The World Cup field is complete. Tuesday's playoff matches determined the last six participants, meaning all 48 nations are now confirmed for the 23rd edition of the tournament, which spans three countries and runs across five weeks this summer.
As the Guardian reports, the competition opens on 11 June in Mexico City and concludes with the final on 19 July in New Jersey. In between, 104 matches will be played across venues in the United States, Mexico and Canada — a scale that makes this the most logistically ambitious World Cup in the event's history.
The expanded 48-team format, introduced for this edition, has reshaped the structure of the competition considerably. Where previous tournaments built towards the knockout rounds through a relatively compact group stage, this iteration adds layers of fixtures and produces a broader, longer group phase, with more teams advancing and more matches required before the last 16 is reached. Whether that produces better football or merely more of it remains one of the genuine debates surrounding the summer.
The host nations each carry their own weight of expectation. The United States, as the dominant co-host and a side that has been building steadily through qualification, will attract scrutiny both on and off the pitch. The political backdrop to the tournament — with the American government's broader posture toward international relations a subject of considerable attention — adds an unusual dimension to what is ordinarily a straightforward question of sporting hospitality. Mexico, meanwhile, brings one of the tournament's most passionate football cultures to bear on home soil once again, and Canada participates as a co-host for the first time at this level.
Among the individual narratives that will animate the coming weeks, the presence or absence of the sport's most discussed figures always commands attention at a World Cup. The Guardian's preview addressed questions ranging across history, host-nation prospects and the broader spectacle of the event — a reflection of how much this tournament carries beyond the ninety minutes.
The countdown, in any case, is under way. Eleven June is ten weeks away.