标签： South America

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – In a historic World Cup Group C clash at Gillette Stadium on Saturday, Scotland claimed a long-awaited 1-0 victory over Haiti, courtesy of a deflected first-half goal from Aston Villa midfielder John McGinn that capped off a dramatic opening to the nation’s first World Cup tournament in 25 years.

McGinn’s decisive strike arrived in the 28th minute, sparked by a close-range attempt from Scotland striker Che Adams that goalkeeper Johny Placide could only parry into open space inside the penalty area. Pouncing on the loose ball from 13 yards out, McGinn fired a low effort that ricocheted off a Haitian defender, wrong-footing Placide and bouncing into the back of the net. The goal broke a decades-long drought for Scotland, which had not notched a World Cup win since a 2-1 victory over Sweden at the 1990 tournament, and was making its first appearance at the global competition since 1998.

The result was all the more sweeter for Scotland after Group C favorites Brazil and Morocco played to a 1-1 draw earlier the same day, leaving Steve Clarke’s side sitting atop the early group standings with three points from their opening fixture.

Scotland nearly doubled their lead 11 minutes before McGinn’s goal, when captain Scott McTominay found space outside the box and unleashed a curling effort that clipped the top of the crossbar, bouncing just over the frame of the goal to deny the Manchester United star an opening goal.

Haiti, which is only making its second World Cup appearance in history following their debut at the 1974 tournament in West Germany, pushed hard for an equalizer in the second half and came close to leveling the score twice. In the 74th minute, winger Ruben Providence delivered a pinpoint cross into the six-yard box for forward Wilson Isidor, but Isidor failed to make clean contact with the ball and the chance went begging. Ten minutes later, striker Frantzdy Pierrot got on the end of another cross to nod a header toward goal, but his effort drifted just wide of the left post, leaving Haiti still searching for its first ever World Cup point.

The packed stadium was dominated by Scotland’s famously passionate fanbase, the Tartan Army, who turned the venue located 30 miles outside Boston into a sea of maroon, creating a raucous atmosphere from kickoff to final whistle.

Looking ahead to the next round of group fixtures, Scotland will remain in Foxborough to face Morocco at Gillette Stadium next Friday, while Haiti will travel to Philadelphia to take on Brazil the same day.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off with a tense Group C opener at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, where five-time champions Brazil escaped a humiliating opening-match defeat thanks to a moment of individual magic from star forward Vinicius Jr, who forced a 1-1 draw against a dominant Morocco side.

Heading into the tournament, Vinicius made his ambitions clear: he has not come to this World Cup to claim individual honors, but to lift Brazil back to the summit of global football. Just 90 minutes later, the Real Madrid winger proved he was willing to put in the work to back up those words, single-handedly rescuing his side when all looked lost.

Trailing 1-0 from an early Ismael Saibari strike and outplayed for large portions of the first half, Brazil looked on course for their first opening World Cup defeat since 1934. That was until a well-placed pass from Bruno Guimaraes found Vinicius unmarked on the left edge of Morocco’s penalty area in the 62nd minute. Cutting inside onto his stronger right foot, the 25-year-old unleashed a thunderous strike that flew into the top corner of the net, leaving Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bono with no chance of making a save. The strike, described by former England goalkeeper Joe Hart as a “lightning bolt” of quality, dragged Brazil back level and avoided an unwanted place in the history books.

Despite the last-gasp equalizer, Brazil’s performance raised major questions about the squad’s depth and tactical balance, with analysts and former players unanimous in their criticism of the five-time champions’ ragged display. South American football expert Tim Vickery summed up the mood after the match, telling BBC Sport: “Ideally you want the team to make the stars, here you have a case of the star saving the team.”

The underlying issues plaguing Brazil were clear for all to see. The current squad is heavily overloaded with attacking wingers, but critically short of depth in central midfield. Veteran 34-year-old Casemiro struggled to keep pace with Morocco’s dynamic midfield through the stifling New Jersey heat, and was substituted at half-time after failing to impose himself on the game. Defender Roger Ibanez also did not return for the second half as head coach Carlo Ancelotti, making his World Cup head coaching debut at the age of 67, scrambled to fix the team’s obvious shortcomings.

Former Uruguay and Chelsea midfielder Gus Poyet said he was shocked by Brazil’s technical sloppiness, noting: “I was surprised how bad technically they were today. I don’t know if it was the pitch, maybe the pitch didn’t help but they were missing passes, simple passes that you would expect the Brazilian players to do well.”

For long spells of the match, Brazil lacked the iconic swagger that has defined generations of Brazilian greats from Pele to Ronaldo, Ronaldinho to Zico. This indifferent form is not a new issue: Brazil narrowly qualified for the 2026 tournament after a disastrous qualifying campaign that saw them drop six defeats from 18 matches, finishing fifth in the South American standings and only securing their place in the final draw at the last minute. Ancelotti, the first foreign head coach to lead Brazil at a World Cup, was brought in specifically to steady the ship after that rocky qualifying run, and admitted after Friday’s draw that his side had fallen short of expectations.

In his post-match press conference, the five-time Champions League-winning coach said: “I am sorry we didn’t play as well as we hoped. It wasn’t a bad result but we will keep picking up. We have to do better, that’s very clear. We have to have a more balanced team and we have to be more aggressive. I am not disappointed but I am not satisfied either. Not everything goes perfect and we have to accept criticism.”

Vickery, however, noted that Brazil’s ability to snatch a draw despite a poor performance is exactly what makes them such a dangerous opponent at major tournaments: “How many teams can play that badly and still be in the game? It’s the individuality.”

History also offers Brazil fans a glimmer of hope, with experts pointing out that this expanded 48-team World Cup is a marathon, not a sprint. Four years ago in Qatar, Argentina suffered a shocking opening defeat to Saudi Arabia, before going on to lift the trophy, a example of how slow starts do not rule out ultimate success.

All eyes will remain on Vinicius, who entered this tournament already carrying the weight of expectation to become the next great Brazilian superstar. The equalizer against Morocco marked his 10th international goal for Brazil, with three of those strikes coming on American soil. Doubts have lingered ever since Brazil’s penalty shootout exit to Croatia in the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals, but the Real Madrid forward says he is ready to step into the leading role the national team needs.

Speaking before the match, Vinicius said: “I feel great freedom and sincere trust from Ancelotti. He is sure I can do for the national team what I do for Real Madrid. I want to try to write the history of the country and the national team. We must do everything to win.”

Brazil next face Haiti in Philadelphia on 19 June, before concluding their group stage campaign against Scotland in Miami on 24 June. They are still heavily favored to progress to the knockout stage, but Friday’s draw has left major questions unanswered. Brazil have not won the World Cup since 2002, marking a 24-year title drought for the most successful nation in World Cup history. A failure to go all the way this tournament will spark intense scrutiny over the future direction of Brazilian football, but for now, Vinicius’s moment of magic has kept their dream of a sixth title alive.

LOS ANGELES, INGLEWOOD — With nearly five decades of experience capturing iconic sports moments behind the camera, veteran Associated Press freelance photographer Jayne Kamin-Oncea has built a decades-long career documenting athletic competition, including 10 years covering major events in Southern California for the AP and 27 years with the *Los Angeles Times*. Her career traces back to 1978, when she got her start as an AP stringer in Miami while still earning her degree at the University of Miami. This tournament, she captured one of the most talked-about images from the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup hosted on U.S. soil, the Friday matchup between the U.S. Men’s National Team and Paraguay. In a first-person breakdown, Kamin-Oncea walked through how the standout shot came together. From the opening kickoff, the energy inside SoFi Stadium was palpable, with U.S. forward Alex Freeman and his teammates locking in on their opponent from the first whistle. For Kamin-Oncea, the goal of any sideline coverage is to capture the raw intensity of players fighting to keep the ball in play, moments that often leave them teetering on the edge of the out-of-bounds line, walking a figurative tightrope between maintaining possession and turning the ball over. As the play unfolded, she immediately recognized she was framing a shot that would stand out for its raw tension. The final frame that made the cut shows Freeman airborne, elevated well above Paraguay’s Antonio Sanabria’s head and shoulders — a composition that many have interpreted as a visual metaphor for the U.S. team’s dominant performance over Paraguay in the matchup. To capture the shot, Kamin-Oncea relied on her trusted setup: a Nikon Z9 paired with a 400mm f/2.8 lens. With the action unfolding deep downfield, she activated the camera’s crop sensor button to get a tighter framing of the play, a choice that let her zoom in on the moment without sacrificing image quality. While many sports photographers critique the natural lighting conditions inside SoFi Stadium, Kamin-Oncea says the light works perfectly with her camera configuration, making it easy to get sharp, vivid shots. Her go-to settings for fast-paced soccer action include a 30 frames per second continuous shooting speed, with a one-third second pre-release buffer that lets her capture moments starting just before she fully presses the shutter. She always uses an extremely high shutter speed of 1/4000 of a second to eliminate any motion blur from fast-moving players, and adjusts the ISO on the fly to match shifting light conditions throughout the match. When evaluating what makes the shot work so well, Kamin-Oncea points to the striking composition: Freeman’s dramatic vertical jump above Sanabria, with his leg extended high, creates a dynamic visual that immediately draws the eye. She added that the sequence of shots from the play improved steadily through the final frames, with the last shot capturing the peak of the action perfectly. The image is just one of hundreds of shots from AP’s ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup coverage, which can be accessed via the AP News hub.

Three days into the 2026 FIFA World Cup co-hosted by the United States, one moment already stands out as a potential tournament icon — and it will take something extraordinary to unseat Gio Reyna’s masterful late finish as the goal of the competition. The stunning strike capped a dominant 4-1 opening match victory for the U.S. Men’s National Team over Paraguay at Los Angeles Stadium, and it was the perfect encapsulation of the free-flowing attacking soccer manager Mauricio Pochettino has built this squad around.

With the match deep into second-half stoppage time, clocked at 96 minutes and 10 seconds, the USMNT only needed to hold possession to kill the clock and secure their win. Paraguay had already pulled one goal back in the second half, and any late lapse could have sparked an unwanted rally for the South American side. What unfolded over the next 70 seconds, though, was nothing short of soccer brilliance: Pochettino’s side strung together 26 consecutive passes, moving the ball from their own left defensive end all the way across the pitch to the attacking final third. Not a single Paraguayan defender managed to get a touch on the ball, left gasping and chasing shadows as the American side shifted the play with clinical precision.

The sequence ended with Gio Reyna, an 82nd-minute substitute brought on to replace the standout Malik Tillman, collecting a well-weighted pass from Alexander Freeman just outside the 18-yard box. The attacking midfielder took one calm touch to control the pass, a second to carry the ball into the penalty area, and curled a perfectly placed strike with the outside of his right boot past Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill into the far corner of the net. The goal sent the capacity crowd of American supporters into a frenzy, and the celebration quickly spilled off the field: as Reyna wheeled away, hands pressed to his ears in a widely interpreted nod to years of criticism following his 2022 World Cup controversy, he was mobbed by teammates, on-pitch substitutes and even Pochettino, who sprinted from the touchline to join the historic moment.

Pundits were quick to draw parallels between Reyna’s strike and the most iconic team goal in World Cup history: Carlos Alberto’s late finish for Brazil against Italy in the 1970 World Cup final. That legendary goal, which also came in a 4-1 win, featured a similarly smooth multi-pass sequence finished by the Brazilian captain late in the match. While the 1970 strike came with a world title on the line, the 2026 opening goal carried enormous stakes of its own for the USMNT: it served as a resounding opening statement against a Paraguay side that boasted one of the strongest defensive records among South American qualifiers. For context, the USMNT has already scored more goals in this single opening match than they managed across the entire 2022 Qatar World Cup, where they netted just three times before bowing out in the Round of 16.

The moment also carried deep personal significance for Reyna, who returns to the World Cup stage after a highly public controversy in 2022. Four years ago in Qatar, then-manager Gregg Berhalter publicly revealed that he nearly sent Reyna home from the tournament over allegations of a lack of effort in training and matches. The fallout dominated the USMNT’s lead-up to this cycle, and Pochettino made a notably bold choice to include Reyna in his 2026 squad despite the player making just four league starts for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 2025-26 season, with none coming after December 19.

Political figures even weighed in on the historic win: former U.S. President Donald Trump offered public congratulations via his social media platform on Saturday, writing, “Congratulations to Team USA on their Big Win, 4-1, over a very good Paraguay team. Keep it going!”

The result marks a major milestone for the USMNT project Pochettino has built since taking over as manager in 2024, after previous successful stints leading Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. The side reached the Gold Cup final in 2025, and Pochettino has never hidden his ambition to compete for the 2026 title on home soil, with “Why not us?” adopted as the team’s unofficial tournament motto.

The Argentine manager emphasized that the extended preparation window ahead of the World Cup has allowed him to implement his system fully, something that is rarely possible for international managers ahead of major tournaments. “When you only have few days to reunite and to play, you only select players, but you cannot coach players,” he explained after Friday’s match. “Only in this type of tournament like the Gold Cup or now the World Cup, because you have preparation, two, three, four weeks, I think that is the only moment that we can coach.”

Reyna’s goal, he added, was the perfect example of his philosophy of prioritizing collective play over individual stardom. “One thing we need to praise is the collective effort,” Pochettino said.

Fans will long debate whether this is the greatest goal in USMNT World Cup history, with several iconic strikes standing out from decades past. In 1989, Paul Caligiuri’s long-range volley against Trinidad and Tobago secured the U.S.’s first World Cup qualification berth since 1950. At the 1994 World Cup, the last time the U.S. hosted the tournament, Eric Wynalda’s memorable free kick against Switzerland earned the Americans their first World Cup point since 1950. More recently, Benny Feilhaber’s match-winning volley claimed the 2007 Gold Cup title for the U.S. But few can deny that Reyna’s spectacular team goal has set an early high bar for the 2026 tournament, both for the USMNT and for the rest of the competing nations.

After three decades of waiting, the United States is finally set to step onto its home turf for a World Cup opening match, kicking off their Group Stage campaign against Paraguay on Friday night at Inglewood’s iconic SoFi Stadium. This tournament marks the first time the U.S. has hosted the men’s World Cup since 1994, and the third of three co-hosting nations to get their home opener underway, alongside Mexico and Canada.

The stage for this historic encounter is nothing short of spectacular: the $5 billion-plus SoFi Stadium, which opened in 2020 as the shared home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. While the cutting-edge arena usually plays host to American football on an unpopular artificial turf surface, tournament organizers pulled out all the stops for the global soccer showcase, laying down a fresh natural grass pitch to meet player and competition standards.

Long before kickoff, the energy in Southern California was electric. Thousands of jubilant fans flocked to the stadium and its surrounding grounds hours early, filling the area with chants, team colors, and creative displays. Supporters clad in red, white and blue US jerseys packed the stands, while many went all out with elaborate costumes ranging from the Statue of Liberty to America’s Founding Fathers, turning the pre-match buildup into a full-blown celebration of the nation’s return to the World Cup host table.

Headed by star midfielder Christian Pulisic and a core of seasoned veteran players, the USMNT enters the tournament ranked 17th in the world by FIFA, with legitimate on-pitch ambitions. The team is targeting a group stage victory, and if successful, a knockout round win would mark only the second such advance in the program’s entire World Cup history. This opening match is also the first for the USMNT under new head coach Mauricio Pochettino, adding an extra layer of narrative to the historic matchup.

The 2026 World Cup, the largest edition in the tournament’s history with an expanded 48-team format, kicked off one day earlier with co-host Mexico notching a 2-0 win over South Africa in the tournament’s opening fixture. Earlier on Friday, the third co-host Canada earned a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina in their opening match in Toronto.

For the USMNT’s group stage run, the team will play two of its three preliminary matches right here at SoFi Stadium, with a single away trip to Seattle for the middle group fixture sandwiched in between.

Much has changed for American soccer since the US last hosted the men’s World Cup back in 1994, when Brazil claimed the tournament title and the US men won just one of their four group matches. In the 32 years since that historic event, soccer has exploded in popularity across the United States: youth participation has surged year over year, and the domestic Major League Soccer, launched just two years after the 1994 World Cup, has grown into a stable, competitive professional league that attracts top talent from across the globe.

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening round kicks off at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, two nations with storied World Cup legacies are preparing to face off Saturday night, with Brazilian stars and coaching staff acknowledging the unprecedented pressure on their side to end a 24-year title drought.\n\nBrazil enters the tournament with a unique historical advantage the squad is looking to protect: the five-time World Cup champions have not lost a World Cup opening match since 1934, holding an undefeated 19-match streak with 17 wins heading into Saturday’s fixture. For decades, Brazil’s dynamic samba-style soccer, led by global icons such as Pelé, made the iconic canary yellow jersey the benchmark that every other international side strived to emulate.\n\nBut that long-held reputation has been tainted by decades of underperformance. Brazil has not lifted the World Cup trophy since its 2002 victory, and has advanced past the quarterfinal stage just once since that run—a devastating 7-1 semi-final defeat to Germany on home soil in the 2014 tournament, a result that remains one of the most humiliating losses in the nation’s soccer history. For this year’s squad, the mission is clear: reclaim the global throne Brazil never should have lost, according to star striker Vinícius Júnior.\n\n”We’re here to try to change history, try to put Brazil back to where it never should have left, which is at the top,” Vinícius said Friday through an interpreter. “We are at the same level as the other major teams.”\n\nStanding in Brazil’s way in their opening match is Morocco, the seventh-ranked side in the world who made history as the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final in the 2022 tournament, falling 2-0 to eventual champions France. The Atlas Lions also secured the 2025 African Cup of Nations title in controversial fashion earlier this year: after a 1-0 loss to Senegal, Morocco was awarded a 3-0 forfeit win when Senegal’s team left the pitch for 15 minutes during stoppage time to protest a penalty call against them.\n\nBrazil currently sits sixth in the global FIFA rankings, just one spot ahead of Morocco, and Brazilian head coach Carlo Ancelotti — the first non-Brazilian to lead the Seleção at a World Cup — warned against underestimating the African side. The legendary coach, who took over the Brazilian national side in May 2025 after a trophy-laden club career in Europe, stressed that underdog status no longer exists in modern international soccer.\n\n”In modern football, there is no — how we say? — small-time team,” Ancelotti said through an interpreter. “They are definitely up to the task.”\n\nAncelotti, who has won a record five UEFA Champions League titles and is the only coach to claim top-flight league titles across all five of Europe’s major domestic competitions, carries enormous expectations back in Brazil. Brazilian starting goalkeeper Alisson Becker noted that the pressure on Ancelotti to deliver a record sixth World Cup title is unlike any other.\n\n”His position perhaps has more pressure than being the president of the country,” Alisson said.\n\nMorocco captain Achraf Hakimi, who playfully joked that he has an advantage over Ancelotti after reading all of the coach’s books, said that even with Brazil’s recent struggles, the five-time champions still command full respect from his side.\n\n”We all respect Brazil. Some people say it’s not the Brazil of before. Well, it’s still Brazil,” Hakimi said through an interpreter. “They’re passionate, they love football, they have great qualities. They really want to win this World Cup.”\n\nThe two sides have only met once before in World Cup play, a 1998 group stage match that Brazil won 3-0 behind goals from Brazil legends Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Bebeto — who popularized the iconic baby-rocking goal celebration during Brazil’s 1994 World Cup title run in the United States. Ancelotti has already signaled he is fully supportive of the Brazilian squad’s tradition of celebratory goal dances, confirming that the practice remains allowed under FIFA’s updated match rules.\n\n”It’s not banned to dance in the new regulations of FIFA. This is not forbidden,” he said. “They want to optimize the time of play, but you can still celebrate and dance.”\n\nMatch conditions will bring an extra challenge for both squads, with forecasts calling for temperatures around 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius) at kickoff at MetLife Stadium, which will also host this year’s World Cup final on July 19. Hakimi said the heat will not be an issue for his squad, noting that Moroccan players are already accustomed to warm conditions.\n\nOff the pitch, the match will pit two close friends and club teammates against each other: Hakimi and Brazil captain Marquinhos play together at Paris Saint-Germain, and just weeks ago helped the French club win its second consecutive Champions League title. The pair have already agreed that their clubhouse friendship will be put on hold for the duration of the World Cup, as both chase a title with their national sides.\n\n”When we play together at PSG we have a good laugh and we said on the (World Cup) pitch we’re not teammates,” Hakimi said. “We will talk, of course, but we each want to win and may the best win.”\n\nBrazil will be missing its biggest attacking star for the opening match, as 34-year-old Neymar continues to recover from a torn right calf muscle. Picked for his fourth World Cup, Brazil’s all-time leading goalscorer with 79 career international goals is not expected to be available for Saturday’s kickoff, though Ancelotti expressed optimism that the veteran will return to full training next week. Ancelotti added that Neymar was selected for the squad not just for his unmatched on-pitch talent, but for his leadership as an example for Brazil’s young core of players.\n\nDespite the high expectations from fans back home that range from hopeful anticipation to outright demand for a title, Ancelotti said he feels confident in his squad’s ability to compete for the crown.\n\n”We have a possibility to compete to win,” Ancelotti said, switching to English. “We have a good feeling.”