A wild opener in Mexico City and a sharp South Korean rally in Guadalajara gave the tournament an immediate jolt before Canada’s first match.
The 2026 World Cup began with the kind of noise only a giant tournament can produce. Two Group A matches kicked off the 39-day, 104-game event across Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and both games delivered the sort of swings that suggest this expanded field will be hard to predict. For Canada, the opening day was less about its own debut and more about the tone being set around it.
A opener in Mexico City that turned chaotic fast
Mexico’s meeting with South Africa at the Estadio Azteca had the feeling of a major occasion before kickoff, with more than 80,000 fans in the stands and a ceremony that included Shakira and Maná. The match quickly became the story of the day. Mexico took control early when Erik Lira forced an error in the ninth minute and Julián Quiñones finished through Ronwen Williams to score the tournament’s first goal.
The second goal carried a different kind of weight. Raúl Jiménez, who once suffered a serious skull fracture in a collision while playing for Wolverhampton, headed in and celebrated his first World Cup goal with visible emotion. That moment gave the home crowd a lift, but the larger memory from the match was the discipline crisis that followed.
Referee Wilton Sampaio showed three red cards, a record for a World Cup opener and the first match in the tournament to reach that total in 20 years. South Africa lost Sphephelo Sithole before halftime and Themba Zwane after a video review caught an elbow-like swipe at Roberto Alvarado. Mexico then finished the match with 10 men after César Montes was sent off for stopping a South African break. All three players will miss the next group match.
For Mexico, the result mattered as much as the spectacle. Javier Aguirre’s team won its first ever World Cup opener after five losses and two draws in previous attempts, and did so with a clean sheet. Seventeen-year-old Gilberto Mora also played a noticeable role, adding another sign that Mexico may have more than experience on its side.
South Korea answers with poise in Guadalajara
The second Group A match in Guadalajara had a very different mood. South Korea, ranked 25th in the world, fell behind Czechia, ranked 38th, before recovering for a 2-1 win at Estadio Akron. The first half offered little quality, and both sides were booed off at the break, but the second half brought the kind of response that can shape a team’s tournament.
Czechia struck first through captain Ladislav Krejčí, who rose to head in a long throw in the 59th minute, a reminder of how central set pieces had been to their qualifying run. South Korea answered eight minutes later with the best goal of the day. Lee Kang-in found Hwang In-beom, who used a sharp feint to open space before finishing into the corner. The move featured 25 passes, one of the longest sequences ever to end in a World Cup goal.
The match still had more twists. Tomáš Souček appeared to have put Czechia back in front with a header in the 77th minute, but the goal was ruled out for offside after review. Three minutes later, substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu scored the winner from Hwang’s low cross, despite later revealing that a 38-degree fever had nearly kept him out of the lineup. Goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu protected the lead with a late save in stoppage time.
South Korea ended with more shots and the stronger finish, and the result made them look like a team capable of going well beyond the group stage. It also gave Son Heung-min another major milestone, as he became one of only two players to appear in four World Cups for South Korea, alongside head coach Hong Myung-bo.
What Canada will see next
The two results left Mexico and South Korea tied on three points, with Mexico ahead on goal difference. South Africa and Czechia now face pressure to reset quickly, especially with suspensions and selection issues to manage.
Canada’s turn arrives next, and the setting could hardly be bigger. The team opens against Bosnia and Herzegovina at a sold-out BMO Field in Toronto, marking the first men’s World Cup match ever played on Canadian soil. Jesse Marsch’s squad shares Group B with Bosnia, Qatar, and Switzerland, and will play the rest of its group schedule in Vancouver at BC Place. After watching the tournament begin with a record-setting red-card count, a tearful goal, and a comeback built on patience, Canada steps in with the clear challenge of matching that energy in front of a home crowd.
Opening day made one point plain: this World Cup is likely to move quickly and rarely behave as expected. Mexico produced history, South Korea showed resilience, and the tournament’s co-hosts are already under the spotlight before the first Canadian kickoff.
