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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
Hello and welcome to The Guardian Football Weekly. Here are your World Cup previews. It's your tournament guide pull-out without the hassle of reading. Four groups per pod in alphabetical order. So Group A hosts Mexico alongside South Africa, Heung-Min Son and Powell South Korea, and Czechia, Patrick Schick, Thomas Szuchek. and presumably Karol Poborski.
Group B, quite exciting, Canadians and Swiss? We've never said that before. Edin Dzeko and Bosnia and Qatar. Group C, Ewan Murray in for some optimism as the Scots play Haiti, Morocco and Brazil. And then Group D will get a Socceroos perspective as the Aussies line up against host the US, Paraguay and the dark horses of Turkey. Let's get on with it. This is today's Guardian Football Weekly.
alongside me for the whole pod, the Racing Post, Mark Langdon. Welcome, Mark. Hi, Max. Hello, Lars Iffertsen. Hello, Max. And Barry Glendening is here. Hello. We should probably point out we're recording these a week before they go out. So just in case Harry Kane pulls a hamstring or something, we apologize. But let's get into it then with Group A. Mexico, South Africa, South Korea and Czechia.
Chapter 2: What teams are in Group A for the World Cup 2026?
Mexico managed by Javier Aguirre, known as El Vasco. His third time managing El Tri in the World Cup. The best ever quarterfinals in 1970 and 2000. Mexico 86, well, Mexico 70 as well. They lost out in the group stage in Qatar behind Argentina and Poland. South Africa managed by the Belgian Hugo Bruce. Best ever is the group stages in 2010. Didn't qualify last time out.
First World Cup since they were the hosts. South Korea managed by Hong Myung-bo, legend of Korean football. He captained their side to the semifinals in 2002, the first former captain ever. to manage South Korea at a World Cup. And that's their best ever, 2002. And last time out, they got to the round 16. Czechia, managed by Miroslav Kubek, who is 74.
And a spring chicken compared to the 78-year-old Dick Advocat, but more of that and Kurosawa non. They've lost the final twice, Czechia, 1934 and 1962. Obviously, when they were Czechoslovakia, of course.
Lars, how do you see this group? When I was doing my sort of brackety thing that we do, I do think this is one of the groups where I am the least confident in picking a top two, to be honest. I think this is kind of an even group. Mexico have this great history of always qualifying from the group stage, which they didn't at Qatar.
But before that, I think it was like seventh straight World Cups or something crazy that they've gotten out of the group stage. The Czechs are not great, but they've got a good sort of punchy physique about them. They've got good spirits. They're not terrible. And then I'm not entirely sure what to expect from South Korea and South Africa, to be honest, but they're not bad.
I don't think they'll be outright bad, any of them. So I do think this is one of those groups where a lot of teams can take points off each other, and I think it's a little trickier to predict how it turns out than a lot of the other groups.
Mark, what do you think of Mexico?
Well, I disagree with Lars early doors and say that I think Mexico here, this is a really good opportunity for them to win the group, to stay at home in Mexico last 32. If they win the group, you then play a third place team.
um last 16 would potentially be england in the azteca on things like about 1 a.m on a monday morning um in uk time and everyone's talking about this being a u.s world cup um you know because that's where the latter stages are i mean mexico can definitely use use home advantage altitude is something that they'll be used to if you look around um i'm not sure you could say the same i mean i mean thomas suchek looks like he's played 90 minutes before he starts so
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Chapter 3: What is Mexico's history in World Cup tournaments?
Breathing is hard. Running is hard. The heat is oppressive. Czechs seem to have been sold a real pup in terms of the draw in that they play South Korea at altitude in Guadalajara. Then they have to fly three and a half thousand kilometers to play South Africa in Atlanta, one of the hottest venues, but I believe the stadium there is air con, so that might not be too bad.
And then they have to fly three and a half thousand kilometers back to play Mexico in Mexico City and the Czech team are based in New Jersey, as far as I know, which means they don't seem to be making any effort to acclimatize to the conditions they're going to have to play in. Mexico, by contrast, are...
have been, as Mark said, they've been together for ages at a place called the Center de Alto Rendimento. So the alto there would suggest they will be perfectly well set up to deal with the conditions. So, yeah, the Czech Republic, you know, there but for the grace of God, go Ireland. And that's what we'd have got. And I shudder to think how the...
Pasty Irish fellas would have gone on in that group. But I think Mexico will win the group. I suspect South Africa will probably come last and then it's take your pick for second and third between South Korea and Chechnya.
Yeah, Lars, on South Korea, obviously Sonny is 33, only scored twice for LA this year. I mean, I don't know how much of him you've seen in MLS. They lost 4-0 to Ivory Coast recently and 1-0 to Australia in recent friendlies. So, I mean, you sort of always give South Korea a puncher's chance of doing something, but maybe this is a tournament too far for Sonny.
It might be, but again, okay, Mark and Barry rate this Mexican team slightly higher than I do. It's possible that the home advantage will be as pivotal as Barry and Mark have made a very good case for. But I still think the Czechs have issues. Like you said, I watched both of their games against Ireland and Denmark in the playoffs.
And they have a lot of, like, strength, and they're quite spirited. But there's a real lack of, like, there's a bit of a lack of skill, I think. They're not the best ball-playing team in the world, so playing in high heat, potentially at altitude, seems bad for them. So I think that'll mitigate some of their strengths. And I'm not familiar enough with South Africa to really make any tweaks.
But my point is, I don't think South Korea have to be brilliant to get out of this group. I think there's something there to be gotten from them. And I think Mexico have the advantages that you've all mentioned, but I'm not convinced it's that good a team on paper compared to previous Mexican generations who've made a fist of it at the World Cup.
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Chapter 4: How do South Korea and Czechia stack up in Group A?
So I will go along with the idea that Mexico are the most likely group winners, but I do think it's pretty open beyond that. And this is why I think it's entirely possible that South Korea can get out of the group.
As long as they bring back the Mexico 86 goal nets, then, you know, they can do, frankly, whatever they like. I want to see big, deep goal nets with, you know, the stretch for miles from in Guadalajara, Monterey.
At the time of recording, their squad has just been announced. And whatever about goal nets, they have brought back everyone's favorite Mexican goalkeeper. Guillermo Cheo is in the squad. And this will be his sixth, sixth World Cup.
What an achievement that is for him. There are some players that just pop up at World Cups, like Achara and Valencia. You kind of don't hear about him for four years.
Breel Mbolo only ever gets wheeled out for a major tournament. Then when it ends, he gets put back in a box for another two years.
Just on South Africa, Max, I'll do one little bit on South Africa because the Sundowns won the, from South Africa, won the African Champions League. And, you know, there's a kind of heavy contingent of Sundowns players. But I saw their coach was complaining they've arrived later than they wanted to in the US due to.
visa issues for some of their players that he was unhappy with and probably not the only country that's kind of going through that at the moment which is suboptimal you would have thought for you know a world cup i read somewhere that any south african fans who want to travel to the states have to go to the american embassy in pretoria
to get their visas. Pretoria is obviously a very, very, very long way from a lot of parts of South Africa. Yeah, they're just one of any number of countries whose citizens are going to struggle to get to the World Cup.
South Africa is another team that, because the domestic league is comparatively solid for the region, not that many of their players go abroad compared to other natures. There's a certain comparison to Mexico there. My whole thing is I don't think that's a positive. I think when that happens, what you end up is with players who don't get matched at the highest level.
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Chapter 5: What can we expect from Group B in the World Cup 2026?
So, you know, fair enough.
Fair enough. And some dark, give us some dark horses then, or, you know, horses that might be dark horses. You can go first, Mark.
I think me and Lars have got the same one, Turkey, um, for the fear of mockery. Um, I mean, that's the only reason I'm not, was not going to put Turkey up as, as the dark horse, uh, because, uh,
you know it would you know just become a running gag when when they lose their first two matches but I really yeah they've got a good coach in Montella they've got players in Yildiz and Goulet that are just you know players playing at the very highest level now and I thought they were unlucky in the Euros the last time around they lost a very tight quarterfinal to Netherlands that
that might have gone either way. So soft enough group. Lars, are you Turkey as well?
Yeah, it's a combination of having a draw that opens up okay with them and also having the talent. I think everything is there. I mean, I feel like I'm sort of duty bound to say Norway. Trouble with Norway is I think we've got two interesting dark horse candidates in the same group and France also in that group. And that's not ideal. Like Senegal are a proper good team.
So I think as much as I Norway have a lot of strength, I think there's a very real risk that we end up having to be one of the best third place teams because Senegal are good. And then you get into a draw that's unfavorable. So I think that could be our downfall. We're obviously very good, Norway, in terms of the talent we have, but we've been absolutely done by the draw.
It's going to be an adventure, but it's not compared to some of the groups you could end up in. It's not good.
Of course, Mickey Gray plays for Turkey. I'm surprised Barry didn't know that. But anyway, that'll do for our first four groups. We'll be back again tomorrow to stay across all of our content as we go daily from Friday. Find us on TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, Blue Sky, lots of behind-the-scenes.
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