World Cup opener: where to watch and first kick-off times for 2026 | 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 played at the historic Azteca Stadium.

The World Cup in North America will be the first in history to be hosted by three 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 performances by 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, in Group A, repeating the opening match of the 2010 World Cup, but with the roles reversed, since back then the Africans were hosting the tournament.

The opening kick 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 the opening match of three World Cups. It was the venue for the opening games of the 1970 and 1986 World Cups, and now once again in 2026.

The Group A clash between Mexico and South Africa will be officiated by an all-Brazilian refereeing team. The controversial Wilton Pereira Sampaio will be the referee in charge, assisted by Bruno Pires and Bruno Boschilia.

SOUTH KOREA X 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 second match of the day 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 better-known and more established names in European football, starting with center-back Kim Min-jae of Bayern Munich. There is also midfielder Lee Kang-in of PSG, as well as South Korea’s great star and standout player, 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 in each group qualify for the next stage, along with the eight best third-placed teams from the opening phase, making up a total of 32 countries.

Now, before the round of 16, there is also a round of 32, an extra stage that increases 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.