World Cup 2026: What to Know Halfway Through Opening Round

Four days into the largest World Cup ever, only half of the nearly 50 qualifying teams have made their FIFA World Cup debut.

Those four days gave soccer fans a multi-goal display of home team dominance from Mexico City and Los Angeles, an up-and-comer’s push to neutralize an established favorite outside New York City, a victory in Boston nearly 40 years in the making, and more.

The five-week-long global soccer tournament begins with a preliminary round robin group stage featuring 12 groups of four. Three points are awarded for each match win, one point is earned for each draw, and zero points are awarded for a loss. The top two teams in each group and the overall top eight of the 12 third-place finishers will advance to the first elimination round.

By June 15, six of those 12 groups will have completed their first game, including the three host countries: the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Here are some of the highlights.

US, Mexico Dominate on Home Soil

Team USA (Group D) kicked off its first home World Cup match with a decisive 4–1 victory over Paraguay on June 12. More than 70,000 fans in Los Angeles were treated to multiple goals from Folarin Balogun—the first time an American player scored multiple goals in a World Cup match since 1930—and Gio Reyna.

U.S. fans were also able to witness FIFA’s video assistant referee rescind a yellow card dealt to Team USA and instead give it to Team Paraguay, after determining that a South American player had taken a dive rather than suffered an illegal hit.

Team Canada (Group B), meanwhile, ended its home opener in a draw. Going down early 0–1 against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto, the Les Rouges rallied to launch an equalizing goal to the back of the net 78 minutes into the game. More than 43,000 people were on hand on June 12 to witness Canada’s first-ever World Cup home game. The draw means that Qatar remains the only host team to lose its opening match.

However, Team USA and Team Mexico were not the only ones in their group to earn all three points this past week. Australia shut down Turkey 2–0 in Vancouver, Canada, in the early hours of June 14 ET, and South Korea beat Czechia 2–1 in Guadalajara, Mexico, on June 11.

Meanwhile, all four teams in Canada’s group are tied up with one point after Qatar was able to finally find the back of the net five minutes into the second half’s stoppage time and neutralize an otherwise dominating team from Switzerland.

Canada is set to play Qatar in Vancouver at 6 p.m. ET on June 18. Then, at 9 p.m., Mexico is set to play South Korea in Guadalajara.

Team USA will face Australia at 3 p.m. ET on June 19.

Scotland Wins, Brazil Held to a Draw

The third match win of the round robin came from Scotland.

The Scots made their first World Cup appearance since 1998 and secured their first World Cup match win in 36 years, beating Haiti 1–0 in Boston.

That victory means that Scotland now leads Group A with those three points on top of the legacy World Cup powerhouse, Brazil.

Brazil faced off against Morocco in what was the only round robin match-up between two top 10 teams in FIFA’s power ranking. Brazil was ranked sixth going into the match, while Morocco was ranked seventh.

Morocco turned heads at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, making it all the way to the semifinals. Four years later, it returned to the world stage by going up 1–0 against the five-time World Cup champions 21 minutes into play.

Its lead vanished after Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior found the back of the net 11 minutes later. But the Atlas Lions ultimately held the Canarinho to a scoreless second half and only one group stage point.

Scotland will face Morocco in Boston at 6 p.m. on June 19, and Brazil will take on Haiti in Philadelphia at 8:30 p.m. that same day.

Germany Wins, the Dutch Draw

Germany (Group E) took the field for the first time this World Cup in Houston on June 14, and turned what could have been a Cinderella story into an unrelenting rout.

Die Mannschaft faced off against newcomer Curaçao, the smallest nation to ever qualify for the World Cup.

After going down 1–0 within the first six minutes of play, the tiny island’s starting 11 were able to even things out thanks to a goal from Livano Comenencia by the 21-minute mark.

However, that was the only ball to get past goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, and Germany’s 10 other men on the field walked away after 90 minutes with a 7–1 victory.

This match was also notably the first of the tournament without any yellow or red cards.

Later that day, the Netherlands (Group F) and its fanbase, the Orange Army, were unleashed upon Dallas for an opening match against Japan and its fans in Samurai Blue. Held scoreless for the entire first half by the Japanese defense and its goalkeeper, Zion Suzuki, the Dutch earned their first goal of the tournament off a header from Virgil van Dijk 51 minutes into play.

Japan’s Keito Nakamura delivered an equalizer through traffic and across the line six minutes later, but the Dutch pulled ahead once again thanks to Crysencio Summerville 64 minutes in.

Japan kept pressing, and another neutralizing goal was scored in the 89th minute on a header from Daichi Kamada off a corner kick.

The Netherlands has never lost a World Cup opener, but this draw ends its 23-game win streak in matches in which it scored first.

The second halves of the German and Dutch groups were also scheduled to play on June 14, with Ivory Coast playing Ecuador and Sweden facing Tunisia. However, those games have start times after the time of this article’s publication.

The Netherlands will face Sweden in Houston at 1 p.m. on June 20, and then Germany will face the Ivory Coast in Toronto at 4 p.m. that same day.

Coming Up: Spain, England, France, Argentina, and Iran

This first full week of the tournament begins with the other six groups playing their opening games.

First up at 12 p.m. on June 15 is Spain and its wunderkind Lamine Yamal, who will face Cabo Verde in Atlanta.

Belgium plays Egypt next at 3 p.m. in Seattle.

The June 15 matches end with Iran playing its first game on U.S. soil against New Zealand. This game will tip off at 9 p.m. in Los Angeles and comes amid news of a peace deal finally being made between the Islamic regime and its team’s host country.

Later this week, Kylian Mbappé and Team France play Senegal outside New York City at 3 p.m. on June 16, and three hours later, Lionel Messi takes the field with Argentina to play Algeria in Kansas City, Missouri.

England and Portugal both get things started on June 17, with a 4 p.m. match against Croatia in Dallas and a 1 p.m. match against Congo in Houston, respectively.