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Group A

The opening game at the historic Azteca venue will mirror the first game from 2010, when South Africa tied 1-1 with Mexico. The Mexican team's knockout phase history at the worldwide showpiece features just a single victory, secured against Bulgaria when they last were hosts in 1986. Their coach, Javier Aguirre, played as an attacker in that squad and will be aiming for a third quarter-final appearance as hosts. The South African side, led by veteran Belgian manager Hugo Broos, qualified for their initial World Cup since hosting, finishing above Nigeria and Benin even after seeing a win over Lesotho awarded against them for using an ineligible footballer.

It will represent South Korea's 11th successive World Cup appearance. Icon Hong Myung-bo played in four of those, and finished third in the Best Player voting when South Korea made the last four in 2002. He is now their manager and guided them unbeaten through a anything but easy qualification group. The final side in Group A will be the winner of a European playoff featuring the Czech Republic, Denmark, North Macedonia, or the Republic of Ireland.

Pool B

The Canadian team have made it for the global finals twice and, while Qatar 2022 brought their first goal, it did not deliver their first-ever point. Jesse Marsch is the manager of arguably the best group of players in their history, with key men like Jonathan David at Juventus and Alphonso Davies at Bayern Munich. How kind the group looks depends mostly on whether Italy make it through the UEFA play-off (the remaining 3 contenders are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, and Wales).

Following failing to qualify in 1998 and 2002, the Swiss have got through the initial phase in four of the past five World Cups and were quarter-finalists at the past two European Championships. Murat Yakin’s side booked their ticket unbeaten from probably the easiest of the UEFA qualifying groups and, with experienced campaigners like Ricardo Rodriguez and Granit Xhaka, have players aiming to feature at their fourth finals. Qatar, having ended up fourth in their third-round qualifying section, were handed a significant boost by being selected as a host for the fourth round and clinched qualification with a 2-1 victory over the UAE. Julen Lopetegui’s entire squad is selected entirely from the Qatari league.

Group C

Scotland's return to the World Cup in 28 years looks a lot like their last appearance, when they lost to the Seleção and Morocco; Haiti occupy the place of Norway. Their aim will be to make it to the knockout stage for the first time after 8 prior group phase exits. Haiti’s only prior finals, in 1974, was notable less for their three defeats than for the fate that happened to midfielder Ernst Jean-Joseph who, after testing positive in a doping test, was beaten by Haitian army officers before being sent back. They will have restricted away support due to travel restrictions involving the USA.

Carlo Ancelotti took over as Brazil’s third coach in a qualifying campaign that included a run of three successive losses, but there is minimal risk in South American qualifying these days. He has presided over a noticeable upturn in form. Last-four participants in Qatar in 2022, Morocco appear the best of the north African sides, capable both of dominating opponents and playing on the counter, qualifying with a perfect win record.

Group D

At the start of last year, the USA seemed in a poor state, losing to Panama and Canada in the Concacaf Nations League and to Turkey and Switzerland in friendlies. But over the past year, Mauricio Pochettino has seemingly begun to get his message across and in November the USA beat Paraguay before routing Uruguay 5-1 in exhibition games. They will start against Paraguay, who are playing in their sixth World Cup. They have won one game at each of the previous five, a statistic that has resulted to both group-stage eliminations and a last-eight appearance. Their trademark cautious mindset hasn't altered: they managed only 14 goals in their 18 games in South American qualifying.

This is not the most fluent Australian side and their squad is without obvious superstars, but despite an iffy start to the third phase of Asian qualifying, Tony Popovic’s side made it by beating Japan at home and Saudi Arabia away under intense pressure in their last two matches. The group’s fourth team will come from the winner of the European Play-off C (Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia, or Turkey).

Group E

After back-to-back group phase eliminations, Germany are no longer the bogeymen of old. The shift to a more attacking style has introduced a fragility and the draw initially looked like posing a huge challenge to Julian Nagelsmann’s side. The Ecuadorian team were the surprise package of qualification, finishing in second place behind Argentina in South America. Although they scored only 14 goals in 18 games, a backline featuring Willian Pacho of Paris Saint-Germain and Piero Hincapié of Arsenal, shielded by Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo, conceded a mere five.

Côte d’Ivoire live in a state of permanent pessimism, where nothing is ever as successful as the glorious generation of 15-20 years ago. But since taking charge during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, manager Emerse Faé has proved transformative. Following an implausible continental triumph on home soil, Côte d’Ivoire were ruthless in qualification, netting 25 goals and conceding none.

The smallest country ever to qualify, the Curaçao team, were the final team picked, however, making the group look a lot far less daunting than it might have been.

Pool F

Ronald Koeman’s Dutch side maybe lack the galacticos of past Dutch eras, but they secured qualification unbeaten and Memphis Depay, who scored eight goals in qualifying, always looks a more reliable player with his country's side than at domestic level. They open against the Japanese team, who will participate in their eighth consecutive World Cup, and were by some way the most dominant of the Asian sides in qualification, suffering one of their 16 games across the two phases, with a total goal difference of 54-3.

Tunisia made sure of a third straight World Cup berth by dominating a straightforward qualification group, picking up 28 points of a possible 30. Sami Trabelsi’s team are perhaps not as dour as some past Tunisian sides; they had a remarkable 14 different scorers in qualifying. If Graham Potter’s Sweden make it through the UEFA play-off (against Ukraine in the semi, then either Poland or Albania in the final), that will set up a rematch of the group game in Dortmund in 1974 when Johan Cruyff first performed the iconic Cruyff Turn.

Pool G

Belgium and Egypt are emerging from the legacy of their most talented generations. Rudi Garcia’s Belgium were erratic in qualifying, scoring the net eight times but conceding five in two wins over Wales, finding goals freely at times, but also laboring to a 1-1 draw away to Kazakhstan.

Egypt are the most successful side in African football history, but having not managed to qualify during their golden period 15-20 years ago, they have never quite fulfilled their potential on the world stage. Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush give them attacking threat, but it was a defence that conceded only twice in 10 games that ensured they qualified undefeated.

A reserved place for Oceania effectively equated to a spot at the finals for the All Whites, who cruised through qualification, winning five games out of five, scoring 29 goals, nine of them by Chris Wood, but they are the lowest FIFA-ranked side to have secured their place in North America next summer. Iran, who were defeated once in a difficult third phase qualifying group, are on a list of restricted nations, possibly