A repeated opening… and a chance for revenge… paradoxes in the 2026 World Cup

The opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been officially set, which will bring together the team of one of the three host countries of the tournament, Mexico, with its South African counterpart.
The match will be held, as announced in the draw held yesterday evening, at the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington, at the famous Azteca Stadium in Mexico on June 11.
The organizers of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa did not think that the opening confrontation between their team and its Mexican counterpart would be repeated more than 15 years later, and on the same date as well.
That confrontation, which was held at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, in the presence of 84,000 spectators, ended in a 1-1 draw after Tshabalala scored an iconic goal for the hosts, but Mexican national team captain Marquez thwarted South Africa’s lead by equalizing 11 minutes before the end.
The eyes of the followers will turn to the Azteca Stadium, which has a capacity of about 83,000 spectators, all of whom are excited to see their team trying to advance in a group that may seem within reach, as it also includes South Korea and one of the teams that qualified for the European playoff, “Italy, Wales, Northern Ireland, Bosnia.”
This will not be the only difference between the upcoming World Cup and previous editions, as there is more than one similar group with tournaments held in past years.
The Algerian national team is located with Austria in the tenth group, which also includes the world champion team, Argentina, in addition to Jordan.
The Algerian national team previously played alongside Austria in the same group in the 1982 World Cup in Spain, but this time the confrontation will be revenge for the Arab team.
After 44 years, the Algerian national team will have the opportunity to pay back what the Austrian national team did, which lost in its third match in the group stage against West Germany, thus depriving the Arab national team of the opportunity to qualify despite its victory over Chile in the same round.
The Algerian national team was on the verge of qualifying from this difficult group, in which a distinguished generation, led by Rabah Madjer and Lakhdar Belloumi, led them to a historic victory over Germany with the presence of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
Then Algeria lost in the second round to Austria, which had defeated Chile in the first round, and then the Austrian team no longer needed the points of its last match against its neighbor Germany, which made the last match between Germany and Austria a suspicious scenario for the Algerian team, which exited the competition in the first round, and the German and Austrian teams qualified.
It is also ironic that the Moroccan national team will face a group very similar to the one in which it played in the French 1998 edition.
The draw placed Morocco in the third group, along with Brazil and Scotland, as well as Haiti.
With the exception of Haiti, the same group was repeated in the 1998 World Cup with the fourth team, Norway.
The Moroccan national team also faced a similar early exit scenario, as Morocco tied with Norway, in a generation that included the current coach of the Scandinavian national team, Stole Solbakken, in addition to Toure Andre Flo and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
In the same round, Brazil won over Scotland 2-1, and in the second round, Scotland tied with Norway 1-1, while Morocco lost to Brazil, as expected, so that the Brazilian team did not need points for its match against Norway, but despite that, the European team was awarded a controversial draw point, which caused Morocco to be eliminated, despite the Arab team’s victory over Scotland in the same round, but Norway qualified as runner-up by a point.
France will also be facing a confrontation with unhappy memories against Senegal, as the 1998 champion began the campaign to defend his title in 2002 in South Korea and Japan, with an unexpected loss against the Senegalese team.
The team of the late coach Bruno Mesto surprised everyone by defeating world champion France with a goal by the late star also Papa Bouba Diop.
In this tournament, the French team did not even qualify from its group, while there will be another strong party in the 2026 World Cup alongside France and Senegal, which is the Norwegian team in the ninth group, which is also awaiting the winner of the global playoff between the Iraqi team and the winner from Bolivia and Suriname.
Saudi Arabia will also repeat the confrontation with Uruguay, after a clash in the group stage of the 2018 edition, which was held in Russia, and the confrontation between them ended with the Latin team winning 1-0.
The Panama national team will hope for a scenario different from the one in its match against England and the 6-1 loss in the 2018 edition, when the two teams will repeat the confrontation in the next tournament also within Group Twelve, which also includes Croatia and Ghana.