Back on the biggest stage for the first time since hosting in 2010, will there be a moment to rival “Goal, Bafana, Bafana” in a repeat of that opening fixture 16 years ago? Probably not.

They entered last winter’s Africa Cup of Nations with high hopes of a deep run only for Cameroon to win a round of 16 meeting 2-1, while their qualification for this tournament appeared in some jeopardy after being docked three points after midfielder Teboho Mokoena mistakenly played in a qualifier versus Lesotho despite being suspended because of an accumulation of yellow cards..

Lyle Foster, the Burnley forward, may be the only recognisable name for fans watching on from the UK but their big strength will be familiarity. Eight of the squad are clubmates for Mamelodi Sundowns, the dominant domestic team who had won eight of the previous titles before Orlando Pirates pipped them by a point this season. There are eight Pirates in the squad too.

That camaraderie will be key if they are to cause a surprise, though head coach Hugo Broos, a 74-year-old veteran, is hardly spelling out grand expectations. “We’re going to do our best but I don’t think anyone will blame us if we don’t make it out of the group,” he said recently.

Star player – Ronwen Williams, Mamelodi Sundowns: Those who spent a reasonable amount of time watching last summer’s Club World Cup - which, beyond any action on the pitch, served as a a logistical dress rehearsal for what is about to follow - will recognise South Africa’s captain-goalkeeper for being the first penalised for holding on to the ball for more than eight seconds. He is also a dab hand at getting his hands on penalty kicks: in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Cup of Nations he saved just the quartet of spotters from Cape Verde, earning global media attention. The chances of him being required in a shootout come the knockout stages here are slim but without his presence between the posts the group’s outsiders would have an even smaller chance of progress.

Breakout talent – Mbekezeli Mbokazi, Chicago Fire: The centre back, 20, has overcome a tricky adaption period before settling into being one of Major League Soccer’s most dependable defenders this year and he hopes that his experience of playing across North America can assist Bafana Bafana - though two of their fixtures are in Mexico. Nicknamed TLB (Tractor, Loader, Backhoe) in a nod to his physicality on the pitch, Mbokazi may not be the tallest central defender at the tournament, measuring up at 5”10, but he is stocky and fond of playing the ball out from the back. "Our aim is to get a win, and it’s going to call us to be unified as a team and to work together to succeed,” he said, setting the bar slightly higher than Broos.

Automatically qualified, this will be El Tri’s 18th finals appearance and they should carry reasonable hope of reaching the quarter-finals for the third time and first since 1986 - the most recent occasion they were hosts.

Led by Javier Aguirre, in his third spell, Mexico will be determined to prove a point following a nightmare start to this decade. They failed to make it out of their group in Qatar on goal difference – conceding a 95th minute goal against Saudi Arabia in their third match – and, worse, lost a succession of CONCACAF finals against the USA before regaining the Gold Cup in 2023 and retaining it last summer.

Aguirre, whose previous teams exited at the round of 16 in 2002 and 2010, was re-appointed in July 2024 and has reverted the tactical approach to a familiar brand of relative chaos after the attempts to dominate possession under Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino, the former Barcelona head coach, did not yield desired results.

In ‘86 their dreams were ended by a penalty defeat to West Germany in the quarters. Given the increased size of competition 40 years on and the depth of other nations, that stage is both a realistic ambition and their likely limit – although the most likely bracket suggests England would await in the last 16.

Star player – Raul Jimenez, Fulham: This will be the veteran centre-forward’s fourth World Cup and, finally, he might start a game. In 2014 there was a single, six-minute appearance off the bench in a scoreless draw with Brazil. Four years later he made two cameos as a substitute without notable impact. And in Qatar he was sprung on in all three group games as El Tri went no further. On home soil and off the back of a steady campaign at Fulham, the time appears to have finally arrived for Jimenez to take a starring role. He is, by some distance, the biggest name in the present squad and there is an expectation that a player with more than 120 caps and approaching 50 international goals must fire for the co-hosts to prosper.

Breakout talent – Gilberto Mora, Tijuana: The 17-year-old attacking midfielder is not just expected to play a role here but have a queue of scouts wagging their tongues at every display of flair. He has already broken a number of age records held, briefly, by Lamine Yamal and Pele - including the youngest player to win a senior international when aged 16 and 265 days. Once Mora turns 18 he is set to depart for Europe and Aguirre has seen little point in shutting down talk of him becoming a star. “He’s surely on the radar of several huge clubs around the world and it fills me with pride to see him being talked about on the global stage,” the Mexico head coach said, evidently holding few reservations around throwing a special talent in at the deepest end of all.

As Mexico raises the curtain on this World Cup against South Africa, Alan Smith delves into all things Group A:

In one of the most evocative stadiums of all and under a searing afternoon sun, the World Cup will finally begin when Mexico face South Africa. And, for many, all the justifiable gripes with a bloated format, price gouging and political manoeuvring may instantly disappear following the first glimpse of the Azteca on their TV screens.

The co-hosts, on paper, should find this group - also joined by South Korea and Czech Republic - straightforward but the outstanding question is how they will cope with the pressure and an opening day win against the least heralded of this quartet appears a must.

This World Cup has three opening ceremonies lined up (because of course it does...) and the first of those is ahead of the opening match this evening.

Mexico will get World Cup proceedings underway with their opening ceremony at 6:30pm BST.

Held at Mexico City Stadium, better known worldwide as the Estadio Azteca, the ceremony will take place ahead of the Group A clash between Mexico and South Africa, a repeat of the clash that raised the curtain on the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg.

Shakira and Burna Boy are poised to headline the spectacle, performing the official tournament song, Dai Dai. Additional performers include Alejandro Fernandez, Belinda, Danny Ocean, J Balvin, Lila Downs, Los Angeles Azules, Mana, and Tyla.

So if any of those artists are your cup of tea, then, erm... enjoy!

Gary Lineker leads Micah Richards and Alan Shearer through a sprawling New York apartment, its large windows overlooking the bright lights and bustle of Times Square below. Richards’ booming laugh fills the space as he discovers a bar, a foosball table, a darts board; the ultimate World Cup bachelor pad. And for the next five weeks, Lineker’s home will also be on Netflix.

Of course, Lineker’s exit from the BBC came earlier than expected. In another universe, he would have signed off in July after presenting his seventh World Cup final for the broadcaster. For a certain generation, Lineker’s presence fronting the tournament and his relationship with the BBC felt like it could last forever. But, as he told The Louis Theroux Podcast this week, it was a marriage that had started to “run out of love”. Some of the opinions he shared on social media should not have resulted in the controversies that overshadowed the final months of his 26 years with the BBC. But sharing a picture of a rat alongside a pro-Palestine social media post, even if accidental, was indefensible and, for his aspirations of covering another World Cup with the BBC, a fatal mistake.

Read more from Jamie Braidwood:

“Until now, it was more a feeling of a pre-season, like an overseas pre-season, and it was good like this,” the England head coach said on the eve of his first international tournament.

“I think it’s enough if the pressure and tournament pressure comes a bit later, because it will come. The tension will come naturally.

“I think we set the tone today in the meeting and the players were ready to follow, to have the next step in intensity and the way we play, to push ourselves and get a good feeling out of it, which we absolutely did.

“I felt today the energy in the stadium was amazing and I thought ‘OK, if we can really play like this and grow into the tournament and have this kind of cohesion and brotherhood and team spirit that we showed today, then we will have an amazing connection with the fans’.

“This will hopefully be an amazing experience because it’s the first time for me and it’s a World Cup, and it’s coming.

“I think once the ball is rolling and games are already there, then I will feel it, and the latest in Kansas when we prepare then the official match.

“The tension will grow but normally the stuff that I personally enjoy the most, then you feel that you’re alive.”

Away from the World Cup, there’s been a bit of managerial turmoil to note back home.

Wolves have sacked head coach Rob Edwards after just seven months in charge in which the club were relegated to the Championship.

Despite demotion, his dismissal comes as a surprise move - his appointment in November, when Wolves were rock bottom, seemed to come with a contingency plan of leading the club back out of the Championship if they suffered the drop, having led Middlesbrough to the top of the second tier before ditching the Teesiders.

Former Gil Vicente head coach Cesar Peixoto, who has only managed in Portugal but guided the club to a sixth place finish in the Primeira Liga last season, has been linked with the job.

England striker Ollie Watkins believes the World Cup could hinge on the impact of substitutes, a role he is ready to embrace.

"Even being sat on the bench you can see how hot it is when you’re not even playing, let alone what the players are going through, running around at a high intensity," Watkins, who is expected to serve as Harry Kane’s primary back-up, explained.

"The game opens up at 60-70 minutes and what better way than fresh legs to come on and show what they can do."

It is a national miracle that they find themselves here but also a regional rarity; they are one of just five nations to ever represent the Caribbean on football’s biggest stage. That now looks to be changing.

The expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams has created new opportunity for international minnows to compete at a level that once looked impossible to reach. Those at the top may feel Fifa have made the tournament too big for their own good, diluting the quality. But there’s an argument for the opposite; with new doors now opened, smaller footballing nations are crucially now seeing a greater justification to invest in the development of the game from the ground up.

After Curacao did what most assumed was impossible, Will Castle delves deep into one of football’s unknown nations, Guyana, to uncover what it takes to chase such an unlikely dream of World Cup qualification:

Who will win the World Cup? Who will be the breakout star? And how far will England and Scotland get before the crushing inevitability of heartbreak?

We’ve put our heads together to lay out Indy Sports’ predictions for the 2026 World Cup: