Gonzalo
Co-hosts Mexico opened the tournament at the iconic Estadio Azteca in Mexico City with a 2-0 win over South Africa. Julian Quinones gave El Tri the perfect start, scoring the first goal of the tournament in just the ninth minute, before Raul Jimenez doubled the lead in the second half to send the Azteca into pandemonium. It was a historic night for the stadium too, as the Azteca became the first ground in history to host matches at three different men's World Cups, having previously staged games in 1970 and 1986. Some venues just belong to football. The Azteca is one of them.
The second game of the night in Guadalajara was even better. South Korea fell behind to Czechia in the second half but refused to lie down, with Hwang In-Beom and substitute Oh Hyeon-Gyu each scoring to complete a brilliant 2-1 comeback win. It was the kind of match that reminds you why you love this tournament. A team on the ropes, the crowd growing louder, and then two moments of quality that flipped the entire game on its head.
Day two gets going today with Canada and the United States both playing their opening matches. The party is just getting started.
The Numbers Behind This Monster of a Tournament
Let us just sit with the scale of this for a second. Forty-eight countries. 104 matches. 16 cities spread across the United States, Canada and Mexico. That is 40 more matches than the entire Qatar 2022 World Cup, all packed into 39 days. Twelve groups of four teams, with every team guaranteed three group stage matches. The group stage alone runs for 17 straight days with up to four matches being played every single day during the busiest stretches. On some days you will wake up and there will already be a match on. You will have lunch and there will be a match on. You will go to bed and there will still be a match on. Pulse Sports NigeriaHeavy Sports
The top two teams from each group advance, plus the eight best third-place finishers, meaning 32 teams make it out of the group stage into a brand new round, the Round of 32, which has never existed at a World Cup before. The Round of 32 begins June 28, the Round of 16 on July 4, the quarter-finals on July 9, the semi-finals on July 14 and 15, and the final on July 19 at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. If a team wins the whole thing, they will have played eight matches, one more than any World Cup winner before them.
This is not just the biggest World Cup ever. It is the biggest sporting event ever staged.
So Who is Winning This Thing?
Honestly? This might be the hardest World Cup to call in a generation. But let us talk about the three teams that are keeping every other manager up at night.
Spain walk in as European champions with an 18-year-old who plays like he has been doing this for 15 years. Lamine Yamal is not normal. He scored 16 goals and set up 11 more for Barcelona this season, earning him LaLiga Player of the Season. When he gets the ball, things happen. Beautiful, ridiculous, jaw-dropping things. Add a fit Rodri anchoring the midfield and a team that plays with the kind of calm confidence that feels almost arrogant and you have the most complete squad at this tournament.
France are just unfair. Mbappe up front. Ousmane Dembele, the reigning Ballon d'Or winner, just behind him. Then Michael Olise, Desire Doue and Rayan Cherki sitting on the bench waiting to come on and break your team. At the back, William Saliba and Dayot Upamecano are a wall. France have played all 14 matches across the past two World Cups. They do not panic. They do not crack. And they want this title more than anyone.
Then there is Argentina. The holders. And Messi.
Look, we need to stop and appreciate this properly. Lionel Messi is 38 years old and he is at a World Cup. He scored eight goals in qualification including a hat-trick against Bolivia. He still sees passes that nobody else sees. He still makes things happen that make you forget you are watching a man who should probably be winding down. This is almost certainly his last World Cup. Watching him play in it, knowing what it means to him, knowing what it means to us, that alone is worth every late night and early alarm.
The Players Who Will Steal the Show
Mbappe has scored 56 goals in 98 appearances for France and has found the net 12 times in 14 World Cup matches. He is coming for the Golden Boot and he is coming with a point to prove after finishing on the losing side in the Qatar final despite scoring a hat-trick. He has been carrying that feeling for four years. Watch him.
Yamal is coming to take over the world. He knows it. His teammates know it. The only people who do not seem to know it are the defenders who keep underestimating him and then turning around to watch the ball hit the net.
And Ronaldo. 41 years old, still here, still believing. If he leads Portugal to a first-ever World Cup title, that would be one of the greatest individual achievements in the history of sport. No arguments.