Group A sees Mexico one of the hosts joined by the European Playoff D Winner Czechia alongside South Africa and South Korea.
Mexico –
Mexico go into the tournament with home advantage and a strong defensive record in recent friendly matches although they have not played a competitive game since they won the Concacaf Gold Cup in July 2025 beating USA 2-1 in the final.
March 2026 friendlies saw draws with Belgium 1-1 and Portugal 0-0.
Mexico are managed by former player Javier Aguirre, his third stint in charge of the National team and the greatest in Mexican history.
Mexico hope to break the barrier of having been eliminated at the Round of 16 on seven consecutive World Cups from 1994 to 2018 and then failed to qualify from the Group Stage in 2022.
Mexico will include goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa who has experience of playing at the previous five World Cups and is looking to play in his sixth and has announced he will retire at the end of the tournament. He is likely as back up to first choice Raúl Rangel. Mexico will miss the injured Luis Angel Malagon.
Johan Vasquez of Genoa is a mainstay in central defence and is likely to be joined by César Montes of Lokomotiv Moscow. At full back they have highly experienced Jesús Gallardo.
The midfield is likely to be led by the experienced Edson Alvarez of Fenerbache, with highly talented 17yo Gilberto Mora also likely to feature, and would become the youngest ever Mexican World Cup player. Luis Romo also adds experience in midfield but can play in a number of positions.
In attack Mexico have star man Raul Jimenez the highly experienced striker now at Fulham , previously with Wolves and Benfica. Santiago Gimenez is also expected to feature and has moved to AC Milan just over a year ago from Dutch football. In addition Mexico have attackers Alexis Vega, Armando González and Guillermo Martinez.
Czechia –
Czechia qualified through the European playoffs where they drew 2-2 at home with Republic of Ireland then won on penalties before repeating the 2-2 scoreline and a penalty shoot out victory over Denmark in the final again in Prague. They were in the playoffs after finishing second to Croatia, who they took one point from in their two games between the nations and winning 5 of the other 6 games , suffering only a shock defeat 2-1 away to Faroes.
Czechia are managed by Miroslav Koubek, set to become the oldest manager in World Cup history at 74.
The goalkeeper is Matej Kovar of PSV Eindhoven, with the defence including former West Ham player Vladimir Coufal and captain Ladislav Krejci on loan at Wolves from Girona.
In midfield Czechia have the experienced West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek alongside playmaker Pavel Šulc of Lyon, In attack their is further experience in striker Patrik Schick, who famously netted from the halfway line against Scotland at Euro 2020.
South Korea –
South Korea qualified winning 6 and drawing 4 of their 10 qualifying matches between September 2024 and June 2025, to finish top of their group ahead of fellow qualifiers Jordan.
They then hosted the East Asia Football Federation Championship where having beaten China 3-0 and Hong Kong 2-0 they lost 1-0 to Japan to finish runners up.
Home friendly wins all with clean sheets over Paraguay , Bolivia and Canada were then followed by a 4-0 defeat in Milton Keynes by Ivory Coast and 1-0 defeat in Vienna by Austria.
South Korea coach, Hong Myung-bo is unpopular and under pressure going into the World Cup.
Hyeon-woo Jo is another experienced goalkeeper and is expected to start for South Korea, with Seung-gyu Kimas back up.
In defence South Korea have Kim Min-Jae of Bayern Munich , Toe-seok Lee of Austria Vienna and Young-woo Seol from Crvena Zvezda.
In midfield they have In-beom Hwang from Feyenoord as well as English Championship players , Ji-Sung Eom (Swansea), Jun-ho Bae (Stoke), Seung-ho Paik (Birmingham), Min-hyeok Yang (Coventry).
In attach the vastly experienced former Tottenham striker Heung-min Son is their talisman and will be joined by Hee-chan Hwang of Wolves , with Celtic’s Hyun-jun Yang and Kang-in Lee of PSG other possibilities.
South Africa –
South Africa squeezed into World Cup 2026 finishing top of their qualifying group taking 18 points from 10 games , one point ahead of Nigeria and Benin. They were nearly derailed after fielding Teboho Mokoena who should have been suspended which saw a 2-0 win over Lesotho turned to a 3-0 defeat.
In the African Cup of Nations South Africa qualified for the knockout stages beating Angola and Zimbabwe despite a 1-0 defeat to Egypt.
Cameroon knocked South Africa out 2-1 in the last 16.
South Africa are managed by Belgian Hugo Broos
Ronwen Williams the South African goalkeeper is their captain and most important player in an inexperienced squad.
The defence are mainly home based including Khuliso Mudau. Mbekezeli Mbokazi plays in MLS for Chigaco Fire and Siyabonga Ngezana of FCSB in Romania. Another who could feature is Tylon Smith of QPR.
Samukele Kabini who plays in Norway for Molde, can play left back or in midfield alongside home based players, Nkosinathi Sibisi, Bathusi Aubass and Teboho Mokoena who is vice captain with over 50 caps.
The star of the South Africa team is Lyle Foster the forward who plays for Burnley, he is normally flanked by Relebohile Mofokeng and Oswin Appollis. Shandro Campbell of Club Brugge may also feature.
Group A Fixtures
11/6/26 8pm Mexico v South Africa
12/6/26 3am Czechia v South Korea
18/6/26 5pm Czechia v South Africa
19/6/26 2am Mexico v South Korea
25/6/26 2am Mexico v Czechia
25/6/26 2am South Korea v South Africa
PREDICTIONS
Mexico with home advantage will be favourites to win the group.
I would expect Mexico to win their opening game before finding tougher opposition in their other two games , a draw with South Korea could be topped off with a win over Czechia to win the group on 7pts.
Czechia I can see winning their first two games and resting players for their final game and ending in second place on 6pts.
South Korea after losing their opening game will be happy with a point against Mexico and beat South Africa to finish third on 4 points, and await the other groups to finish to see if they qualify.
A strong win over South Africa could potentially boost their goal difference and with Groups B & C already completed , will have an idea of what is required.
South Africa will likely be weak and lose all three games.
Pundits seen split between Czechia and South Korea for second place , as I say I think it will be Czechia.
1st Place prediction – Mexico 7pts
2nd Place prediction – Czechia 6pts
3rd Place prediction – South Korea 4pts GD +1
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