The action before the action at the World Cup

The first ball of the 2026 World Cup will be kicked in Mexico City on June 11, ushering in 5 1/2 weeks of competition across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The expanded tournament will this year include 104 games, as many as six a day.

That’s enough to keep you sitting on the couch for more than a month. But until then, European leagues featuring the world’s best players will wrap up their schedules, training camps will pop up across North America, and warmup matches will whet fans’ appetite for international soccer action.

Here’s what to look for in the run-up to the first kickoff.

Club Season Concludes

Before they can begin to fully focus on preparing for the World Cup, players must finish up their seasons with their club teams.

Many of the best ply their trades in the “Big Five” leagues in Europe. The German Bundesliga ends May 16 and Ligue 1 in France the next day. The English Premier League, Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A cut it even closer, finishing up May 24, a mere 2 1/2 weeks before the Cup kicks off.

So Erling Haaland of Norway and Bruno Fernandes of Portugal (Premier League) and Kylian Mbappé of France and Lamine Yamal of Spain (La Liga) will be heading virtually straight from their final club match to their national team camps without a break.

It will be even tighter for players from Premier League club Arsenal (like Bukayo Saka of England) and Paris Saint-Germain (Ousmane Dembélé of France), who will meet in the UEFA Champions League final in Budapest, Hungary, on the worryingly late date of May 30. They’ll play in the most important game of their club season and then high-tail it to national team training camps that are already in full swing.

Lionel Messi of Argentina is already stateside, playing for Inter Miami in MLS, which is in the middle of its season but will take a break for the World Cup beginning May 25. Cristiano Ronaldo -- still a huge name, even if his importance to Portugal has faded at age 41 -- plays in the Saudi League, which wraps up May 12.

Assembling On-Site

To get reacquainted with their teammates and shore up team tactics, the players will head to the base camps in North America where they will live and train leading up to and during the tournament. So if you happen to live near one of the camps, you may see a team bus or even the occasional player out and about. Some teams have said they plan on holding open practices so the public can watch stars in action even if they don’t have tickets to a match.

France will train in Boston; Spain in Chattanooga, Tennessee; England and Argentina in Kansas City, Missouri; and Brazil in Morristown, New Jersey. South Korea and Colombia will head to Guadalajara, Mexico; and Panama will be in New Tecumseth, Ontario.

Who Makes the Team?

Not every great player will be playing in the World Cup. Teams can bring only 26 players to the tournament, and they will announce their final squads June 2.

A few surprising omissions are likely: Maybe once-top players lost their form, or don’t fit a manager’s scheme, or have too much competition at their position. Or maybe they just rubbed someone in authority the wrong way.

In 2014, U.S. manager Jurgen Klinsmann stunned American fans by leaving out the team’s most famous player, forward Landon Donovan. What star will be shockingly dropped this time? Perhaps Premier League leading scorer Haaland? (Don’t bet on it.)

Same Stars, Lower Stakes, Cheaper Prices

Want to see a top national team, but don’t want to pay the World Cup’s knee-weakening prices or stunning parking and transportation charges? Some national teams will be playing warmup matches in North America in the days before the Cup that will be more budget-friendly than the actual tournament.

Among the tastier matchups are Canada-Ireland in Montreal (June 5), United States-Germany in Chicago (June 6), and England-Costa Rica in Orlando, Florida (June 10). And there may well be a fun atmosphere when Argentina takes on Iceland at Jordan-Hare Stadium, home of Auburn University’s football team.

And then, kickoff! Mexico faces South Africa in Mexico City on June 11, and it’ll be time to tell your non-soccer-loving friends and family that you are disappearing till July as the biggest event in soccer returns to North America for the first time since 1994.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright 2026 The New York Times Company

This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 3:34 PM.