out from the back, and winger Julián Quiñones slipped the ball through goalkeeper Ronwen Williams’ legs to score the first goal of the 2026 tournament. The second carried far more emotion. Raúl Jiménez, who fractured his skull in a frightening collision while playing for Wolverhampton in 2020, rose to head home his first ever World Cup goal and left the field in tears.
But the story that will travel furthest was the discipline, or the lack of it. Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio brandished three red cards, the most ever shown in a World Cup opener and the first time any World Cup match had produced three in two decades. South Africa lost Sphephelo Sithole in the first half and Themba Zwane in the second, the latter after a video review caught a swipe across the face of Roberto Alvarado. Mexico’s César Montes was then dismissed late for hauling down a South African breakaway. All three players will miss their next group game.
For the co-hosts, the result mattered as much as the manner. Javier Aguirre’s side recorded their first ever victory in a World Cup opening match, having previously managed five losses and two draws, and did so while handing a central role to 17-year-old midfielder Gilberto Mora, one of the brightest teenagers in the world game. The 2-0 win, sealed with a clean sheet, was Mexico’s most convincing World Cup performance in years.
South Korea’s gritty comeback signals dark-horse credentials
If the opener was about bedlam, the night’s second match in Guadalajara was about resolve. South Korea, ranked 25th in the world, fell behind to 38th-ranked Czechia before rallying to win 2-1 in front of a partially filled Estadio Akron.
The first half was forgettable enough that both teams were jeered off, and it was Czechia who struck first. In the 59th minute, captain Ladislav Krejčí climbed highest to head in a long throw, exactly the kind of set-piece the Czechs had leaned on throughout qualifying. South Korea’s response was the goal of the day. Eight minutes later, Lee Kang-in threaded a pass to Hwang In-beom, who feigned a shot to wrong-foot two defenders and the goalkeeper before stroking the equalizer into the corner. The build-up to that goal ran to 25 passes, one of the longest sequences leading to a goal in World Cup history.
The drama was not finished. Tomáš Souček thought he had restored Czechia’s lead with a 77th-minute header, only for an offside flag, confirmed on review, to wipe it out. Three minutes later, South Korea made them pay. Substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu, who admitted afterward that a 38-degree fever had left him unsure he could play at all, tucked away Hwang’s low cross for the winner. Goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu then preserved it with a diving save deep into stoppage time.
South Korea finished with 15 shots to Czechia’s eight and the look of genuine dark horses. The win also marked another milestone for captain Son Heung-min, now one of only two players to feature at four different World Cups for his country, alongside current head coach Hong Myung-bo.
Group A is wide open, and Canada is next
The two results leave Mexico and South Korea level on three points at the top of Group A, the hosts ahead only on goal difference. South Africa and Czechia, both beaten and both facing suspensions or selection headaches, must regroup quickly.
For Canadian viewers, Thursday was the warm-up act. The national team begins its own campaign on Friday at a sold-out BMO Field in Toronto against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first men’s World Cup match ever staged on Canadian soil. Jesse Marsch’s side, drawn in Group B alongside Bosnia, Qatar and Switzerland, will play the remainder of its group stage at BC Place in Vancouver. After watching three other co-host nations and tournament heavyweights take the stage, Canada will be eager to announce itself in front of a home crowd that has waited a generation for this moment.
If opening day proved anything, it is that this expanded World Cup intends to be loud, fast and full of surprises. Three red cards, a tearful redemption, a fever-stricken match-winner and a 25-pass masterpiece, all before Canada had even kicked a ball. The hosts could hardly have asked for a more electric overture to a tournament that, for the next five weeks, belongs in part to them.