The 2026 World Cup is under way, and the opening games have already drawn the first lines of the tournament. The favourites in the first group both delivered, and the schedule is about to ramp up. Here is what we learned and what is still to come.
The hosts set the tone
Mexico had the honour of opening the tournament, and they took it without fuss, beating South Africa 2-0. For a co-host, the brief on opening night is to win cleanly and avoid the early scare, and El Tri did exactly that — a controlled, two-goal margin that put them top of Group A and steadied the mood at home.
It was not a spectacle, but openers rarely are. What mattered was the clean sheet, the comfortable win, and the sense of a host nation starting the way it intended.
South Korea win the tight one
The following night, South Korea joined Mexico on three points with a 2-1 win over Czechia. This was the harder kind of victory — a one-goal margin against opponents who pushed them and pulled a goal back to make the closing stages tense.
Son Heung-min's side found the edge when it mattered and managed the finish well enough to see it out. Winning a scrappy game rather than a flowing one is a useful early sign for a team that fancies escaping the group.
It also underlined how much this Korea side leans on its captain. With Son setting the tone at the front, they have a focal point that steadies them in the moments a tight game can slip away — exactly the trait that wins matches like this one.
Group A breaks to form
Two rounds of results in, the first group has split cleanly. Mexico and South Korea both sit on three points — Mexico ahead on goal difference at +2 to South Korea's +1 — while Czechia and South Africa are level on zero after opening defeats.
It is the orderly outcome the seedings predicted. But with the best-third rule offering a route even to teams that finish third, and goal difference already separating the top two, nobody in the group can switch off just yet.
What is on tonight
The schedule now opens up, and tonight brings the kind of fixtures that define a World Cup. The pick of them is Brazil against Morocco — the five-time champions against the 2022 semi-finalists, a heavyweight tie that pits Brazil's attacking quality against Morocco's organisation and counter-attacking threat.
The co-hosts are in action too, with the United States opening against Paraguay, a winnable but awkward fixture against stubborn, well-drilled opponents. Add Germany v Curaçao, Netherlands v Japan, Australia v Turkey, Haiti v Scotland, Ivory Coast v Ecuador and Qatar v Switzerland, and the tournament is about to shift from a steady start into full flow.
The verdict
Matchday one belonged to the favourites. Mexico and South Korea took care of business, Group A is breaking to form, and the early evidence is of a tournament settling into the shape its seedings suggested.
That is the calm before the noise. With Brazil-Morocco and the co-hosts' opener on the slate, the next 48 hours will tell us far more about who is here to contend. The World Cup is open, and it is about to get loud.
Kickoff XI is an independent publication and is not affiliated with FIFA.
