World Cup 2026 - The Big Kick Off
What to say about the opening weekend of the greatest show on Earth?
The first thing that has struck is inflation - the supersized World Cup with its extra volume. Even the most die-hard football fans will surely have trouble keeping up with four games a day for a month.
USA '94 had 24 teams in it let us not forget, half of what it is at USA 2026. And some at FIFA are pushing for 64 finalists in the future...
I was glad the start times had been adjusted from the insane ones at the last American World Cup, and indeed Scotland did not fry in Foxboro on Saturday against Haiti.
Stands in the L.A. and New York stadia stretched far into the sky and looked full, despite the FIFA price gouging, but the empty seats were clear to see in Guadalajara for South Korea v Czechia. FIFA's excuse that those fans were inside the stadium on internal concourses sounded inadequate. The central seats at Wembley are often unoccupied at the start of both halves because they are the expensive corporate ones, taken by those more interested in hospitality than sport, but these seats stayed empty for longer. Someone had messed up.
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| Empty Corporate Seats at England v Uruguay at Wembley in March |
As for the football, it began poorly with Mexico beating a South Africa side much worse than many countries who had failed to qualify for the finals. As an opening offering, it did no favours for World Cup expansion.
There were also three red cards brandished by Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio in what had not been an ill-tempered match, only one less expulsion than in the entirety of Qatar 2022 in fact. FIFA's pre-tournament refereeing directives are clearly too fervent as two of the three dismissals were very harsh
It is not an easy one. At the 2010 World Cup Final, referee Howard Webb flashed 14 yellow cards before showing one red ten minutes from the end of extra time. He was criticised for not showing reds earlier to stem the tide of Dutch fouling but he understandably felt he would have ruined the greatest spectacle.
The other two host nations started comfortably enough. Canada earned a point against Bosnia in Toronto while the USA trounced a supine Paraguay 4-1 in Los Angeles. Any tournament needs the hosts to stay in the race to maintain the overall interest.
The highest-profile match so far was Brazil v Morocco which ended 1-1 although the North Africans looked slicker and more organised and the South Americans nervous and unsure of themselves. You had to wonder if the teams had swapped psyches beforehand. Of course Morocco have better recent pedigree - a World Cup semi-final and an African Nations Cup final in the past four years compared to Brazil's World Cup quarter final and Copa America quarter final.
Still, no-one should write off a team coached by the wily Carlo Ancelotti or fields the mercurial Vinicius Junior, who scored the goal of the tournament thus far. Brazil began with a confusing lineup and were overrun at first, but rescued the result, which is what counts at the end of the day.
Sunday saw Curaçao briefly excite the world by equalising against Germany, before letting in six to bolster criticism of Gianni Infantino's World Cup expansion. Nobody is tipping Germany this World Cup, which normally would sound absurd, but two consecutive group stage exits have tempered expectations. 7-1 against a first-time minnow probably did not tell us much about the Mannschaft.
We should respectfully wait for Cape Verde and Uzbekistan to complete the picture, but it cannot be denied there are better teams left out of this tournament - Italy (FIFA-ranked 12th) and Denmark (21st) for starters, than some of the 48 who made it.
Netherlands v Japan gave us four goals but felt less than a thriller. For long periods both sides seemed to be playing for a draw. Indeed, while it is traditional for the top two teams in a group to settle for a point, there is less jeopardy this time because so many third-placed teams will go through. USA '94 had an excellent first round, full of thrills and spills, a refreshing change from the negativity of Italia '90, but for a repeat of that we might have to wait for the Round of 32, which starts on the 29th of June.
Giants Stadium, where the final will take place, looked fantastic for Brazil v Morocco, as did the bowling green pitch, but I could not help noticing the lack of noise compared to a big match in Europe or South America. Perhaps the genuine fans' allocations were so small they were dwarfed by the casual attendees. In 1994 it felt the same, although a younger soccer-loving generation of Americans has come of age since then.
To claim that America still does not get football at all is less and less credible, and as the tournament goes on with record-smashing attendances, that belief will be even less sustainable than before. That said, the big sporting story in the Big Apple over the weekend was the New York Knicks winning the NBA finals.
With the Stanley Cup (ice hockey) concluding this week, it is soccer's turn to grab American sporting attentions. A convincing win for the USA against Australia in Seattle this Friday should help pique more casual interest among a nation of 349 million people.
America has long been called a sleeping giant in football. Off to a flying start in a home World Cup? US Soccer cannot complain. It is time for the giant to rise and shine.
(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile