The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on Thursday, June 11 with host nation Mexico taking on South Africa in Mexico City. It’s set to be a fascinating fixture—it’s a rematch of the opening match of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa—but it’s just one intriguing fixture of many in the tournament’s opening matchday.
Here are the most interesting games taking place during the opening round of the World Cup’s group stage.
Group D: USA vs Paraguay, Friday, June 12 at 9:00pm ET
It’s impossible to oversell just how important this match is for the U.S. Men’s National Team: this World Cup debut on home soil is everything that American soccer has been building towards since it last hosted the tournament in 1994. Anything short of a win will be a huge loss for the program.
The USMNT can win this game—it beat Paraguay 2-1 a few short months ago in November 2025—but it’s by no means a guarantee. Paraguay is a fierce, dedicated, efficient team under Argentinian coach Gustavo Alfaro and it will relish its villain role in this fixture.
Group C: Brazil vs Morocco, Saturday, June 13 at 6:00pm ET
Unbridled creativity, meet steely focus. Erratic genius, meet icy consistency. This tantalizing fixture pits two of the world’s most iconic teams against each other far earlier in the World Cup scheduled than anyone could’ve imagined.
Brazil has the stronger World Cup pedigree—it’s won it five times and took home the top prize the last time the tournament was on American soil—but Morocco has the better recent form. It will ride into this match on the back of a 28-game unbeaten streak and it will do everything in its power to keep that record intact.
Group E: Cote D’Ivoire vs Ecuador, Sunday, June 14 at 7:00pm ET
This isn’t just one of the best games of Matchday 1: it’s one of the most fascinating fixtures in the World Cup period. Cote D’Ivoire boasts one of the world’s strongest young attacks while Ecuador boasts one of its strongest young defenses. This one will be a chess game wrapped in World Cup glitz, and it should be the most intellectually stimulating game of the round.
Group I: France vs Senegal, Tuesday, June 16 at 3:00pm ET
Cast your mind back to the 2002 World Cup. France entered it as the defending champion following its home soil victory in 1998, and it was widely expected to crush the competition once again. Its opening match was against Senegal—a former French colony making its World Cup debut—and French media outlets crowed about the good fortune of facing such an easy opponent so early in the tournament.
Yeah…about that. Senegal turned out to have much more oomph than anyone, especially the French national team, anticipated, and it beat France 1-0 in front of a rapturous crowd in Korea. Senegal went on to make the quarterfinals of that tournament; France went home in the group stage.
This rematch—24 long years later—will carry a lot of weight for both sides. France needs to win this to cement itself as a tournament favorite; Senegal needs to win this to keep its excellent record against European opposition alive. Expect sparks to fly.
Group K: Uzbekistan vs Colombia, Wednesday, June 17 at 10:00pm ET
Yeah, yeah, we hear you. Uzbekistan? Really? Yes, really. This Central Asian nation has quietly put together one of the strongest underdog teams in the tournament and its World Cup debut—against a feisty Colombia side that made it all the way to the final of the 2024 Copa America—is box-office stuff. Uzbekistan coach Fabio Cannavaro, himself a World Cup winner with Italy in 2006, has turned his team into a tournament monster by playing to it strengths (rangy full-backs, central passing) while minimizing its weaknesses (defending on the break.) This could be the upset of the opening round…but for those who have followed Uzbekistan throughout this World Cup cycle, it won’t be much of a surprise at all.
