Good morning, everybody, and happy World Cup day!
Exactly 2,921 days after the United States, Canada and Mexico won the bid to host the 2026 World Cup, it’s finally time for the action to begin. At 3 p.m. ET, Mexico will host South Africa in a rematch of the 2010 opening game, and the tournament will officially be underway.
We will bring you live coverage of all 104 matches this summer (yes, even Democratic Republic of Congo vs. Uzbekistan) but we will also be live every minute of every day of the tournament, bringing you all the latest news and reaction from around the world.
Our vast team of reporters and editors based across the globe will be feeding in — and we would love to hear from you, too. Subscribers can leave a comment in the “Discuss” tab at the top of the page, while those of you who don’t yet subscribe (and why ever not?) can shoot us an email at live@theathletic.com.
Now let’s have ourselves a World Cup.
