Live updates, analyses and text commentary as South Africa face cohosts Canada in first knockout match in Los Angeles.
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On-field officiating and the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) produced some controversial decisions during the 2026 World Cup group stage – in some cases, the technology played a part at ultimately denying teams a shot at qualification to the knockouts or a vital victory.
Al Jazeera takes a look at the five of the most debatable calls in the group stage here.
Canada boss Jesse Marsch says the gamesmanship with Alphonso Davies is over and the Bayern Munich left-back is ready to feature against South Africa.
Davies missed the end of Bayern Munich’s season with a hamstring injury but Canada made it appear he was fit for their Group B campaign, though he did not play a minute.
“Now that we have Alphonso back and healthy and ready to perform, I think it’s a big moment for the team and a big boost for the team,” Marsch said before facing South Africa.
“For me to go tell our best player, and a guy that is a huge piece of everything that we do, that we have to wait, was also painful,” Marsch said. “But we’ve done this in the best interests of Alphonso and his career and his health, so it’s nice now that we can have a plan that leads to him being back on the pitch.”
“Obviously, it was painful,” Davies said. “The only thing you want to do is play football. The first game, watching it, I was eager to be on the pitch. Second game, even more so. The third game, I went to him before the game and asked him, ‘Do you think I can get a couple of minutes?’ He could have said, ‘Yeah, we’ll just throw you in there’, but obviously he cares about me and the team as human beings as well, so he sat me down … and I thought about it, and I said, ‘He’s right.’ It was kind of hard to hear.”
Davies will return to the stadium where he tore knee ligaments playing for Canada against the US in March last year but added: “Could have happened anywhere. Coming back to the stadium, I get to finish something I started a year ago in March. I really enjoy playing in this stadium. The first time, it was beautiful. It was cut short, but that happens. It’s football”.
Bafana Bafana Starting XI vs Canada
⚽️ Bafana Bafana 🇿🇦 vs Canada 🇨🇦
📅 Sunday, 28 June 2026
🏟️ Los Angeles Stadium
🕕 Kick-off: 21:00pm SA Time
🖥 SABC 1/3 & SABC+#Fifaworldcup #BafanaPride #BafanaBafana pic.twitter.com/gm5EGPbjJc
— Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana) June 28, 2026
Today’s starters, presented by @GE_Appliances
🍁 Moïse and DC at the back
🍁 Tajon and Liam provide the width
🍁 JD and Tani up top
🇨🇦 🇿🇦
LET’S GO #CANMNT pic.twitter.com/YiUt0ADYtz
— CANMNT (@CANMNT_Official) June 28, 2026
Hugo Broos says South Africa came back from the brink to qualify as runners-up in Group A due to their belief, and has promised to ‘fight for 90 minutes’ to make more history against Canada.
“It was a hugely emotional moment – getting past the group stage for the first time,” the 74-year-old, who guided Cameroon to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title, told the AFP news agency.
“We were not good against Mexico and a little better against the Czechs. That meant we had to defeat Korea. There was enormous pressure on us, but we made it.
“We are ready for the Canadians. My team will fight for 90 minutes, and longer if necessary. Let us hope for another good result.”
Teboho Mokoena returns from a one-game suspension, picked up for yellow cards in each of South Africa’s first two games, that forced the 29-year-old to miss the match against South Korea.
Themba Zwane remains suspended, following the red card he was shown in the opener against Mexico.
Mokoena could come in for Yaya Sithole in midfield.
The Bafana Bafana Fan Walk is up and running and ready to go!! 🇿🇦🔥
South Africans coming together in green and gold for the national team!#BafanaPride #BafanaBafana pic.twitter.com/IUIwMM2OEE
— Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana) June 28, 2026
Ismael Kone’s fractured tibia sustained against Qatar keeps him out.
Stephen Eustaquio and Alfie Jones both have knocks and face late fitness tests.
In some good news, Bayern Munich defender Alphonso Davies could make the bench as he continues his comeback from a hamstring injury that kept him out of the group stage matches.
South Africa: D-D-L-D-W (Last five games, latest result last)
South Africa had gone seven games without a win, losing three, before beating South Korea to reach the last 32.
Their winless run began with their 2-1 defeat by Cameroon in January, which sealed their elimination from the African Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Canada: W-D-D-W-L (Last five games, latest result first)
Canada’s defeat at the hands of Switzerland was their first in 11 matches.
Their 10-match undefeated run, eight in international friendlies prior to the World Cup, included four wins.
The last defeat before the tournament was a 1-0 reverse in a friendly with Australia.
🇿🇦 South Africa take on Canada 🇨🇦 in the first match of the World Cup's round of 32 in Los Angeles. Who'll win? Vote below 👇
🏆 #FIFAWorldCup
⚽️ LIVE coverage: https://t.co/OIS8rvnqco
— AJE Sport (@AJE_Sport) June 28, 2026
Canada were involved in the second game played at the tournament, when the fellow co-hosts drew 1-1 with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Cyle Larin scored Canada’s goal to level matters only 121 seconds after coming on as 76th minute sub.
Jonathan David netted a hat-trick against 2022 tournament hosts Qatar in a 6-0 drubbing that ensured Canada’s passage to the knockouts – and grabbed the headlines for downing the back-to-back Asian champions in such a fashion.
Top spot in the group was denied them, however, with a 2-1 defeat by Switzerland in the final round of games in the group.
South Africa played in the opening game of the tournament, but were defeated by cohosts Mexico.
The 2-0 reverse in Mexico City was followed by a 1-1 draw against Czechia, with Teboho Mokoena’s second-half penalty earning the point in Atlanta.
The crunch game came in Monterrey with a win needed against South Korea – Thapelo Maseko scored the only goal to down the Asian giants and secure Bafana Bafana’s progress to the knockout stage in second spot in Group A.
Before the FIFA World Cup 2026 started, there were worries regarding everything from people being priced out of attending matches to the suitability of stadiums for playing football.
Mexico kicked off the event with a 2-0 group match win over South Africa on June 11 , the third time Mexico City has hosted the opening game. Fast forward 17 days and 72 fixtures later and it was Austria and Algeria that concluded the group stage on June 28 in Dallas, with a wild 3-3 draw that ended just after midnight on Sunday.
By late last week, FIFA announced the 2026 edition had surpassed the all-time World Cup attendance record of 3.6 million, surpassing Qatar 2022 at just over 3.4 million spectators, with three weeks remaining.
Click here for the top 5 biggest takeaways from World Cup group play.
After 72 games and 215 goals in 17 days, the group stage of World Cup 2026 is complete and the knockout schedule set.
Here’s what’s to come in the next six days:
Monday
Brazil vs Japan: (noon/17:00 GMT) at Houston Stadium, Texas, in the US
Germany vs Paraguay: (4:30pm/20:30 GMT) at Boston Stadium, Massachusetts, in the US
Netherlands vs Morocco: (7pm/01:00 GMT on Tuesday) at Monterrey Stadium in Mexico
Tuesday
Ivory Coast vs Norway (noon/17:00 GMT) at Dallas Stadium, Texas, in the US
France vs Sweden (5pm/21:00 GMT) at New York/New Jersey Stadium in the US
Mexico vs Ecuador (7pm/02:00 GMT on Wednesday) at Mexico City Stadium in Mexico
Wednesday
England vs Democratic Republic of the Congo (noon/16:00 GMT) at Atlanta Stadium, Georgia, in the US
Belgium vs Senegal (1pm/20:00 GMT) at Seattle Stadium in the US state of Washington
USA vs Bosnia and Herzegovina (5pm/00:00 GMT on Thursday) at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, California, in the US
Thursday
Spain vs Austria (noon/19:00 GMT) at Los Angeles Stadium
Portugal vs Croatia (7pm/23:00 GMT) at Toronto Stadium, Ontario, Canada
Switzerland vs Algeria (8pm/03:00 GMT on Friday) at BC Place Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Friday
Australia vs Egypt (1pm/18:00 GMT) at Dallas Stadium
Argentina vs Cape Verde (6pm/22:00 GMT) at Miami Stadium, Florida, in the US
Colombia vs Ghana (8:30pm/01:30 GMT on Saturday) at Kansas City Stadium, Missouri, in the US
African teams have enjoyed their best-ever men’s World Cup campaign.
A record 10 African nations qualified for the expanded 2026 tournament, and nine have reached the round of 32, the most from the continent in a single World Cup.
Those who qualified are Algeria, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa, who kick off the knockout stages against Canada in a few hours.
Tunisia are the only African side eliminated so far.
The success builds on Africa’s growing influence on the world stage after Morocco’s historic run to the 2022 semifinals. With more nations now consistently challenging football’s traditional powers, the continent is enjoying its strongest World Cup showing yet.
This will be only the second meeting between South Africa and Canada. Their only previous encounter ended in a 2-0 win for Bafana Bafana in a friendly in Durban in 2007.
Canada, however, will be looking to end another unwanted record. They have lost both of their previous competitive matches against African opposition, falling 2-0 to Cameroon at the 2001 Confederations Cup before a 2-1 defeat to Morocco at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Despite that history, the Opta supercomputer shows Canada as the clear favourites. They won 55 percent of 25,000 pre-match simulations while South Africa triumphed in 20 percent. The remaining 24.9 percent of its calculations ended level after 90 minutes, which would send the tie to extra time and potentially penalties.
Overall, Canada are given a 67.8 percent chance of reaching the last 16, compared with 32.2 percent for South Africa.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s live coverage of South Africa vs Canada as the business end of World Cup 2026 arrives.
The first match of the Round of 32 pits two nations who have never previously played a World Cup knockout match against each other, as South Africa and Canada face -off in Los Angeles.
A place in the last 16, against the winner of the tie between the Netherlands and Morocco, is at stake.
South Africa stunned South Korea in their final Group A game to progress as runners-up, while Canada were also second in Group B after being edged out by Switzerland in their group stage finale.
The South Africans have improved game-by-game, recovering from their defeat to Mexico in the tournament’s opening game, when they finished with nine men, to salvage a draw against Czechia and then overcome South Korea.
Canada played out an entertaining draw with Bosnia, before thrashing Qatar 6-0 but they couldn’t salvage a point in a grandstand finish to their 2-1 defeat to Switzerland. That saw them pipped to top -spot by the Swiss, relinquishing home advantage for this tie.
I’m Alex Hoad, and I’ll bring you all the pre-match build-up, analysis and photo coverage of the game.
Rohan Sharma will provide the team news as soon as the lineups are announced and take you through the minute-by-minute live commentary.
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