South Korea v Czechia: World Cup 2026 – live

Match officials tonight are all Egyptian, led by referee Amin Omar. This is the 40 year old’s World Cup debut.

Both teams usually wear red with black accents, but tonight the Czechs will be in their change strip of all white. Hopefully South Korea have steamed their Nike shirts.

Opening round matches are notoriously cagey risk-averse affairs, and this threatens to take the cake: two sides that would be happy with a draw, playing at altitude, with drinks and VAR breaks to factor in. Let’s hope there’s an early goal to open things up.

Conditions in Zapopan are not too bad. It is around 27C and falling, still, and there’s been wisps of rain drifting around. There was the threat of thunderstorms passing through but that appears to have subsided.

However, the main factor affecting the teams today will be the altitude. It is being played roughly 1,670 meters (5,480 feet) above sea level. For comparison, the Hawthorns – home of West Bromwich Albion – is the highest ground in English football, and that tops out at just 168 meters (551 feet).

South Korea, with over a year to plan for the tournament, spent their warm-up period acclimatising at altitude in Utah. The Czechs qualified so late they have had no such luxury.

Czechia tactics:

The gameplan was straightforward in Czechia’s warm-up matches: get the ball wide to the raiding Vladimir Coufal as often as possible and pack the box with height and physicality. Given the heat, altitude, and the proficiency of their opponents tonight, expect Czechia to sit back, neutralise South Korea’s attacking threat and attack via rapid transitions and set-pieces.

South Korea tactics:

Hong Myung-bo (and his influential Portuguese assistant João Aroso) pivoted from the proactive 4-4-2 that South Korea used to good effect against weaker continental opposition, to a more conservative 3-4-3 that offers greater defensive solidity. As anyone familiar with Manchester United under Ruben Amorim, system change is not without its teething problems. This is not yet a fluid side playing with automatismo.

Kim Min-jae is pivotal in holding the back three together, the wingbacks, Seol Young-woo on the right and Lee Tae-seok on the left, are critical in both directions, and Hwang In-beom is the man who knits everything together in midfield.

But while this system evolves, progress will rely on avoiding errors at the back and exploiting moments of individual brilliance by Lee Kang-in and Son Heung-min further forward.

Czechia form guide:

• The Czechs were the 40th of 42 nations to qualify. They finished the first Uefa group phase behind Croatia then edged past the Republic of Ireland and Denmark in Playoff Path D, both times on penalties following 2-2 draws.

• Since then Czechia have defeated Kosovo 2-1 in a farewell friendly in Prague, and Guatemala 3-1 in New Jersey.

• More broadly, Czechia’s form is hard to gauge because they have spent most of the past 18 months playing international minnows. As well as the two recent warm-up matches there was a 1-0 friendly win over San Marino in November, while during qualifying they were drawn against Montenegro, Gibraltar, and the Faroe Islands – and they lost once to the Faroe Islanders 2-1.

• They haven’t beaten a side ranked in the world’s top 50 since a 3-2 win at home to Ukraine in 2024, and they haven’t won a fixture at a major tournament since the round of 16 at Euro 2020/1.

South Korea form guide:

• They cruised through AFC qualifiers, securing their spot at the finals way back in June 2025. Not only that, they went the entire 16-match campaign unbeaten.

• Since then their program of friendlies has been a mixed bag with heavy defeats to Brazil at home (0-5) and Ivory Coast in Milton Keynes (0-4) balanced somewhat by a victory away to the USA (2-0).

• In their last ten matches South Korea have kept six clean sheets, winning each of them.

• Their two warm-up friendlies in Utah featured a 5-0 rout of Trinidad and Tobago and a 1-0 victory over El Salvador.

What about Czechia? David Čermák has forgotten more than I will ever know about the penalty shootout masters.

The spine of the team is experienced. Tomas Soucek remains the leader in midfield despite being stripped of the captaincy after the players failed to thank the fans after a 6-0 win against Gibraltar…

Ladislav Krejci, the hard-tackling Wolves centre-back, stepped in as captain and scored in both playoff matches and drove the team forward. In attack Patrik Schick is expected to be the main weapon again and his fitness improved for Bayer Leverkusen towards the end of the 2025-26 season.

Any gaps in your knowledge about South Korea? Fear not, Seo Hyung-wook has the only primer you need, and it’s not brimful of confidence.

Key figures such as Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae, Lee Kang-in, Lee Jae-sung and Hwang In-beom are all battling a cocktail of injuries, erratic club form and even being relegated to the bench.

The situation is particularly dire in central midfield, where a string of injuries have ruled out several candidates. In addition, Hwang has spent much of the season struggling to find his rhythm after suffering recurring physical setbacks.

Czechia will also line up in a 3-4-3 with Alexandr Sojka handed a competitive debut alongside star man Tomáš Souček in midfield. The 23 year old was only called up for the first time for the pre-tournament friendlies.

1 Matěj Kovář; 6 Štěpán Chaloupek, 4 Robin Hranáč, 7 Ladislav Krejčí; 5 Vladimir Coufal, 22 Tomáš Souček, 24 Alexandr Sojka 20 Jaroslav Zelený; 17 Lukáš Provod, 15 Pavel Šulc, 10 Patrik Schick.

The Taeguk Warriors line up as expected in a 3-4-3 spearheaded by captain and chief goalscorer Son Heung-min.

1 Kim Seung-gyu, 3 Lee Gi-hyuk, 4 Kim Min-jae, 2 Lee Han-beom, 22 Seol Young-woo, 6 Hwang In-beom, 8 Paik Seung-ho, 13 Lee Tae-seok, 19 Lee Kang-in, 10 Lee Jae-sung, 7 Son Heung-min.

Many great columns will be penned this World Cup but few will pack the punch of this evisceration of Gianni Infantino from Jonathan Liew.

Perhaps you still regard sporting spectacle as your cherished escape from politics. In which case enjoy your World Cup of games split into four quarters, decimated by heat and exhaustion, compromised by an unfair qualification process. Enjoy your largely meaningless group stage, the thousands of empty seats, the masked police standing guard just at the edge of shot, the long lingering shots of Infantino and JD Vance in the stands.

Have you completed your Bracketology yet? Mine gave me Spain defeating Argentina in the final and France edging England for third place.

Of course, DJ DG was the only man for the job. Shout out to his family.

What did you all make of the opening ceremony? Mexico is a reassuringly fanatical football nation and the passion from the stands was a much needed element of authenticity amongst the made-for-TV spectacle.

My personal highlight was the appearance of David Guetta on the big screen during the official World Cup anthem, looking like a billionaire DJ generated by AI slop. A handy metaphor for the times.

Some news from the opening match in Mexico City.

What did we learn from the opening match that might point to the progression of this World Cup? Among other things, it is going to be s l o w.

Even in relatively temperate conditions, and with few stoppages in play, the World Cup’s opening game still felt like a slog, which is likely to have set the tone for the tournament. With Fifa’s mandatory three-minute hydration breaks taken despite temperatures of just 22 degrees, the Brazilian referee, Wilton Sampaoi, did not blow his half-time whistle until 55 minutes after kick-off, even though just four minutes of added time had been played.

It seems almost inevitable that all matches in this competition will stretch over two hours and niggly contests with multiple stoppages played in hot conditions could end up lasting far longer.

Welcome to Estadio Guadalajara, in my opinion the most architecturally striking venue of the tournament. At 45,000 it is the second smallest arena of the World Cup, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in character.

The design was inspired by a volcano. The exterior features a sloping parkland that rises up to the stadium’s upper levels, with the white roof designed to resemble a cloud hovering over the summit. The seating inside is arranged like a red crater.

Known outside the World Cup as Estadio Akron, it is located in the city of Zapopan, part of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area in the state of Jalisco. It is the home of Liga MX side Chivas De Guadalajara.

Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of the second match of the 2026 World Cup between South Korea and Czechia. Kick-off in this Group A clash at Estadio Guadalajara is 8pm local time (10pm EST / 3am BST / 12pm AEST).

Following Shakira’s shimmies, three red cards, and the fanatical hosts welcoming us all to the 2026 World Cup with a celebrated victory, the second of the tournament’s 104 matches looks set to be a more muted affair. It features two sides in indifferent form with modest expectations opening their campaigns during the graveyard shift at the competition’s second smallest venue.

South Korea arrive with plenty of World Cup pedigree but confidence dented by a couple of friendly hammerings. This is their 12th visit to the finals (an Asian record) and their 11th in succession (the fifth best active streak). They’ve won at least one match at five of the past six tournaments, progressing out of the group phase on three occasions, including in Qatar. But a 5-0 defeat to Brazil last year and a 4-0 trouncing by Ivory Coast in March has tempered ambitions.

Son Heung-min remains the focal point but the near-34 year old is no longer the devastating attacking force of his prime and has yet to find the back of the net in this season’s MLS. Other household names include Paris Saint-Germain playmaker Lee Kang-in, and Bayern Munich man mountain Kim Min-jae. Both are regular starters for their clubs in domestic competitions but are forced to settle for places on the bench in the Champions League.

Czechia return to the finals for the first time since 2006 and it’s only their second appearance since the break-up of Czechoslovakia. They qualified by the narrowest of margins, winning consecutive playoff penalty shootouts.

Patrik Schick is the standout, the Bayer Leverkusen striker averaging a goal every other game at international level. Tomáš Souček is prominent in midfield, and Vladimír Coufal is important on the right. Both will be familiar to fans of West Ham United.

At 74, Miroslav Koubek becomes the oldest coach in World Cup history tonight, but he will hold that record for barely two days, when 78 year old Dick Advocaat takes his seat in the Curaçao dugout.

I’ll be back shortly with team news and more preview content. Please feel free to keep me company while I’m around. The address is jonathan.howcroft.freelance@theguardian.com.