For all the strife, greed, grift and grandstanding that has pockmarked the build-up to this tournament, for all the claims of betrayal and desecration its troubled cradling has provoked, the 2026 World Cup began with a blessing in the Azteca Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
All the controversy was swept away for a little while as the tournament dawned in a magnificent cathedral of football that has witnessed some of the World Cup’s most beautiful moments and provided the stage for some of its greatest heroes.
As Mexico and South Africa took to the pitch here just before 1pm, it was impossible not
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