{"id":1514817,"date":"2026-06-11T08:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?guid=79c82d8f5e22ec3b40539d9f103fd8e5"},"modified":"2026-06-11T09:17:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T14:17:22","slug":"world-cup-2026-schedule-groups-host-cities-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1514817","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Schedule, groups, host cities and more"},"content":{"rendered":"
Captain Tim Ream of the USA speaks to the media at a press conference during a training session ahead of the 2026 World Cup on June 08, 2026 in Irvine, California. (Jamie Squire\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>

(NEW YORK) -- The top national soccer teams from countries around the world have traveled to North America for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off Thursday, and are preparing for a packed schedule of matches in cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.<\/p>

As Argentina looks to defend their championship title and fans prepare to watch all the on-pitch action for the expanded 48-team tournament, here's a rundown of what you need to know about the draw format, host cities, schedules and more.<\/p>

How many teams are competing in World Cup?<\/strong><\/p>

There are 12 groups of four teams representing 48 nations -- 16 more than the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>

When do World Cup matches start?<\/strong><\/p>

The group stage begins Thursday, June 11, when Mexico hosts South Africa for the World Cup opener at the historic Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.<\/p>

There will be an opening ceremony at 1:30 p.m. local time, and the match kicks off at 3 p.m.<\/p>

There are 104 games to be played throughout the tournament, spanning 39 days.<\/p>

The U.S. Men's National Team plays its first 2026 World Cup game against Paraguay on Friday, June 12, with a 6 p.m. scheduled kickoff time at SoFi Stadium in California.<\/p>

What are the U.S. host cities for FIFA World Cup?<\/strong><\/p>

Atlanta; Boston; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; Los Angeles; Miami; \"New York New Jersey\" (East Rutherford, New Jersey); Philadelphia; Seattle; and the San Francisco Bay Area will all play host to the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>

World Cup draw explained: Format, groups and schedule<\/strong><\/p>

At the World Cup draw in December, teams were separated into 12 groups, labeled A-L.<\/p>

The U.S. was placed into Group D alongside Australia, Paraguay, and Turkey, which earned the final spot in the group after a win over Kosovo in the UEFA playoffs in March.<\/p>

In the group stage of the tournament, all teams are guaranteed three matches -- one against every team in its group -- with the top two teams from each guaranteed to advance. The eight best third-place teams will also advance. Other teams are eliminated.<\/p>

With the expanded tournament this year, 32 surviving teams will make it out of the group stage and into single-elimination series of winner-take-all matches, known as the knockout round, all the way to the final.<\/p>

In this stage, matches that result in a tie after full time will have 30 minutes of added time split in two 15-minute halves and a penalty shootout decider.<\/p>

The round of 16 will take place July 4-7.<\/p>

The first quarterfinal match is at Boston Stadium on July 9 in Foxborough, Massachusetts, followed by a match at SoFi Stadium Inglewood, California, on July 10. July 11 will see quarterfinal matches at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, and Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.<\/p>

Semifinals matches will be played July 14 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and July 15 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.<\/p>

When is the World Cup final?<\/strong><\/p>

The World Cup final will take place July 19 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, at MetLife Stadium, referred to in this tournament as New York New Jersey Stadium.<\/p>

Who are the defending World Cup champions and favorites to watch this year?
Argentina, led by star forward Lionel Messi, is currently ranked No. 1, according to FIFA.<\/p>

Spain, France, England and Portugal follow in sequence to round out the Top 5 spots ahead of the World Cup kickoff.<\/p>

According to the latest expert power rankings released by ESPN on Tuesday, which were assembled by a 20-person voting panel, Spain -- with its 18-year-old phenom Lamine Yamal -- is the top team to watch this year.<\/p>

Copyright \u00a9 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captain Tim Ream of the USA speaks to the media at a press conference during a training session ahead of the 2026 World Cup on June 08, 2026 in Irvine, California. (Jamie Squire\/Getty Images)(NEW YORK) — The top national soccer teams from countries ar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":1514820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/06\/d889fcea9f623bc100414006d7f2f3c9.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[286],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1514817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-hold"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 08:04:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/06\/d889fcea9f623bc100414006d7f2f3c9.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1514817"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1514821,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514817\/revisions\/1514821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1514820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1514817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1514817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1514817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}