World Cup 2026: Mexico off to winning start; empty seats in Guadalajara; USA and Canada enter fray – live

Some emails. These are good from Thomas Krantz.

>“Hi David! I noticed that there seemed to be many empty seats quite early on, but then realised that the Korean fans were wearing red, so in my sleep deprived state (4am where I am watching from) I thought I was just hallucinating. But when Korea scored and the empty chairs did not celebrate, there seemed to be quite a lot of them, so I was a bit confused (but by then it was 5am and my eyelids fought a losing battle against my brain).”

>Yes, I was a bit befuddled this morning too, Thomas. Told myself I couldn’t be watching South Korea v Czechia at 3am given that I was doing this here blog at 8am. But it felt a bit wrong to miss my first game just two matches into a World Cup so my body clock woke me up at 3.03 and I just about took in the first 40 minutes before nodding off. Is anyone going to try to watch the lot? Good luck if so!

>“Just a tip if you are on vacation and somehow have nothing to do. The last WC and EC I have a new tradition. Every day I make a new dish from one of the participating countries. To start things off I made “Bobotie” from South Africa yesterday, it was kind of a meatloaf with waay too many ingredients, but rather tasty when it was done. Today it is “Sopa Paraguaya” which is some kind of garlic bread if I am not mistaken.”

>Excellent plan and I had this very idea yesterday. But only after I’d served my kids a steak pie (two for one offer in ASDA, had to be done). Google did tell me that steak is “incredibly popular” in Mexico, South Korea and South Africa so I’m claiming it. Poutine for tonight’s Canada game then.