FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread

[Rgram]

South Africa couldn't score Mexico in a game of 90 minutes on the big stage. I always knew Nigeria should have been the best team to be at that stage from the group. Unfortunately they couldn't because of bad politics. However most Africans supported Mexico today and tbey are the honest so it's good that they showed their country fans what it means for them to be at the world cup. Mexico now have all points after the first game. Hopefully they will qualify from this round.

You would wish that and I can agree with you that Nigeria would have done better but, they failed to get their ticket in the qualifiers. They always come out, underrating other African teams and wouldn’t put in enough effort in their fixtures until it was too late. Now, they’ve being showing a lot of strength in the friendlies but, that’s certainly going no where.

South Africa had their first match and they lost squarely to Mexico. They managed to get 2 red cards in the end while Mexico got one. That could have arguably being their one chance to get a goal but, I still doubt that from their poor performance in the game. Mexico played better, deserved the win and their clean sheet.

[uneng]

I think Mexico didn't play that good either. They missed too many opportunities of scoring goals. What happened is that South Africa played quite poorly, even compared to some clubs from the national championship from my country. It's hard to believe that a national team with that level of performance has reached the World Cup, or maybe, it's just that there are too many national teams participating this edition of the global championship.

[Solokan]

Source: https://www.cnnindonesia.com/olahraga/20260612033701-142-1368160/hasil-piala-dunia-2026-diwarnai-3-kartu-merah-meksiko-hajar-afsel/amp
It's a great feeling to see the 2026 World Cup begin. We've all seen the first match, South Africa vs. Mexico. Unfortunately, South Africa lost 2-0 to Mexico. Mexico played well in this match, attacking well and capitalizing on opportunities. Unfortunately, South Africa couldn't score a single goal. This certainly saddened many African fans, while Mexican fans were certainly happy because their team won. Julian and Jimenez were heroes for Mexico, scoring the goals against South africa. Mexico now has 3 points and is currently leading Group A

Fortunately, I bet on Mexico to win this match, and I ended up winning. Did you also have luck betting on this match? South Africa still has a chance to improve and advance to the next stage. Now I'm also curious about the South Korea vs Czech Republic match. In my opinion, there is a big potential for South Korea to win. What do you think?

[Hispo]

I think Mexico didn't play that good either. They missed too many opportunities of scoring goals. What happened is that South Africa played quite poorly, even compared to some clubs from the national championship from my country. It's hard to believe that a national team with that level of performance has reached the World Cup, or maybe, it's just that there are too many national teams participating this edition of the global championship.

They will have to improve their plays if they have any actual intention to have a chance to get the world cup. I believe indeed having more extra teams for this world cup have lowered the standards a bit and some teams which would have not made it in have actually gotten a chance in this occasion.

At least Mexico will get a good morale boost thanks to this victory, hopefully the will capitalize that morale and turn it into more effective goals, and not just depend on the incapacity of their foes to score their own goals.

As a Venezuelan, it makes me kind of upset to see teams underperforming so bad in a world cup, there are supposed to be only epic matches in this tournament... And my country was left out of the world cup for teams who do not seem to care enough for it...

[Fivestar4everMVP]

I think Mexico didn't play that good either. They missed too many opportunities of scoring goals. What happened is that South Africa played quite poorly, even compared to some clubs from the national championship from my country. It's hard to believe that a national team with that level of performance has reached the World Cup, or maybe, it's just that there are too many national teams participating this edition of the global championship.

If I am not mistaken, south Africa was also present in the world Cup in the last world Cup event that was held in Qatar in the year 2022, so if we should consider or put that into consideration, then we can easily conclude that south Africa being in this year's world Cup wasn't a mistake, they must have or did genuinely played the qualifiers match and genuinely made it to the world Cup and it's why they are there.

But all the same, sorry if you at a South African or supporting the country but I am happy Mexico won that match, I do not know but for some wild reasons, majority or almost everybody in my country and majority in Africa wanted Mexico to win the match and they did won by two goals while south Africa could not get a goal, for mexico, its a great start and lets see how things goes from here.

[Jessie2121]

I think Mexico didn't play that good either. They missed too many opportunities of scoring goals. What happened is that South Africa played quite poorly, even compared to some clubs from the national championship from my country. It's hard to believe that a national team with that level of performance has reached the World Cup, or maybe, it's just that there are too many national teams participating this edition of the global championship.

The only way Mexico didn't play well is by not using the big opportunities they had, the red card should have been a way of tearing apart the defense of South Africa but they were busy dressing the ball to get a beautiful goal but they forget that this is the World Cup and when opportunities like this comes you have to take it and make good use of it. The other country side was busy thinking on how to play something crazy, bad tackles q d the rest to even make them get a second red card, the South Africa guys were frustrated after the first red card, like nothing was working for them. As of that time they were playing with a man down they still had the chance of getting a goalless but the other player lost it and made things worse than it was, let's see how they can manage in their second leg, is not yet over for South Africa.

[RaltcoinsB]

I think Mexico didn't play that good either. They missed too many opportunities of scoring goals. What happened is that South Africa played quite poorly, even compared to some clubs from the national championship from my country. It's hard to believe that a national team with that level of performance has reached the World Cup, or maybe, it's just that there are too many national teams participating this edition of the global championship.

There can be significant differences between continents. This is why some weaker teams can qualify for the World Cup. There are much stronger teams in Europe that don't qualify. However, each continent has a limited number of teams it can send to the World Cup. This leads to an unfair disparity in some matches. The difference between Mexico and South Africa isn't that huge, but there's still a clear difference between the two teams. It was a comfortable victory for Mexico.

[topbitcoin]

Mexico's match against South Africa for me is like Deja Vu in the 2010 World Cup where it was also the same opening match and the opponent was the same and the result was actually almost similar where the host got 3 points because in the 2010 period South Africa was the one who got the victory.

I was expecting more for this first match especially I wanted to see how they scored but it seems like the Mexican public pressure was strong enough to make the South African players experience mental pressure which made their performance not too good.G
From the very first minute they were pressured and the goal came quickly from a mistake by the players in anger although in this match the intensity of the match was not too brutal for the size of soccer but 3 fatal violations that led to red cards were proof that this match was quite violent.

[Sandra_hakeem]

Mexico had clear chances on the pitch, but only two of those were in a better position in the match. Good thing is they took full advantage of it and made it count. It was a perfect ball game, and the 4-3-3 formation helped the team.

On the other hand, South Africa had a poor defensive strategy which led to the first goal Julián Quiñones scored.  The defense was not stable and the team's capability was at its lowest just few minutes into the game. Raúl Jiménez scored the second goal--- which forced South Africa to lose momentum, resulting in a red card at the most crucial moment of the game. It's clear that most African teams may not retain their spot in this stage of the competition.

[Jatiluhung]

I think Mexico didn't play that good either. They missed too many opportunities of scoring goals. What happened is that South Africa played quite poorly, even compared to some clubs from the national championship from my country. It's hard to believe that a national team with that level of performance has reached the World Cup, or maybe, it's just that there are too many national teams participating this edition of the global championship.

South Africa did play pretty poorly. Especially on Mexico’s first goal, that was purely the goalkeeper’s mistake, as he passed the ball to a player who was right next to a Mexican player. That was clearly the wrong move. However, Mexico still played pretty well in my opinion, although I didn’t expect them to play as well as Portugal, Argentina, France, or other favorites.  And I understand your disappointment. Because after they scored that first goal, we really saw Mexico stop playing as aggressively as they did at the start. and yeah, that made them look bad. If they’d maintained the same rhythm as in the opening minutes, they might have won by a bigger margin.


The match currently underway is South Korea vs. the Czech Republic. I’m rooting for South Korea in this one. And well, this is based on my emotional bias since I’m from Asia. But I wouldn’t dare bet big on it.

[Livingleged]

As expected South Korea should dominate the game and from the first half play we can all see that they are the better side, had few clear chances to score but it was played wide by son I hope they do better when they return in the second 45mins. Czech Republic aren’t confident enough to hold the ball, they seem to be shaky and the South Korea teams is capitalizing on them by dominating the midfield and throwing passes in between Czech Republic players. The First half might have ended 0:0, but I hope the score line changes in the second 45mins. South Korea should easily pick their first win from this game as they are the better side from what I’ve seen.

[Gallar]

I think Mexico didn't play that good either. They missed too many opportunities of scoring goals. What happened is that South Africa played quite poorly, even compared to some clubs from the national championship from my country. It's hard to believe that a national team with that level of performance has reached the World Cup, or maybe, it's just that there are too many national teams participating this edition of the global championship.

Yes, in this opening match, there was nothing particularly interesting, because basically both teams played mediocre. However, Mexico deserved to win this match because they played better than South Africa in this match. Furthermore, if you feel that Africa is too bad to qualify for this World Cup, I can't comment too much on that. But what is clear is that South Africa's defeat in this match was clearly due to their poor performance. Furthermore, if we look at the FIFA ranking comparison between the two countries, I think the comparison is quite far.

Because basically,, currently Mexico is in 14th place, while South Africa is only in 60th place. So, it's natural that South Africa was unable to keep up with Mexico in this match. Because basically, their performance in this match was also below Mexico. But that's okay because even though South Africa lost this match, they still have two more matches that they can take advantage of. So we'll just have to see whether South Africa can play well or not in the upcoming match.

[danadc]

I think Mexico didn't play that good either. They missed too many opportunities of scoring goals. What happened is that South Africa played quite poorly, even compared to some clubs from the national championship from my country. It's hard to believe that a national team with that level of performance has reached the World Cup, or maybe, it's just that there are too many national teams participating this edition of the global championship.

The only way Mexico didn't play well is by not using the big opportunities they had, the red card should have been a way of tearing apart the defense of South Africa but they were busy dressing the ball to get a beautiful goal but they forget that this is the World Cup and when opportunities like this comes you have to take it and make good use of it. The other country side was busy thinking on how to play something crazy, bad tackles q d the rest to even make them get a second red card, the South Africa guys were frustrated after the first red card, like nothing was working for them. As of that time they were playing with a man down they still had the chance of getting a goalless but the other player lost it and made things worse than it was, let's see how they can manage in their second leg, is not yet over for South Africa.

I was bored during the first World Cup game. I didn't bet on them; I wanted South Africa to win, but I didn't like the way Mexico won. It was all mistakes. Mexico might advance to the next round, but they already have three points awarded by South Africa. There was a moment when I liked how Mexico played, but it faded. It hasn't changed my opinion of Mexico; they were lacking in many ways, and reading the comments here, many people agree.

[johnsaributua]

Yes, in this opening match, there was nothing particularly interesting, because basically both teams played mediocre. However, Mexico deserved to win this match because they played better than South Africa in this match. Furthermore, if you feel that Africa is too bad to qualify for this World Cup, I can't comment too much on that. But what is clear is that South Africa's defeat in this match was clearly due to their poor performance. Furthermore, if we look at the FIFA ranking comparison between the two countries, I think the comparison is quite far.

Because basically,, currently Mexico is in 14th place, while South Africa is only in 60th place. So, it's natural that South Africa was unable to keep up with Mexico in this match. Because basically, their performance in this match was also below Mexico. But that's okay because even though South Africa lost this match, they still have two more matches that they can take advantage of. So we'll just have to see whether South Africa can play well or not in the upcoming match.

On the one hand the home team won because they were playing in front of their own fans allowing them to score easily. However in terms of intensity the match was as usual perhaps because it was the opening match so both teams didn't play too fiercely. This was the beginning of their journeys and they were both wary of rushing into a match that took place on Mexico's home turf.

With the red cards received by both players from South Africa they could no longer look for goals to be able to balance because this was because they had lost two players at once even though some said that the match was quite fierce, but for us with the occurrence of two red cards the match will be very clearly controlled by the team that has complete players and for those who received red cards only to defend so that no goals are scored in the future.

That's true but if the two red cards hadn't been received by African players even though they lost they would still have managed to score at least one goal. In my opinion this opening match was mediocre not as impressive as those in previous World Cups. Although Mexico is far superior in the standings I think South Africa will put up a good fight and will also try to secure their first win in the next match.

[laijsica]

I think Mexico didn't play that good either. They missed too many opportunities of scoring goals. What happened is that South Africa played quite poorly, even compared to some clubs from the national championship from my country. It's hard to believe that a national team with that level of performance has reached the World Cup, or maybe, it's just that there are too many national teams participating this edition of the global championship.

Personally I was a South African supporter in the first match but I expected a performance from them and they didn't play like that. Mexico was more aggressive and scored a goal in the 9 minute of the match. It was a good first match of the World Cup season but I didn't win the bet. You are right that Mexico didn't play impressively and they missed many scoring chances. As a supporter of the Africa team, I expected at least a draw from the team but the red cards for two players in the second half reduced the team strength. Three red cards in the opening match of the World Cup seems unprecedented.

[B-BossMan]

As expected South Korea should dominate the game and from the first half play we can all see that they are the better side, had few clear chances to score but it was played wide by son I hope they do better when they return in the second 45mins. Czech Republic aren’t confident enough to hold the ball, they seem to be shaky and the South Korea teams is capitalizing on them by dominating the midfield and throwing passes in between Czech Republic players. The First half might have ended 0:0, but I hope the score line changes in the second 45mins. South Korea should easily pick their first win from this game as they are the better side from what I’ve seen.

Y3s I actually expected this great performance from South Korea in this match, Czech Republic players were looking unorganized after the South Korea score thier first goal as equalized, South Korea have more attackers mentality than the opponent if not Czech Republic would work more harder to get everything possible to win this match easily as they were opportune to scored the first goal, well I don't know what kind of miracle they may perform before the end of the match, because even in die minutes game can change easily. But I was actually impressed with the South Korea performance at this early stage of thier FIFA world match.

South Korea-2 Czech Republic-1

[MAAManda]

An epic comeback from South Korea!

I know that South Korea dominated the match, but in the 59th minute Czech Republic took the lead with the first goal of the match, luckily not long after that goal South Korea also started scoring goals. Hwang In-beom became the MVP (MoTM) in the match for making 1 goal & 1 assist, congrats to South Korea, the first 3 points from the Asian side.

[Catenaccio]

Y3s I actually expected this great performance from South Korea in this match, Czech Republic players were looking unorganized after the South Korea score thier first goal as equalized, South Korea have more attackers mentality than the opponent if not Czech Republic would work more harder to get everything possible to win this match easily as they were opportune to scored the first goal, well I don't know what kind of miracle they may perform before the end of the match, because even in die minutes game can change easily. But I was actually impressed with the South Korea performance at this early stage of thier FIFA world match.

South Korea-2 Czech Republic-1

Asia football has developed a lot in recent years and in World Cup 2022, some national teams like Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran made a lot of impression even their journeys in that World Cup ended sooner or later. South Korea with this win against Czech actually is their own good start and gives big advantage in this group for going to round of 16. It's also a good start for Asia football in World Cup 2026 and this win likely motivates other Asian national teams in their later matches.

[Mahiyammahi]

As expected South Korea should dominate the game and from the first half play we can all see that they are the better side, had few clear chances to score but it was played wide by son I hope they do better when they return in the second 45mins. Czech Republic aren’t confident enough to hold the ball, they seem to be shaky and the South Korea teams is capitalizing on them by dominating the midfield and throwing passes in between Czech Republic players. The First half might have ended 0:0, but I hope the score line changes in the second 45mins. South Korea should easily pick their first win from this game as they are the better side from what I’ve seen.

Y3s I actually expected this great performance from South Korea in this match, Czech Republic players were looking unorganized after the South Korea score thier first goal as equalized, South Korea have more attackers mentality than the opponent if not Czech Republic would work more harder to get everything possible to win this match easily as they were opportune to scored the first goal, well I don't know what kind of miracle they may perform before the end of the match, because even in die minutes game can change easily. But I was actually impressed with the South Korea performance at this early stage of thier FIFA world match.

South Korea-2 Czech Republic-1

Still Czech Republic scored the first goal which was un expected. But South Korea fought back excellent. Tbh the goalkeeper from South Korea Kim Seung-gyu showed an excellent resilient to their opponent team , other wise CZe could have score one or two more goals . Those saves was excellent.

To be frankly 2nd match was more interesting than the first match Mexico & South Africa just don't add up. RSA was playing like amateur, which wasn't eye pleasing for me.

[TedMosby]

After seeing the match between Mexico and South Africa, I think there is no chance for South Africa to advance to the next round with that boring play. South Africa didn't show any determination at all. On the other hand, Mexico played really well. Fast play and fluid.

The other 2 teams, South Korea really dominated the match today, but Czech Republic was also very effective from set pieces. Most of their set pieces were very dangerous in South Korea's penalty box. They even scored from a long-throw set piece.

Is it too early to say that Mexico and South Korea are the 2 teams that will qualify for the next round from Group A?

BTW, to all European and African members here, how does it feel watching football from midnight until dawn? Living in Southeast Asia feels like a privilege these days