World Cup 2026 Results and Updated Group Standings after Opening Day

Rejoice, football fans—the World Cup is finally here.

Below, we'll break down the opening day's scores, updated Group A table and all of the top highlights from Thursday's action in Mexico.

Results

Mexico def. South Africa, 2-0

South Korea def. Czechia, 2-1

Group A Table

Team	Played	Points	Goal Differential
Mexico	1	3	2
South Korea	1	3	1
Czechia	1	0	-1
South Africa	1	0	-2

Recaps

South Korea Comes Back in an Entertaining Nightcap

If the first match of the World Cup was defined by its red cars, the second game was all about the brilliant second half.

Hwang In-Beom and Oh Hyeon-Gyu each scored for South Korea, helping them recover from a second-half deficit to beat Czechia, 2-1.

After South Korea were the better team for the majority of the first half, it was Czechia's Ladislav Krejcí who opened the game's scoring in the 59th minute.

But South Korea made crafty substitutions and recovered nicely, setting up a matchup against Mexico next Thursday that very well could decide the group. Czechia will look to bounce back against South Africa.

Mexico Kicks off the World Cup in Style

Led by goals from Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez, Mexico kicked off its World Cup with a convincing 2-0 victory over South Africa.

While Mexico—co-hosting the tournament with the United States and Canada—will be thrilled to have started the World Cup with a relatively easy win, the game will perhaps be remembered for the three red cards shown.

South Africa's Sphephelo Sithole and Themba Zwane were each shown the boot, as was Mexico's César Montes.

Mexico's chances of advancing to the knockout phase were bolstered significantly by Thursday's win. They'll next face South Korea on Thursday, June 18 (9 p.m. ET), while South Africa will face Czechia that same day at noon ET.