The Tribune

By CHARLIE HARPER

THE 2026 World Cup starts this afternoon. It’s the 23rd quadrennial edition of the world’s greatest sports competition. For decades, the World Cup and the summer Olympic games were contested in the same year. But in 1994, they were separated to prevent the World Cup from overwhelming the Olympic games in world attention.

With an expanded field of 48 nations competing at venues in three host countries (the United States, Canada, and Mexico), 16 stadiums, and a whopping 104 matches, this will be a World Cup like none held before.

When the match between co-host Mexico and South Africa kicks off in the riotous atmosphere at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City this afternoon, the place will be a frenzy of support for El Tri. There should be similar anticipation and passion for Canada versus Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto later today and for the United States against Paraguay on Saturday in Los Angeles.

Interestingly, the US beat Paraguay 3-0 in the second-ever World Cup match during the competition’s inaugural tournament in 1930. That game was played in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The Canadians, coached by American and former English Premier League manager Jesse Marsch, could have extra motivation, since it’s possible they could face the United States in the knockout (second) round. Given the barrage of insults hurled northward by American president Donald Trump during his second term in office, that might be a fascinating grudge match.

This World Cup was awarded jointly to the US, Canada, and Mexico eight years ago, during Trump’s first term. And especially since the final will be played July 19 outside his home town of New York City, Trump has never been far outside the tournament narrative.

A pundit wrote in the New York Times the other day that “it’s true that one of the tournament hosts (US) is led by a greedy xenophobic who has done his best to alienate allies and cozy up to autocrats. Soccer fans will, however, overlook it. They had to do so in considering the leadership of Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022), where the last two World Cups were played. These fans are not haters. They are here because they love the beautiful game.”

Trump, parenthetically, has routinely mixed politics and sports. While he is clearly very late to the party on soccer, he has befriended the head of soccer’s international governing body and has periodically inserted himself in awards ceremonies, most notably last summer when Chelsea won the Club World Cup title in the same northern New Jersey venue where this year’s World Cup final will be played.

Soccer is certainly not the national sport in The Bahamas. A case could be made for sailing, basketball, or track and field.  But soccer is the world’s sport, so settle in for an amazing tournament.

You might even come to appreciate the beautiful game that has captivated literally billions of people outside our land, particularly in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. And when watching on television, it’s always a distinct pleasure to be able to generally view 45-55 minutes of action on the field without a single interruption for a commercial message.

There will even be a half-time show, Super Bowl-style this year, with headliners like Shakira, 49 years old (and looking much younger), the Colombian-born ‘queen of Latin music’ whose 12-year relationship with Spanish and Barcelona superstar center back Gerard Pique rivaled or even exceeded the worldwide notoriety of Taylor Swift’s romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Shakira-Pique were that famous!

Back to the present: co-host Mexico will kick off the tournament this afternoon, hosting South Africa, which served as World Cup host in 2010. Canada opens with Bosnia-Herzegovina tomorrow afternoon, and the US faces Paraguay tomorrow evening. Haiti and Scotland square off Saturday evening. England doesn’t begin play until Wednesday, in a potentially tough match against Croatia, the 2018 runners-up and a team that still featuring several of the stars whose skill fueled that run to the final.

The 48 contesting teams are divided into a dozen groups of four, each playing one another in a round-robin format. With the top two teams in each group and the eight best third-place finishers advancing to the next, knockout round, only 16 teams will actually get eliminated in this first phase. But then things advance rapidly in a single-elimination format.

Historically, the major powerhouse winners of the World Cup have been Brazil (5 championships), Italy (4), Germany (4) and Argentina (3), the latter also defending champion this year. Together, these four nations have won 12 of the 22 World Cups.

This year, however, none is highly rated to take the title, though Brazil has veteran superstar strikers like Neymar, now playing club football in Brazil, and Vinicius Junior, a star forward for Real Madrid. The team is also managed by Carlo Ancelotti, the most decorated manager in UEFA Champions League history and the only coach to win league titles in all of Europe's top five divisions.

Argentina are still led by striker and world-best player Lionel Messi, still dazzling at 38 while headlining Inter Miami in the American Major League Soccer league. And Germany cannot be overlooked, with lots of depth and familiarity because so many of their stars play for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Italy, however, failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third straight time!

In many minds, England and Spain, with one title apiece, are the favorites to triumph this year. The English are coached by Thomas Tuchel, a German who won the Champions League with Chelsea, and domestic league titles in France and Germany with Paris-St Germain and Bayern respectively.

England are led by Harry Kane, one of the handful of most prolific goal scorers currently active in soccer’s top leagues. He is flanked by skillful wingers and an experienced midfield.  This is a deep and talented squad filled with contemporary stars in the English Premier League, and it’s no exaggeration to assess their chances as excellent at returning the world cup to the home of the game.

Midfielders Declan Rice of Arsenal and Jude Bellingham of Real Madrid and goalie Jordan Pickford stand out.

The last and only English World Cup title was won 60 years ago, so there will be pressure on this team. But supporting them is no guarantee of the anguish and frustration that has followed English fans in previous tournaments.

Spain, featuring seven Barcelona stars and three more from Athletico Madrid (but none from Real Madrid, whose key men hail from Brazil and elsewhere), features Barcelona prodigy Lamine Yamal, who will turn 19 during the tournament. This youngster aims to seize the title as world’s best during this World Cup, but veteran savvy may outweigh precocious youth in such a high-profile competition.

Much of that experience resides on the team representing France, winners of the World Cup in 2018 and runners-up in 2022. This is the team to beat this year.

They have been managed for the past 14 years by Didier Deschamps, who helped France win the World Cup as a player in 1998 and eight years ago as manager. The French are perhaps best known for their intimidating front line of Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé and Michael Olise. But there are stars everywhere on this squad.

One of them is midfielder N’Golo Kante, who now plays in Turkey, but was a breakout star 10 years ago for Leicester City, which won the Premier League title despite beginning the 2015-16 season as 5,000-to-1 long shots.

A William Hill spokesman has said that Leicester City's title cost the bookmaker nearly $3 million, and it cost bookmakers nearly $15 million across the United Kingdom. He also mentioned that after that corporate calamity, William Hill no longer offers title odds higher than 1,000-1.

Kante then moved to Chelsea, where he served again as the ‘engine room commander’ in midfield as the Blues won Kante’s second straight EPL title.

The list goes on for France. They are full of stars who play key roles for some of the biggest, most successful clubs in world soccer. It’s been unwise to bet against them for over a decade now, and it says here that this year will be no different.

The French begin with a difficult match against Senegal on Tuesday afternoon. Spain open with Cape Verde on Monday.