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The thing you read ten minutes before kickoff.

Forty-eight teams, twelve groups, 104 matches across the United States, Canada and Mexico, from 11 June to 19 July. A proper pre-match read for every game — the local press, the team news that matters, and the one thing to watch.

Up next · The tournament opener
Mexico v South Africa

Thu 11 June · 15:00 ET ET · Estadio Azteca, Mexico City Peacock/NBC

The Azteca Has Waited Forty Years to Exhale

The whole tournament begins here, and for Mexico the opponent is only half the story. South Africa came to make the night long and quiet; Aguirre's real task is to keep a half-renewed side calm while a country that has not reached a quarter-final since 1986 holds its breath.

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Collisions worth your evening

The group-stage games a neutral should circle — for the rivalry, the rematch, or the sheer stakes.

What's changed since the squad lock

The stories moving the needle since squads were finalised on 2 June.
McGree's Wembley hamstring rips a hole in Australia's left as the opener nears Riley McGree was set to start against Türkiye before a hamstring injury in the Hull playoff final at Wembley ended his tournament, leaving Tony Popovic to rebuild the inverted-left role on the fly. Norway are back at a World Cup after 28 years, and Solbakken's squad carries the weight of a nation Unbeaten through qualifying and freshly promoted to Nations League Level A, Norway return to the World Cup for the first time since 1998 with Haaland and Odegaard leading a confident generation. Euro champions arrive with no Real Madrid player for the first time ever — and a few fitness calls to settle De la Fuente's Spain land at the World Cup as Euro 2024 holders, carrying a final 26 built without a single Real Madrid player and anchored on a Barcelona core. Deschamps' farewell tournament opens with Dembélé's fitness the great unknown This is Didier Deschamps' seventh and final tournament after 14 years, and the squad he has chosen reflects an evolution rather than a reset: a four-forward permutation attack built around Mbappé, Dembélé, Olise and a rotating cast. Injuries shape Jordan's first World Cup squad as Sellami leans on the collective Jordan arrives at its maiden World Cup with the camp framed less as a celebration than as a test of selection discipline, the final 26 now locked in after a series of hard cuts. Bushiri's Achilles scare forces a late reshuffle as DR Congo eye their first World Cup in 52 years DR Congo arrive at their first World Cup since Zaire in 1974 with a stable, Europe-heavy squad that Sebastien Desabre has largely kept intact from the campaign that won the CAF playoff route and the inter-confederation playoff over Jamaica.

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