“Hear What Happened”: The Nightly Roundup of the World Cup

48 national teams, 1,247 players, 12 groups, 104 matches in 39 days, three host nations and one final, the one everyone wants to reach, it all begins tonight, Thursday at 10:00 p.m., as the 2026 World Cup, the year’s biggest sporting event, gets underway. The problem? Most of the matches will be played at hours when most of you are asleep, but don’t worry, we at ynet have a solution.

For anyone who finds it too hard to wake up at 4:00 a.m. for Haiti against Scotland, or who fell asleep just before Canada against Qatar and doesn’t want to be the only one in the office who has no idea why everyone is talking about the mustached fan from Uzbekistan, we are here with “Hear What Happened,” a segment that will run throughout the World Cup and will sum up for you the main events, results and things that happened during the night and that you need to know. Every morning, Sunday through Thursday, you will get all the information so you can sound knowledgeable in front of the annoying neighbor who always takes the elevator down with you and asks, “So, did you watch the game?” We will be here every morning with everything that happened during the night.

Tonight the festivities will begin with the opening match at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, where host Mexico will meet South Africa, a replay of the opening match from the 2010 World Cup, when South Africa was the host. Argentina may be dreaming of a second consecutive title, but standing in its way will be the world’s best teams, except Italy, which was the loser and did not even qualify, including European champion Spain, star-studded, talented France, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, who would be happy to add the only trophy he has not yet won to his cabinet, just before he hangs up his boots, not that we are pressuring you or anything.