Group A

Son Heung-min has spent a decade carrying South Korean football, and this week he had to stand in front of it and say sorry. This piece looks at his apology, the group-stage exit that prompted it, and the…

In their opening game South Africa were reduced to nine men and beaten by Mexico. Here they reached a World Cup knockout stage for the first time in their history. This covers Thapelo Maseko's winner against…

Mexico were already through and playing for nothing but the party. They threw a good one. This covers a 3-0 win over the Czech Republic that completed a perfect group, the farewell cameo of 40-year-old…

Mexico are through to the World Cup round of 32, but they have a goalkeeper to thank rather than any attacking brilliance of their own. Adrian Dane examines how a single moment of goalkeeping misfortune…

Czech Republic squandered chance after chance at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and South Africa punished them for it. This piece examines how profligacy up front handed Bafana Bafana a lifeline they barely created…

South Korea's opening Group A fixture offered a textbook study in contrasting football philosophies, with one side's directness ultimately punished by the other's patience and technical variety. This piece…

The 2026 World Cup began not with a polished exhibition of football but with a frantic, breathless spectacle at the Azteca that had everything: a moment of individual brilliance, a cathartic goal loaded with…