The World Cup is certainly underway, but it didn’t get off to the most exciting start. Mexico looked to be emphatically fun and welcoming hosts as the first two matches of the tournament took place in Mexico City and Guadalajara. Mexico hosted South Africa in the capital city, while South Korea took on Czechia in Guadalajara late light night.
Here’s a quick recap for those of you who might have missed the action. By the way — apparently FOX has restricted its YouTube highlights from being externally
embedded, so we’ll be using Telemundo’s Spanish highlights instead.
Day 1 Recap
Mexico 2-0 South Africa
Goals: Quinones (9’), Jimenez (67’)
Mexico certainly put on a show at the Estadio Azteca on Thursday, romping to a comprehensive 2-0 win over a hapless South Africa in the tournament opener. Julian Quinones got Mexico on the scoreboard early with a 9th minute goal, and Raul Jiminez, returning to the Mexico side after the recent loss of his father, scored his first ever World Cup goal to give the hosts a comfortable win. South Africa completely lost their heads in this one — they ended up picking up two red cards (one clear, the other kind bulls**t) and put in a dreadful performance, perhaps one of the worst in an opening World Cup match in recent history. Mexico ended up with a late red as well, but the hosts will certainly be the happier of the two teams.
South Korea 2-1 Czechia
Goals: Krejci (Czechia, 59’); I. Hwang (S. Korea 67’), Oh (S. Korea 80’)
I’ll be honest and say I didn’t watch about half of this match, but that was due to the match starting at 10 pm ET, followed by a tornado warning in my area and my entire neighborhood losing power. (Our house is still out.) When the power went out, Czechia were improbably leading 1-0 thanks to a header from Krejci off of a long throw-in, despite Korea coming close several times but failing to convert their chances. But Korea stormed back in the second half behind Hwang and Oh to seal the win and setting up a tasty matchup against Mexico on June 18. Korea captain and former Tottenham superstar Son Heung-Min had a few blistering long shots and was very much a part of Korea’s offense, but couldn’t get on the board in this one.
Day 2 World Cup Schedule
There are a LOT of games to play in the group stage with 48 teams, so it’s strange that FIFA is slow-walking the schedule, but there are only two games today, both by the other two tournament co-hosts — Canada opens with a match against Bosnia & Herzegovina, while USA opens its account against fellow CONCACAFians Paraguay.
Canada vs. Bosnia & Herzegovina
3:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. BST
Toronto Stadium, Toronto, Canada
TV: FOX (USA), Telemundo (USA – Español), BBC One (UK)
Stream: Fox One, Peacock (Español)
Current/former Tottenham players involved: none
USA vs. Paraguay
9:00 p.m. ET / 2:00 a.m. (Saturday) BST
TV: FOX (USA), Telemundo (USA – Español), BBC One (UK)
Stream: Fox One, Peacock (Español)
Current/former Tottenham players involved: none
