Canada, Mexico, and the United States learned on Friday which teams they will be facing when the 2026 World Cup kicks off on their shores in June.

Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, Aaron Judge, and Wayne Gretzky were given the job of drawing the names that determined the makeup of the tournament’s group stage, which accounts for a large chunk of the games at this huge global sporting event.

As part of this draw, this collection of North American sporting legends revealed which teams the three co-hosts would have to get past if they reach the knockout stages, producing what will be seen as relatively favorable draws for each.

This will be the biggest World Cup ever, in that it’s the first to feature 48 teams. When the tournament was hosted in the United States previously, in 1994, it featured just 24 nations, but expanded to 32 at the next edition in France in 1998. It has remained at that number until now.

With so many teams, Friday’s draw in Washington DC, and the process behind it, produced a lot of information and permutations. Even the four aforementioned draw assistants, and hosts Rio Ferdinand and Samantha Johnson, had to pause on occasion to get their heads around it all.

It was easier to digest when looking at the outcome from the point of view of individual teams, and from the perspective of the hosts, there was one small advantage from the format of the draw, even beyond the benefit they already get from playing on home soil.

As hosts, Canada, Mexico, and the United States also had the automatic privilege of being in pot one – along with the strongest teams in the competition – meaning a potentially easier path to the knockouts.

Their main consideration, then, was which teams from pot two – the next highest-ranked teams – would be drawn in the hosts’ groups, because the team from this pot would likely present their most difficult challenge.

All three will have been pleased to avoid Croatia and Morocco from pot two and Norway from pot three, who all impressed in qualifying, but there are still some potentially tricky games to navigate.

Mexico, in Group A, faces a tough matchup with South Korea, whose star player and captain, Son Heung-min, recently joined Los Angeles FC of Major League Soccer, increasing his familiarity with the region ahead of the World Cup.

South Korea was unbeaten in Asian qualifying, only conceding eight goals in 16 games. This was arguably the toughest draw for any of the host nations.

Mexico has been the best-performing of the hosts in recent regional competitive play, winning the Nations League in March and the Gold Cup in July.

Since then, though, it has only won one of the friendly matches played towards the end of 2025 as coach Javier Aguirre attempted to get an idea of what his World Cup roster would look like.

His team will open the tournament at the iconic Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on 11 June, where it faces South Africa, which edged out Nigeria in a close-run African qualifying stage.

Group A will be completed by the winner of a UEFA qualifying play-off in March, when one of Denmark, North Macedonia, the Czech Republic or the Republic of Ireland will join them.

Canada will also face a team that was unbeaten and boasted a solid-looking defence in qualifying, Switzerland. It is joined in Group B by 2018 World Cup host Qatar, but another potentially tough test could come from the winner of another UEFA qualifying contingent, which contains Italy, a four-time World Cup champion.

Italy will be expected to navigate a European play-off that includes Northern Ireland, Wales, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, having been beaten to automatic qualification by that impressive Norway team, and it would be a tough opponent for the Jesse Marsch-coached Canadians.

Though their prospective opponents would disagree, the United States has the easiest draw of the three hosts. As a result, there will be pressure on the team, coached by Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, to reach the knockout rounds.

They are joined in Group D by the lowest-ranked team from pot two, Australia. The Socceroos participate in the Asian qualifying section, where they lost just once in the 10 games of the last round of qualifying, but only won five, reaching the World Cup as second in its group behind Japan. The US defeated Australia in a friendly match earlier in the year, just as they did Paraguay, who joined this group from pot three. Promising signs.

As is the case with the other hosts’ groups, there is uncertainty in terms of the completion of Group D. The final team will come from another UEFA play-off winner, this time from the section involving Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, and Kosovo, but the US will fancy their chances against anyone from this European collection.

Host nations remaining in a World Cup beyond the group stage always makes for a better tournament, and each of Canada, Mexico, and the US will be confident of such progress thanks to this draw.