World Cup 2026 opener: where to watch and today’s kick-off times | OneFootball

The biggest event in football is finally about to begin! The opening of the 2026 World Cup will take place this Thursday (11) at 2:30 p.m. (Brasília time), shortly before the opening match between Mexico and South Africa, which will be held at the historic Azteca Stadium.

The World Cup in North America will be the first in history to have three host countries: the United States, Mexico, and Canada. As a result, FIFA decided to hold three official “opening” events, one in each nation.

The first of them will therefore be this Thursday, starting at 2:30 p.m., with performances by stars such as Shakira, who will sing the official World Cup song alongside Burna Boy. The show at the legendary Azteca will also feature Alejandro Fernández, Belinda, Danny Ocean, J Balvin, Lila Downs, Los Ángeles Azules, Maná, and Tyla.

WHERE TO WATCH

Right after that, at 4 p.m., Mexico takes the field in front of its passionate home crowd against South Africa at Azteca Stadium, in Mexico City, for Group A, repeating the opening match of the 2010 World Cup, but with the roles reversed, since the Africans were the hosts on that occasion.

The opening kickoff of the World Cup will be broadcast live on TV Globo, GeTV, SporTV, N Sports, CazéTV, and SBT.

Azteca makes history as the only stadium to host three World Cup opening matches. It was the venue for the opening games of the 1970 and 1986 World Cups, and now again in 2026.

The Group A clash between Mexico and South Africa will be officiated by a Brazilian refereeing crew. The controversial Wilton Pereira Sampaio will be the referee, assisted by Bruno Pires and Bruno Boschilia.

SOUTH KOREA VS CZECH REPUBLIC

At the end of the first day of the World Cup, still on Thursday, South Korea and the Czech Republic will play the other match in the balanced Group A, at 11 p.m. at Guadalajara Stadium, in Mexico. The match will be refereed by Egyptian official Amin Mohamed.

The day’s second match will be broadcast live exclusively on CazéTV, but it will also be available at no extra cost on Disney+ (streaming).

The Czechs’ main standouts are defensive midfielder Tomáš Soucek, captain of West Ham in England, as well as striker Patrik Schick of Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen.

The Asian side, meanwhile, has much more familiar and recognized names in European football, starting with center-back Kim Min-jae of Bayern Munich. There is also midfielder Lee Kang-in of PSG, along with South Korea’s biggest star and icon, the charismatic Heung-min Son, who now scores his goals in MLS, the U.S. league.

In this biggest World Cup in history, with 48 teams and 12 groups, the top two teams advance to the next round, along with the eight best third-place teams from the group stage, making up a field of 32 countries.

Now, before the round of 16, there is also a round of 32, an extra stage that extends the world champion’s path to a total of eight matches during the tournament.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.