The World Cup draw is complete and Mexico, South Africa, South Korea and a winner of one of the European play-offs have been drawn together in Group A.
How did the teams qualify? How do the different countries play? And who are the key protagonists in the group?
Games in: Atlanta, Guadalajara, Mexico, Mexico City, Monterrey, Mexico
Mexico
(Catheriune Ivill/Getty Images)
How did they qualify?
Mexico has consistently been a World Cup participant. The last time they failed to qualify for the finals was the 1982 edition, although they did also miss out in 1990 because they were banned by FIFA. As one of the three co-hosts for 2026, they qualified automatically.
What is their World Cup pedigree?
Mexico is among the more consistent qualifying nations in World Cup history. While at times they have struggled during Concacaf qualification, Mexico typically performs well at World Cups and punches above its weight. That reputation suffered a blow in 2022, though, when El Tri (pronounced “Tree”) went out of the group stage for the first time since 1978.
That was a shocking moment for them, even though Mexico has not yet advanced beyond he quarter-final stage of a World Cup. The last time they hosted, as the sole venue for a 24-team tournament in 1986, a penalty shootout defeat by West Germany in the last eight dashed their dreams of reaching the semis on home soil.
Who is the coach?
Javier Aguirre is in his third stint as Mexico head coach. The affable 66-year-old was seen as a can’t-miss hire in July after both Diego Cocca and Jaime Lozano failed to impress following the four-year cycle of Argentinian Gerardo Martino, which ended with the 2022 World Cup.
Aguirre has coached Mexico at two previous World Cups. In 2002 in Japan and South Korea, his side suffered a humiliating 2-0 defeat by arch-rivals the United States in the round of 16. Eight years later in South Africa, Mexico was again eliminated in that first knockout round, this time 3-1 against Argentina.
How do they play?
Aguirre told reporters in September that he preferred Mexico to play in a frenetic style rather than dominate possession. While Martino prepared the team to defend with the ball, Aguirre shifted their tactics to be more focused on quick combination play in midfield and transition moments. That style is more typical of a Mexican national team.
In winning both Concacaf’s Nations League and Gold Cup tournaments in 2025, Aguirre’s stamp on the side began to develop, but tactically Mexico tends to fall into spells of ponderous and often risk-averse football. The expectation is that pride and a home crowd will elevate them when the World Cup begins.
Who is their key player?
Midfield prodigy Gilberto Mora, 17, will grab many headlines, but Fulham striker Raul Jimenez is Mexico’s leading man heading into the World Cup. Now 34, Jimenez will feature in his fourth World Cup finals, assuming he makes the squad. However, in 2014, 2018 and 2022, he was not Mexico’s first-choice No 9. At that most recent tournament, he had not fully recovered from the serious head injury he suffered in 2020.
Despite not being Fulham’s first-choice striker, Jimenez will carry Mexico’s hopes of finally breaking through in the knockout rounds. Despite the emergence of Milan centre-forward Santiago Gimenez, the 24-year-old’s elder namesake has been more clinical for Mexico during the run-up to the World Cup.
What else should we know about them?
Mexico has battled back from what pundits in the country described as the darkest period in the national team’s history. They lost three consecutive regional finals to the USMNT between 2021 and 2023. It was a humbling two-year span, during which Mexico were stripped of their traditional moniker as kings of Concacaf. Mexicans hope that a home World Cup will lead to a renewed dominance in North America.
Felipe Cardenas
South Africa
(Visionhaus via Getty Images)
How did they qualify?
Controversially. South Africa were leading Group C in African qualifying when it was announced in September they would lose three points after fielding the ineligible Teboho Mokoena in their 2-0 victory over Lesotho in March. The forfeit of that match, resulting instead in a 3-0 defeat, threw qualification wide open, with South Africa falling to second place, behind Benin on goal difference. Their anxiety increased when Benin won their next game and South Africa could only draw in Zimbabwe.
Yet while Nigeria beat Benin 4-0, South Africa eased past Rwanda 3-0 in the last qualifier – a sequence of results that saw Bafana Bafana through. Nigeria reached the play-offs (which they lost) at Benin’s expense.
What is their World Cup pedigree?
This is only South Africa’s fourth World Cup and their first since hosting the tournament in 2010. Having never made it out of the group stage, there is a confidence they might correct that unwanted record this time around. South Africa are among the favourites for AFCON, held in Morocco at the end of 2025, having finished third in the last edition of the competition. This is an exciting, technical team, with a mix of experience and youth and there is a growing feeling inside the country they are better equipped than ever to make a mark on a global stage.
Who is the coach?
Hugo Broos will be 74 by the time he retires from management after the World Cup. He arrived in South Africa four years ago after the previous coach, Molefi Ntseki, was fired for losing to Sudan when he only needed to secure a draw to qualify for AFCON 2022 in Cameroon. Broos, a Belgian who spent most of his playing career with Anderlecht, moved into African football with clubs in Algeria before steering Cameroon to the AFCON title in 2017.
How do they play?
Bafana Bafana have a reputation for producing some of the most technically-gifted footballers on the continent of Africa. Broos has delivered a side that is well-organised but fluid, usually with a 4-3-3 shape depending on availability. The core of the regular starting XI includes players mainly from Mamelodi Sundowns, the dominant force in South Africa, along with Orlando Pirates.
Who is their key player?
Captain and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams was nominated for FIFA’s Lev Yashin award in 2024 due to his penalty-saving exploits at AFCON in Ivory Coast earlier that year. But Williams is not merely a shot-stopper, his footwork helps South Africa build play from the back.
What else should we know about them?
Much focus on South African football has fallen on the achievements of Mamelodi Sundowns, the winners of the South African Premiership for eight consecutive seasons. A challenge is coming from Orlando Pirates, whose central defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi has been touted as a future national team captain. Recent midfield signing Oswin Appollis has five goals in 18 international matches, and has been one of the form players in the second half of 2025.
Simon Hughes
South Korea
How did they qualify?
With great ease. Sixteen matches over two group stages, 11 victories, five draws and no defeats meant South Korea coasted through qualifying, albeit Jordan were the hardest team they faced in what was a pretty favourable draw, with Iraq, Oman and China their next toughest opponents.
What is their World Cup pedigree?
South Korea remain the only Asian nation to play in a World Cup semi-final, which they managed with (some would say considerable) home advantage in 2002. They are World Cup regulars, having qualified for 11 tournaments in a row since 1986, albeit other than their semi-final high they have only progressed past the group stages on two other occasions (2010, 2022). When they did so in Qatar, it was via one of the most dramatic games of the tournament, beating Portugal in stoppage time, before losing to Brazil in the last 16.
Who is the coach?
Hong Myung-bo is a legendary figure in South Korean football. The defender played at four World Cups (1990 to 2002) and was the first Asian player to be listed for the Golden Ball award, finishing third behind Oliver Kahn and Ronaldo in 2002). After moving into management with South Korea’s youth sides, he led the country to a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics, but under his watch the senior side tanked at the 2014 World Cup, failing to win a match, and Hong resigned. After winning successive K-League titles with Ulsan HD, he got a second shot as South Korea boss in 2024.
How do they play?
Well, it’s still a work in progress. Hong was hired to make South Korea more efficient, with the Korean FA wanting him to replicate how his Ulsan HD team placed an emphasis on build-up and pressing intensity, but covering less distance during matches (the federation also noted that Argentina won the 2022 World Cup despite being at the lower end for distance covered). Given they breezed through qualification, recent friendlies against tougher opponents have been used for experimentation, with Hong utilising 3-4-3 with mixed results (a 5-0 walloping by Brazil was followed up by an encouraging 2-0 victory over Paraguay).
Who is their key player?
The core of South Korea’s team remains their big names who play in Europe; Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), Lee Jae-sung (Mainz) and, when he’s fit, Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton Wanderers). However, the undoubted star, leader, talisman, figurehead and poster boy, not least with this World Cup mostly taking place where he now plies his trade, is captain, record cap holder and almost record goalscorer (he needs six more to break the record) Son Heung-min. The 33-year-old, in what will possibly be his last World Cup, has been in excellent goalscoring form for LAFC.
What else should we know about them?
South Korea are heading into the World Cup on the back of a tumultuous period under previous boss Jurgen Klinsmann, who was supposed to be the man to guide them to the United States (where he lives) but lasted only a year. Klinsmann was hounded out following a poor 2024 Asian Cup campaign, where the Koreans somehow scraped through to the semi-finals (having drawn with Malaysia in the group stage). It then took five months to find his successor, with internal wrangling over whether the new coach should be foreign or Korean (Jesse Marsch and Gus Poyet were among the foreign names linked).
Tim Spiers
Denmark/North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Republic of Ireland
Denmark vs North Macedonia and Czech Republic vs Republic of Ireland, with the two winners meeting in the final (the Czech Republic or the Republic of Ireland will be the home team)
Given the way the Republic of Ireland made it to this stage, thanks to that astonishing Troy Parrott hat-trick, including a last-minute goal, in the final group match against Hungary, it is almost difficult to think they will not eventually qualify. But the truth is that before that incredible game in Budapest, and the 2-0 home win over Portugal a few days earlier, they were pretty poor in their other games. So which Ireland is the real one?
If they perform as they did in those two matches, they will have a decent chance of beating a Czech side who lost to the Faroe Islands (population: around 55,000) in their group. If they do that, they will probably face Denmark, who in theory should make reasonably short work of North Macedonia, a team who technically went into their final group game away to Wales with a chance of qualifying automatically… and then lost 7-1. The Danes might have lost in heady circumstances to Scotland to consign them to these play-offs, but they were actually pretty good in that game and were arguably the better side overall in their group.
If all of that plays out, the Republic of Ireland vs Denmark in Dublin will probably be the most attractive and dramatic final in the UEFA play-offs.
Nick Miller
