World Cup 2026: Key takeaways from the first round of matches

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is well and truly underway.

The first round of the group stage wrapped on Wednesday, Jun. 17, with Colombia beating Uzbekistan 3-1 in front of a raucous crowd in Mexico City.

Each of the 48 participating national teams has now played once. They'll push through two more group stage matches each before learning which nations will qualify for the knockout rounds and which 16 nations will depart the competition early.

Here are the biggest lessons we've learned from Matchday 1 of the 2026 World Cup.

European giants need more than just possession to succeed

Turkiye, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal are four of Europe's strongest national teams. They've got serious World Cup history, deep tournament rosters and a knack for staying alive in knockout situations. But after the end of the first matchday, they've got a rather ignominious statistic in common, too: the inability to get results despite eye-popping ball possession.

Turkiye had the ball for 63 percent of its opening match against Australia; it still lost 2-0. Switzerland had the ball for 70 percent of its game against Qatar and still conceded a late equalizer to draw 1-1. Spain and Portugal, two of the clear favorites for the tournament final, managed 74 percent and 75 percent possession in their respective matches...and still failed to beat Cabo Verde and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It's the World Cup of great headers

There have been many beautiful goals at this tournament, from Lionel Messi's stunning hat trick against Algeria to Elijah Just's brain-scrambling brace against Iran, but the true fans know that the headers have been the most beautiful goals of all.

Many people view headers as "lesser" goals determined more by height than skill, but this tournament's selection has proven how wrong that viewpoint is. Take a look at Iraq's Aymen Hussein for proof: he scored a header for his nation by rising above three separate Norwegian defenders. Their heights? 6'4", 6'5" and 6'6". If headers were solely about height, Hussein never should've been able to do that. They're not. They're about timing, grit and aerial prowess, and this World Cup has thrown up plenty of instances of all three.