The 2026 World Cup kicks off on Thursday, as Mexico takes on South Africa at the mythical Estadio Azteca.
The tournament, which will be held in three countries for the first time, with the United States and Canada joining as hosts, sees Argentina arrive as defending champions, while Spain, France, and Brazil are the other main candidates.
This match will mark the start of the largest tournament in World Cup history, featuring 48 teams and 104 matches.
When will the World Cup opening ceremony be held?
Action is set to start at 2:30 p.m. Argentina time, with the opening ceremony at the Azteca.
The confirmed artists set to perform on June 11 at Mexico City include Belinda, Danny Ocean, J Balvin, Lila Downs, Los Ángeles Azules, and Maná. Additionally, Colombian singer Shakira will perform the official 2026 World Cup song, Dai Dai, during the opening ceremony alongside Burna Boy.
The World Cup will also host two more opening parties when the other hosts debut on Friday, with Katy Perry, Future, Anitta, LISA, Rema, and Tyla featuring in Los Angeles, while Alanis Morissette, Alessia Cara, Elyanna, Jessie Reyez, Michael Bublé, Nora Fatehi, Sanjoy, Vegedream, and William Prince are set to appear in Toronto.
The ceremony, as well as the opening match, will be broadcast on Argentine’s state-owned broadcaster TV Pública, free-air TV channel Telefe, cable TV channels DSports (DirecTV), and TyC Sports, and streaming services DGO (DirecTV Go), Flow (Cablevisión), Disney+ Premium, Paramount+, Mi Telefe, TyC Sports Play and TV Pública Play.
Mexico vs South Africa: What to expect?
Mexico arrives at the 2026 World Cup aiming to improve on what was one of its worse showings in the tournament’s history in 2022. At Qatar, the Tri was ousted for the first time since 1986 (it missed the 1982 and 1990 tournaments).
Having not entered the qualifiers due to being hosts, the team coached by Javier Aguirre tested their mettle in a series of high-caliber friendlies, winning them all. Mexico won 1-0 against Australia, 5-1 against Serbia, and 2-0 against Ghana.
Led by former English Premier League star Raúl Jiménez and teenage phenom Gilberto Mora, Mexico will try to break its round-of-16 curse, having never reached the quarterfinals since the 1986 tournament.
South Africa, meanwhile, is back at the tournament since hosting in 2010 and will look to break out of the group stages for the first time in its history. They will be led by the forward Lyle Foster, who plays for Burnley in the English Premier League, captain and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, and emerging attacking talents Oswin Appollis and Relebohile Mofokeng.
The match will kick off at 4 p.m. Argentina time on DSports and Telefé, and will also be streamed online through Flow, DGO, Disney+ Premium, and Paramount+ streaming platforms.
