The first goals of the 2026 World Cup were scored at home by Mexico, who beat South Africa 2-0 in an intense opening match, in a packed Azteca Stadium where the party vibe had been going on since the opening ceremony with music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first goals of the 2026 World Cup were scored at home by Mexico, who defeated South Africa 2-0 at the end of an intense opening match, in a packed Azteca Stadium, where there had been a festive atmosphere since the musical opening ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“E viva Mexico!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forwards Julian Quinones and Raul Jimenez perfectly kicked off the ‘Tri’ in the tournament, in a match that didn’t reach footballing heights but wasn’t boring either, unlike what happened sixteen years ago in Johannesburg when these same two teams opened the 2010 World Cup (1-1).It was at 1:06 PM local time (7:06 PM GMT), a bit behind schedule, that referee Wilton Sampaio kicked off the first of the 104 matches of this extraordinary World Cup, played with 48 teams across three different countries (USA, Mexico, Canada). The Brazilian then handed out the first three red cards of the tournament, resulting in the ejection of two South African players and one Mexican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The roughly 80,000 spectators at the legendary Azteca Stadium, hosting its third opening match after 1970 and 1986\u2014a record\u2014first enjoyed about a twenty-minute musical show featuring Colombian pop star Shakira, who performed ‘Dai Dai,’ a song created for the occasion, joined by Nigerian afrobeat king Burna Boy, amid dozens of dancers.The Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli then performed the World Cup national anthem, titled ‘DNA,’ a mix of opera and electronic music produced by French DJ David Guetta. The World Cup trophy appeared, presented by FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Mexican star Salma Hayek to the cheers of the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few incidents occurred in the Mexican capital. Thousands of fans tried to get into the fan zone set up at Zocalo Square, causing significant crowding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For several days, social unrest has been expressed in the streets, raising fears of disruptions. At the kickoff of the first match, clashes broke out between several dozen protesters and law enforcement outside the stadium.This inaugural day, 100% Mexican, will offer a second evening match in Guadalajara between South Korea and the Czech Republic, before the focus shifts 4,000 km northeast on Friday to Toronto for Canada vs. Bosnia, then 3,500 km southwest to Los Angeles for United States vs. Paraguay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Omar Artan to referee PSG-Aston Villa in the UEFA Super Cup<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Somali referee Omar Artan, who was turned away from the United States on Saturday where he was supposed to officiate at the 2026 World Cup, will take charge of the UEFA Super Cup on August 12 between PSG and Aston Villa, UEFA announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Football is meant to bring people together, and UEFA wants to show its respect to Omar and his remarkable refereeing skills,” said the head of the European organization, Aleksander Ceferin, in a statement.The immense disappointment experienced by Omar Artan, named African referee of the year in 2025, sparked outrage in Somalia, where he was welcomed as a hero upon his return on Wednesday, and has become a symbol of the tightening of the United States’ immigration policy, which is supposed to welcome the whole world during the biggest football competition in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Blues in training, DR Congo in Houston<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The unlucky finalist in 2022, the French team, arrived Wednesday afternoon and got settled in Boston. Five days before their first match against Senegal, the Blues gathered Thursday on the fields of Bentley University’s campus in Waltham, Massachusetts, for their first training session. “It’s vast, it’s big, the facilities are great. We really feel very comfortable,” said the team’s No. 2 goalkeeper, Brice Samba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A surprise semi-finalist four years ago in Qatar, Morocco will have to do without Betis Sevilla winger Abde Ezzalzouli and Marseille defender Nayef Aguerd, both injured and left out of the squad just two days before the Lions of the Atlas’ first match against Brazil in the Group C clash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The players from the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose preparation was disrupted by Ebola-related concerns, were allowed on Thursday to enter the United States by the authorities to compete in the World Cup. The US authorities had required the Leopards’ delegation to undergo a 21-day isolation period before entering the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first goals of the 2026 World Cup were scored at home by Mexico, who beat South Africa 2-0 in an intense opening match, in a packed Azteca Stadium where…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow67bgCw:productID":"","_angie_page":false,"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ayudawp_aiss_exclude":false,"_ayudawp_aiss_summary":"","_ayudawp_aiss_summary_provider":"","_ayudawp_aiss_summary_hash":"","page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"coauthors":[57],"class_list":["post-4901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4903,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901\/revisions\/4903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4901"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}