World Cup 2026 Thursday takeaways: Highs and lows for Canada as Mexico makes history

We've officially crossed over into Matchday 2 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Every single one of the tournament's 48 teams has been in action at least once, and that means we're finally getting a feel for where everyone stands.

This second round of group-stage games is one of the most important phases of the tournament. It's this round that will set up group winners and pit strong teams into battles for third place — and that means it's this round, more than any, that will chart each team's path through the knockout phase.

The opening day of Matchday 2 brought highs, lows and a handful of red cards from Groups A and B. Here are the storylines that made it sing:

South Africa's Czechia complaints rang hollow

After playing out a frankly embarrassing opening 2-0 defeat to Mexico, South Africa entered Matchday 2 looking for a fight. It found a willing partner in Czechia, who held it to a 1-1 draw on a feisty night in Atlanta, Georgia.

"Czechia is a physical team and they don't like to play football or a passing game," South Africa coach Hugo Broos huffed after the match. 

"OK, it's a tactic. I can't say why this or why that. This is the coach who decides that, and maybe if I should be the coach of Czechia, I should do the same thing. But I think if you like football that you like more the game we played today than the game of Czechia."

Yeah...about that. Czechia did indeed prefer a physical, hard-scrabble game to a fluid passing one, but recent matches at this tournament have taught us that opting for pragmatism over beauty is often the correct approach. And it certainly felt a bit rich for Broos — whose South Africa team lumbered its way into two red cards in its opening match — to criticize another team for being too physical. Pot, kettle, et cetera. 

Czechia 1-1 South Africa

Subs made all the difference for Switzerland

The story of Switzerland's opening draw with Qatar was one of missed opportunities and late goal concessions. It dominated the game but only put one chance away, and that left it vulnerable to Qatar's last-gasp comeback in injury time. For the opening 75 minutes of its second game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the story was much the same: lots of possession, plenty of attacks, but zero goals for the long-suffering Swiss.

Coach Murat Yakin made a few attacking substitutions — Johan Manzambi and Ruben Vargas on for Dan Ndoye and Fabian Rieder — and just like that, everything changed. Manzambi and Vargas combined immediately to change Switzerland's fortunes and get the goals flowing. 

Switzerland 4-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina