"The opening match of this year's World Cup is Mexico versus South Africa," notes Matt Reilly. "This was also the first game of South Africa's World Cup in 2010. Is this the first time that an opening match of a World Cup has featured the same two teams as a previous tournament? If not, what is the most common opening fixture of a World Cup?"

The hosts South Africa drew 1-1 with Mexico in the opening game of the 2010 edition. Siphiwe Tshabalala put them ahead with a spectacular goal before Rafael Marquez scored a 79th-minute equaliser. The two sides will meet again at the Azteca on Thursday.

A repeat opening fixture happened once before, and Mexico were again involved. Back in the day - way, way back - World Cups often kicked off with simultaneous games. In Italy in 1934, when the competition was a straight knockout, all 16 teams began at the same time: 4pm CET on 27 May.

The last World Cup to include simultaneous curtain-raisers was in Chile in 1962. Such schedules increase the scope for a repeat fixture, and Brazil met Mexico three times in four tournaments between 1950 and 1962.

In 1950, when the World Cup was held in Brazil, it was a standalone opening game; in both 1954 and 1962, it was one of four. Brazil won all three games; their 2-0 victory in 1962 included a legendary solo goal from Pele.

1950 Brazil 4-0 Mexico
Ademir 2, Jair, Baltazar
1954 Brazil 5-0 Mexico
Baltazar, Didi, Pinga 2, Julinho
1962 Brazil 2-0 Mexico
Zagallo, Pele

Mexico were also in the same group when Brazil hosted the tournament in 2014, so there is a world in which that was the opening game. But in this life, Brazil began with a 3-1 victory over Croatia before drawing 0-0 against Mexico in their second match.

The Women's World Cup, which began in 1991, has only ever had a single opening game. So far, none have been repeated.

A National First for Madrid?

"There are no Real Madrid players in the Spain World Cup squad - a first or what?" asks Peter Chamberlain.

A first indeed. There are 10 Real Madrid players at the World Cup, but none of them will be wearing a Spain shirt. The fewest before this competition, in the men's game, was in 1950. Luis Molowny was the only Madrid player in the squad. He played a single game against the eventual champions Uruguay in the final stage.

There were also no Madrid players in the Spain squad when the women's team played at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. Their women's team was only founded in 2014. By 2023 they had eight players - including Olga Carmona, who scored the winner in the final.

Everton, Everton, Everton

"Three former Everton managers will be in charge of teams at the World Cup: Carlo Ancelotti (Brazil), Roberto Martinez (Portugal) and Ronald Koeman (Netherlands). Is this a record?" asks Mike Hulse.

It is not a record for this tournament. Matthew Williams was among those to point out that four Chelsea managers will be getting sweaty in an American dugout in the next few weeks:

Carlo Ancelotti, again (Brazil)
Mauricio Pochettino (USA)
Graham Potter (Sweden)
Thomas Tuchel (England)

And, Matthew adds, Scotland have a former Chelsea assistant coach in Steve Clarke.

Knowledge archive

"New Zealand have called up Tommy Smith to their World Cup squad. He played for Braintree Town last season, who were playing in the fifth-tier National League. Has a player from a lower division ever been called up to either a World Cup or continental championship?" asks Paul Wilson.

We had this question four years ago, when the best we could do was tier seven. Here is a snippet of what we said back then:

The best answers come from the 2006 World Cup, specifically the squads of Togo and Trinidad and Tobago. "In 2006, they took Dennis Lawrence, who was playing at fourth-tier Wrexham, and Evans Wise, who was playing in Germany's fifth tier for Waldhof Mannheim," writes Leigh Cartwright. "Brent Sancho, Ian Cox, and Chris Birchall were also selected from League One (Gillingham, Gillingham, and Port Vale, respectively)."
"During the same tournament, three Togolese footballers represented clubs on the lower rungs of French football," adds Chai in Atalanta. "Affo Erassa played for AS Moulins (tier three), Alaixys Romao played for Louhans-Cuiseaux (tier three) and Richmond Forson played for amateur team Vendee Poire sur Vie in Regional 1 (tier seven)."
Finally, Florian Camphausen has news of the one that got away. "Sherif Toure Coubageat from German seventh-tier club Concordia Ihrhove did play a few minutes for Togo in the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations. But he was not called up to represent them at the World Cup." Some people have no respect for trivia.

Can you help?

"The German great Thomas Hassler won the World Cup in 1990 and the European Championship in 1996. His club career was considerably less glittering, netting only a solitary Intertoto Cup trophy with Karlsruher SC. That means he won one more winner's medal as a national player than with clubs. Has anyone exceeded his tally by two or more international honours?" wonders Kari Tulinius.

"In 1986, Gary Lineker scored six of England's seven World Cup goals," writes Brendon O'Mahony. "Has anyone scored a higher proportion of their country's goals at a World Cup? Let's exclude teams who were knocked out in the group stage or who scored three goals or fewer - otherwise you could have players such as Antonin Panenka, who scored both Czechoslovakia goals in 82 (penalties btw)."

"Scotland's 2026 squad contains no more than three players from one team (Findlay Curtis was on loan at Kilmarnock in 2026, but is still a Rangers player as far as I am concerned). As far as the club side with the highest number of players in a national squad, is this the lowest number for either this World Cup, or any of the previous ones?" asks Stuart McLagan. "In addition, with only Celtic, Bournemouth and Hearts (Lawrence Shankland's transfer is not registered until the transfer window opens) supplying more than one player, are the 21 different clubs supplying players to the Scottish squad a record? Also, while on a Wikipedia dive recently, I came across the weird story of the El Salvador team from the 1982 World Cup, who only took 20 players instead of the permitted 22 as a cost-saving measure. I can just about imagine things like this happening in the very early days of the tournament, due to lengthy travel and the lack of sponsorships and millions of pounds in prize money, but is this the most recent example of squads being short-handed?"