{"id":711488,"date":"2026-06-03T00:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T00:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711488\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T00:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T00:44:09","slug":"black-gold-world-cup-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711488\/","title":{"rendered":"Black & Gold World Cup Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

While LAFC takes a summer break, four of its players\u2014and the rest of the world\u2014will enjoy an action-packed summer. Here\u2019s everything that Black & Gold fans and Angelinos need to know ahead the FIFA World Cup 2026\u2122.<\/p>\n

This story will be updated.<\/p>\n

\n STORYLINES<\/p>\n

WHOLE NEW WORLD – With an expanded 48-team field, this year\u2019s FIFA World Cup<\/a> is the largest in history, hosting 104 matches in 16 cities across North America (including eight matches in Los Angeles), featuring traditional powers like France and defending champions Argentina, and first-time participants Cape Verde, Cura\u00e7ao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

FOUR LAFC PLAYERS – Forward and MLS assist leader Son Heung-Min<\/a> will captain South Korea in his fourth FIFA World Cup. Midfielder Mathieu Chioni\u00e8re<\/a>\u00a0and winger Jacob Shaffelburg<\/a> will make their World Cup debuts for Canada, while midfielder Stephen Eust\u00e1quio<\/a> will represent Canada for the second time in World Cup competition. South Korea and Canada could potentially meet in the Round of 32, in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you’re talking about the World Cup, as a footballer it’s like a dream,\u201d Son said. \u201cIt doesn’t matter how many World Cups you have played in or how many you have experienced, the World Cup is like a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83c\uddf0\ud83c\uddf7 South Korea – group stage schedule (Group A)<\/p>\n

Thu. June 11<\/p>\n

vs.\u00a0Czech Republic\u00a0in Guadalajara, Mexico<\/p>\n

Thu. June 18<\/p>\n

vs. Mexico\u00a0in Guadalajara, Mexico<\/p>\n

Wed. June 24<\/p>\n

vs.\u00a0South Africa in\u00a0Monterrey, Mexico<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 Canada – group stage schedule (Group B) <\/p>\n

Fri. June 12<\/p>\n

vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto, Canada<\/p>\n

Thu. June 18<\/p>\n

vs. Qatar in Vancouver, Canada<\/p>\n

Wed. June 24<\/p>\n

vs. Switzerland in Vancouver, Canada\u00a0<\/p>\n

STARS AND STRIPES – LAFC midfielder Timmy Tillman helped the U.S. prepare for this World Cup as a member of Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s roster last year. Now he will watch his younger brother Malik play for the USMNT and try to advance out of Group D. \u201cIt means a lot to every soccer fan here in the U.S., but for me especially it’s going to be fun to watch my brother play, have my family here, and just be a fan,\u201d Timmy Tillman said.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 United States group stage schedule (Group D)<\/p>\n

Fri. June 12\u00a0<\/p>\n

vs. Paraguay in Los Angeles<\/p>\n

Fri. June 19\u00a0<\/p>\n

vs. Australia in Seattle\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thu. June 25\u00a0<\/p>\n

vs. Turkey in Los Angeles\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH PARTIES – Enjoy the tournament with the Black & Gold family at LAFC\u2019s Summer of Soccer Celebration<\/a> (presented by Psycho Bunny), a series of fan-focused events and community activations across Los Angeles along with live viewings of FIFA World Cup 2026\u2122 matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WORLD CUP MATCHES IN LA – The world\u2019s city hosts eight World Cup matches, including a Quarterfinal match on July 10, at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood (known as Los Angeles Stadium during the competition).\u00a0<\/p>\n

GROUP STAGE MATCHES IN LA:<\/p>\n

Fri. June 12 \u2013 USA vs. Paraguay (Group D)
\nMon. June 15 \u2013 Iran vs. New Zealand (Group G)
\nThurs. June 18 \u2013 Switzerland vs. TBD (Group B)
\nSun. June 21 \u2013 Belgium vs. Iran (Group G)
\nThu. June 25 \u2013 USA vs. TBD (Group D)<\/p>\n

ROUND OF 32 MATCHES IN LA:<\/p>\n

Sun. June 28 \u2013 2nd place Group A vs. 2nd place Group B
\nThu. July 2 \u2013 1st place Group H vs. 2nd place Group J<\/p>\n

Fri. July 10 \u2013 [Teams TBD]<\/p>\n

SANS HUGO – For the first time since 2006, France will compete in a World Cup without Hugo Lloris in goal. Lloris, LAFC\u2019s current number 1 and the all-time leader in World Cup appearances by a goalkeeper, captained Les Bleus to the championship in 2018 and a runner-up finish in 2022 before retiring from international play. Inter Milan keeper Mike Maignan is expected to start in goal for France, which is in Group I with Senegal, Iraq, and Norway.<\/p>\n

TOGETHER AGAIN – South Korea and Mexico are in the same group, just like the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when on the final day of group-stage play Mexico (and LAFC star Carlos Vela) needed Son\u2019s team to get a result over defending champions Germany to allow El Tri to advance.\u00a0Son scored in stoppage time<\/a>\u00a0to clinch a 2-0 upset win over Germany on June 27, 2018, sparking pro-Korea celebrations across Mexico and setting up Son\u2019s first ever visit to LA, where he was welcomed by grateful LAFC and El Tri supporters:<\/p>\n

\ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\uddfd Mexico group stage schedule (Group A)<\/p>\n

Thu. June 11\u00a0<\/p>\n

vs. South Africa in Mexico City<\/p>\n

Thu. June 18\u00a0<\/p>\n

vs. South Korea in Guadalajara<\/p>\n

Wed. June 24\u00a0<\/p>\n

vs. Czech Republic in Mexico City\u00a0<\/p>\n

SON IS SEASONED\u00a0–\u00a0Son, who experienced playing at altitude in Mexico during two Concacaf Champions Cup matches with LAFC this spring, said, \u201cIn Mexico it was obviously not easy, if I’m honest. It wasn’t easy with the altitude, with all the different conditioning, but this is how it is. They’re hosting the World Cup … I think it is a big, big deal, so we’re happy to go there and challenge ourselves. As an athlete you have to love those kind of big challenges, so we are looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

GROUP C IS BLACK & GOLD\u00a0– LAFC players Igor Jesus, Ryan Porteous, and Amin Boudri will be watching Group C, which includes Brazil, Scotland, and Morocco. Midfielder Jesus was part of Brazil\u2019s U-23 National Team that won gold at 2023 Pan-Am Games. Defender Porteous has earned 13 caps for Scotland\u2019s senior team. Attacking midfielder Boudri is of Moroccan descent and will also be keeping an eye on Group F and Sweden, the country where he was born and raised and for whom he played at the U-21 level.<\/p>\n

AFRICAN PRIDE – Denis Bouanga and Gabon would have been part of Group E in this World Cup if not for a stubborn and extremely talented Cote d\u2019Ivoire side that narrowly eliminated Gabon in last fall\u2019s CAF (Confederation of African Football) qualification, when the Ivorians inched past Gabon by a single point, 23 to 22. Cote d\u2019Ivoire, one of a record 10 African teams competing in this summer’s tournament, must face a difficult Group E comprised of Germany, Cura\u00e7ao, and Ecuador.<\/p>\n

\n WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I was young, watching the World Cup, I always harbored the thought: \u2018I want to become a player like that; I want to stand on a stage like that.\u2019 Whether this is my fourth World Cup, my third, or whatever number it may be, that sense of dreaming and passion remains exactly the same as when I first set out to do this. So, for this World Cup as well, I intend to go with that same mindset\u2014returning to my roots. My goal, in a sense, is to give my absolute best and fully showcase everything I have to offer\u2014whether that be my abilities on the pitch or my contributions off the pitch. I believe that if I do that\u2014and if the team moves in the direction we aspire to go\u2014we will undoubtedly be able to achieve great results. That is my biggest objective. But perhaps most importantly, my goal is to create a shared celebration\u2014a time when the people of South Korea, and especially the football fans who have shown us so much love, can laugh together, come together, and simply enjoy the festivities. After all, the World Cup is truly a festival, isn’t it? It is, in a way, a festival for all the football fans who have loved the sport over the past four years; my goal is to help foster a culture where we can truly embrace and enjoy that celebration together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know in Canada it’s a lot of hockey. But right now I feel there’s a transition that we have a lot of soccer players coming out and playing right now in very good clubs around the world, and that’s what we want to show. We want to spark something in the Canadian community, so we will have more players coming in the system and the level getting higher and higher.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe [Canada] are going to play a World Cup at home so I think the expectation is a little bit higher. We have the experience of going through Qatar, which was a hard tournament for us, but at the same time it was good that we were there. It gave us a lot of experience and we were able to go through that process, which was painful but at the same time we learned a lot. In Canada I know that everybody’s tuned in. They’re very supportive of the team. We need the support of everybody in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n ALSO PLAYING<\/p>\n

They are not competing in this summer\u2019s World Cup, but David Mart\u00ednez (Venezuela), Nathan Ordaz (El Salvador), and Matt Evans (Guatemala) were called up by their countries to participate in international friendlies during this window. Ordaz and El Salvador will face Son and South Korea in a pre-World Cup friendly in Utah on Wed. June 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n

BMO Stadium will host a friendly between El Salvador and Qatar on Sat. June 6. (TICKETS<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Jude Terry is on the United States\u2019 20-player roster for the U-18 MNT\u2019s international training camp June 1-9 in Oliva, Spain, where the team will play friendlies against Sweden U-18 (June 5) and Qatar U-19 (June 8).<\/p>\n

LAFC will be back in action on Friday, July 17, when the Black & Gold travels to Carson to face the Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. PT. All MLS matches are broadcast on Apple TV, with local radio coverage available on 710 AM ESPN, the ESPN LA app, KYPA 1230 AM [Korean], and 980 AM La Mera Mera [Spanish].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While LAFC takes a summer break, four of its players\u2014and the rest of the world\u2014will enjoy an action-packed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,1379,345896,596,345898,345895,44,29474,85,345897],"class_list":["post-711488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-features","tag-fifa-world-cup-26","tag-football","tag-jacob-shaffelburg","tag-mathieu-choiniere","tag-news","tag-son-heung-min","tag-sports","tag-stephen-eustaquio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}