{"id":5421,"date":"2026-06-24T15:34:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=5421"},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:34:58","slug":"2026-world-cup-group-a-scenarios-what-south-korea-czechia-south-africa-need-to-advance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=5421","title":{"rendered":"2026 World Cup Group A Scenarios: What South Korea, Czechia, South Africa Need To Advance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Mexico has already won the World Cup&#8217;s Group A and secured its place in the Round of 32, where they will face a third-place team in Mexico City on June 30. The rest of Group A is still very much undecided. South Korea, Czechia and South Africa are all alive heading into today&#8217;s simultaneous 9 p.m. ET kickoffs, with Czechia vs. Mexico on FOX and South Africa vs. South Korea on FS1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Here is what every team in Group A needs heading into the final matchday. For a full breakdown of every group at the 2026 World Cup, see the\u00a0<u>complete group scenarios guide at FOX Sports<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Mexico has won the group and will face a third-place team (from either Group C, E, F, H, or I) in the Round of 32 in Mexico City on June 30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Mexico has won Group A and will face a third-place team from Group C, E, F, H or I in the Round of 32 in Mexico City on June 30. Today&#8217;s match against Czechia carries no implications for their Round of 32 game. Expect rotation ahead of the knockout stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>South Korea can lock up second place in Group A with a win or draw against South Africa. A loss still leaves the door open for South Korea to finish third and potentially advance as one of the eight best third-place teams, but only if Czechia also loses or draws against Mexico.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Czechia can finish second in Group A with a win over Mexico and a South Korea loss, provided they maintain their goal difference advantage over South Africa (currently -1 for Czechia, -2 for South Africa). Even without second place, Czechia has multiple paths to finishing third and potentially advancing. They can advance with a win, a draw or even a loss combined with a South Africa loss could all keep them alive depending on tiebreakers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>South Africa could finish second with a win over South Korea combined with a Czechia loss or draw, or even a Czechia win if South Africa can make up the goal difference gap. A win also gives South Africa several paths to a third-place finish that could be good enough to advance, depending on how other groups finish. A draw keeps them in third-place contention if Czechia loses. South Africa still has a realistic shot at extending their tournament regardless of result, as long as they avoid a loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Both Group A matches kick off simultaneously at 9 p.m. ET today and air live on FOX and FS1,\u00a0<u>streaming on FOX One<\/u>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Mexico has already won the World Cup&#8217;s Group A and secured its place in the Round of 32, where they will face a third-place team in Mexico City on June 30. The rest of Group A is still very much undecided. South Korea, Czechia and South Africa are all alive heading [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}