IT'S THE WORLD CUP: Good Soccer/Bad Soccer Vol. 9, The Cup of AHHHHHHHHHH

There's nothing quite like the feeling of roiling internal turmoil brought on by the most exciting sporting event in the world arriving in your country against the backdrop of a war being waged by one of the host nations against one of the tournament participants—among other drains on the excitement.

How best to express my mangled knot of emotions on this, the first day of the biggest World Cup in history? I fancy myself a pretty decent writer, which means at my most pretentious I think myself capable of bending words to beautiful ends with a splash of panache. I want every sentence to be a perfectly laid brick in a edifice of poignancy. With a little inspiration, I should be capable.

Here goes.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Shit.

It's the god damned World Cup. I can't really be expected to do any better. Not right now, anyway. Excitement levels are on a billion no matter the backdrop. As soccer fans, this is what we live for.

So with Day 1 upon us, the first edition of Soccer Eagle is a little bit of the usual GOOD SOCCER/BAD SOCCER Thursday fare carefully calibrated to the World Cup frequency and some preview of what's to come later in the day.

Going forward, look for daily missives landing around midday.

DIVE DIVE DIVE.

PEOPLES ARE PEOPLES

Gianni Infantino is a scummy charlatan, the US government is in direct violation of the spirit of international sport (not to mention racist and corrupt), and the World Cup is dripping in the gunk of greed; but it's not all bad.

The stories that popped up this week of cultural exchange serve as an uplifting reminder of why this event pitting country versus country in a game for boys played by men exists in the first place.

There's the German fan making his way across the South, awed by things like Buc-ee's and and Waffle House. That dude is this close to getting himself a pickup and some camo gear.

German traveler FreddyLA7 went to a game at Jordan-Hare and stopped at a Buc-ee’s at the same day. He went to a Waffle House yesterday. He’s speedrunning the SEC experience.

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— SickosFC (@sickosfc.bsky.social) June 10, 2026 at 10:46 AM

And there's the people of Lawrence, Kansas, home of the University of Kansas, who have fully adopted the visiting Algerian national team making their base camp in our breadbasket.

Even in 2026, despite the best efforts the parties mentioned above, the World Cup can still be wholesome. I'm thankful for that.

GOOD SOCCER.

IS THIS IMAGE CURSED OR BLESSED I CAN'T TELL

Seattle is fully established as one of our great soccer cities thanks to the efforts of the Sounders, Reign, and their fans. Thanks to Seattle winning the right to host World Cup games and the undeniably great backdrop that Lumen Field (Seattle Stadium in FIFA parlance) will provide, the world is going to learn what we already know.

And I can't tell you how excited I am for it all to be happening on grass. GRASS! After years of watching the Sounders play on an artificial surface that meant watching the ball doing unnatural things, I can't wait to see that stadium full for soccer played on a natural surface.

It required raising the field 14 inches to put in the grass surface for the tournament.

If you're in Seattle and can't get in the stadium to see the games, good news! The scores of the Seattle matches will be displayed in the sky near the famous Space Needle via drone display. It's not clear whether the drone scoreboard will show up immediately after games (a problem, since all but one match in Seattle is set for a daytime kickoff) or later in the evening.

Drones are cool and all, but what we really need to talk about is the image attached to the story about the drone-provided scores at GeekWire.

I'm sorry. USA 9, Australia 9? If that score happens, there's no way we're ever calling it "football" again. It will forever be soccer.

GOOD (CONFUSING) SOCCER

WHAT'S LATIN FOR "IT'S CALLED SOCCER"?

You know how I know the World Cup is well and truly American? The Pope called it soccer. A right-thinking American. Amen.

GOOD AND HOLY SOCCER

AND NOW FOR THE BUSINESS AT HAND

Today Mexico kicks off the tournament today against South Africa in Mexico City in what is one on the great cathedrals of the world's game. I'm giddy thinking about what 80,000+ Mexican fans will bring to the broadcast with El Tri chasing not just el quinto partindo but el sexto partido with the extra knockout round now added to the tournament.

The opening ceremonies better bring it. Órale, güey.

Each host nation has been in its own little build-up bubble over the last year so, with all the focus on bringing the best possible squad to bear on the most important tournament in each country's soccer history.

Javier Aguirre is an old hand an while I'm left a little cold by Mexico's overall talent, there's no reason to think that they won't storm out of the group phase and into the knockout rounds. Mexico has the largest potential home field advantage of any of the host by a vast margin and provided the crowds don't turn on them (always a possibility), every nation that faces Mexico in Mexico will face a massive challenge.

My question today for Mexico, who I full expect to breeze past Bofana Bofana with relative ease:

How good can Raúl Jiménez be?

We can talk about Edson Alvarez and Brian Gutierrez and Memo Ochoa, but the man who I think will play the biggest role in Mexico's ultimate tournament finish is Fulham striker Jimenez. At 35, he's an elder statesman and in a perfect world Mexico would probably have preferred to have found his replacement by now (it doesn't appear that Santiago Giménez is the guy) and of course, it's a miracle he's playing at all.

But after watching him play as a Fulham fan this season, I'm fully expected a monster tournament from Mexico's number 9.

As for South Africa, with most of the world expecting a win for El Tri, the opener is a chase to surprise and earn some confidence going into Matchday 2.

Can South Africa slow the game down and keep Mexico out?

With Aguirre's tactical proclivities more about keeping clean sheets than racking up goal, Hugo Broos and Bofana Bofana are best served to try and stymie Mexico and try to steal a point via a low scoring draw.

But this is the Azteca, and the altitude and air quality are a stiffer opponent than the Mexican. Let's see if Broos has a plan to keep his team in the game and if they can hang on when the lungs are burning. It's a big moment for Chicago Fire centerback Mbekezeli Mbokazi, a player with a chance to improve his transfer stock with a big World Cup.

In the second game of the day, South Korea will face Czechia in Guadalajara. That game is screaming draw to me, but we might get a sense of which country is ready to make a run at a top two spot in the group even with splitting of the points.

Will we see Lee Kang-in take the baton from Son?

Son Heung-min is still a very good footballer and if South Korea is going to have a good showing in North America, the LAFC man will have to play a big role in their attack.

But it's 25-year-0ld Lee Kang-in who South Korea is expecting to take the burden of being the country's chief creative threat and with Son possibily playing in his final World Cup, we should see the clear passing of a baton over the course of the group phase. Lee is all the more important for South Korea because Son's number have dwindled for the national team despite head coach Hong Myung-bo stabilizing the team after Jurgen Klinsmann's disastrous tenure.

Has Czechia's luck run out?

Czechia reached the World Cup finals thanks to a pair of penalty kick shootout wins in UEFA qualifying and aren't going to be anyone's pick to do big things in North America.

Czechia's spine is decent—hardnosed Ladislav Krejci in the backline, Tomas Soucek in midfield behind Lyon playmaker Pavel Sulc, and Bayer Leverkusen forward Patrik Schick up top—so I don't think they'll be pushovers. Just like with everyone not Mexican playing in Mexico, the altitude and travel could be a big deal.

PROGRAMMING NOTES

We did an episode of The Best Soccer Show last night that turned out to be (with almost no planning on my part) a classice of the genre.

Watch it here:

Or get the podcast version via Spotify or Apple.

Jonathan Tannenwald joined me from Irvine to talk about the Chris Richard's injury "update" (listen to hear why Jonathan isn't totally convinced about Richard's readiness) and Jared DuBois popped in to do one of his favorite things: play gamemaster.

I'll be live on SiriusXM FC (channel 157) tonight from 6-9 ET time talking about the result of Mexico v. South Africa and previewing South Korea v. Czechia with Luis Miguel Echegaray, so make sure you sign up for a free trial of SiriusXM.

All of the World Cup games will be simulcast on the Fox Sports channel in SiriusXM in addition to our wall-to-wall coverage on the soccer channel.

The World Cup is finally here. See you tomorrow.