Key events
32 mins: Nice interplay on the left, started by Douglas, driven by Paqueta, and wasted by Vinicius, who fails to time the final ball into the box.
31 mins: Raphinha is a little fortunate to avoid a booking for catching Experience late.
30 mins: Vinicius is flagged offside on the left, Brazil’s fifth indiscretion of that nature already.
27 mins: Douglas turns a throw-in into a hospital pass that Bellegarde almost fashions into an opportunity. It works out well for Brazil though who are allowed space to work the ball quickly through the transitional defence to Raphinha but he can’t find any penetration coming in off the right.
“As a Brazilian who watched the previous match with family, we all collectively agreed two major things,” this is Marcos, not me, by the way.
“1. We need a proper #9, Endrick, who is a clinical finisher and creates the space. Igor Thiago was poor and Matheus Cunha is not a striker.
2. The midfield needed to be completely ripped up. Casemiro looked slow and off the pace, the less said about Paquetá the better, and Guimarães was mediocre and didn’t look forwards enough.
Neither of these happened, and we’re seeing the result. But as I was writing this email, we scored, so maybe I should just trust Ancelotti, eh?”
Time for a hydration break and a chance for me to purge my brain of the only thing I ever think of whenever “on the hour” is mentioned. Enjoy the debut stylings of Alan Partridge on the wireless from many moons ago.
Vinicius Jr cut in from the left, curled a decent effort that Placide parried, but the ball rebounded into the danger zone where Delacroix and Cunha each stuck out boots with the ball bobbling over the line off one of them. Cunha accepts the plaudits and pulls out the surfing celebration he perfected with Manchester United last season.
GOAL! Brazil 1-0 Haiti (Cunha, 23)
Brazil open the scoring. Was it an og or was it Cunha’s?
22 mins: Haiti try to counter but leave themselves exposed in transition. Guimaraes is onto the loose ball and feeds an inch perfect throughball for Raphinha to dart onto, approach Placide, dink the ball over the onrushing keeper, and watch it dribble wide!
21 mins: Brazil earn another corner, this time on the left, but like the others it fails to create any threat.
21 mins: Public service announcement: does anyone know why this match is kicking off at half-past, not on the hour? I don’t.
20 mins: There is a real lack of vim to Brazil. Laboured in possession, passive in defence. Haiti almost unlock them down the right but Arcus is offside on the overlap. This feels like one of those mid-90s tactical games of chess, not the five-time champions versus a team with a 100% lose rate.
18 mins: The delivery is a decent one, swinging in left-footed from the right. Placide flaps but gets enough to divert the first effort away, then Vinicius has a shot deflected wide for another set piece. This one is headed away with authority.
17 mins: Casemiro again looks for Raphinha over the top. Haiti cover and concede a corner.
15 mins: “I agree on Paqueta,” emails Robert Speed. “His repeated selection is proof that the legacy of the great Brazilian midfielders is well and truly over. He is a very poor player in my view.” Also, that as may be, in a match like this, why not just play a striker?
14 mins: Haiti are happy to let Brazil stroke the ball across defence and midfield, retaining their defensive structure. The Selecao are not desperate to play anything vertical or through the lines.
12 mins: It’s hard to establish exactly what Ancelotti is trying to accomplish with this XI. There are lots of players who want to come deep and accept the ball at their feet. Only Raphinha seems to want to run in behind.
Bosh! Right on cue, the ball is scooped over the static defence for the dashing Barcelona winger and he hammers home the opening goal. One chance, one goal. Clinical. Offside. Forget all that.
Still, a warning for Haiti and perhaps the answer to the question regarding Brazil’s Plan A.
11 mins: Haiti have settled comfortably and do not look overawed at all by the occasion.
10 mins: Paqueta is a curious selection for mine, and he has started poorly, robbed on a couple of occasions trying to carry the ball through midfield.
8 mins: Vinicius stumbles, sits on the ball like a freestyle trickster, uses the distraction to wrongfoot his opponent and sprint into the box. Once there he fails to do anything productive and hits the deck looking for an invisible penalty.
7 mins: Haiti break with decent speed down the right but the quick throughball is overhit and Alisson gathers.
6 mins: Placide is, um, too placid, with his goal kick and the Spanish referee reverses the call and awards a corner. Brazil make nothing of it and are soon forced to circulate the ball across their back four. Raphinha is again the attempted outlet on the right but he can only slide and hook the ball back to turn a goal kick into a Haiti throw-in.
6 mins: Casemiro is controlling the tempo from deep but his attempted lofted pass in the channel for Raphinha is overhit.
4 mins: If you expected Brazil to storm out of the blocks in response to their turgid draw with Morocco, you would be wrong. Vinicius again accepts possession deep and goes down clutching his shin following a strong – but legal challenge. Soon afterwards Douglas is collected illegally and Arcus receives a very early yellow card.
2 mins: Vinicius starts on the left, picking the ball up off his defence and setting play in motion, drifting infield. Cunha shows neat skill to keep the ball moving down the right but Haiti get bodies into the fray and clear.
Kick-off!
Brazil’s quest for a first win of the World Cup is under way…
With an average age of 30, this is Brazil’s oldest starting XI since 1962.
La Dessalinienne is a more subdued affair. Without knowing the words it sounds like it would be a song of battlefield loss and the sacrifice of martyrs to build a homeland.
Carlo Ancelotti looks like a curious owl as he stands for Hino Nacional Brasileiro. Vini Jr belts it out with gusto, eyes closed, head back, preaching to the heavens.
As the teams begin the slow walk out under the Friday night lights, Colin Livingstone comes in hot: “Mark my words, this game is going to be one of the shocks of the tournament – Haiti will draw at worst,” he declares.
A glorious sunny day is giving way to a perfect evening in Philadelphia. Temperatures are in the mid-20s and sliding.
The stands have a mostly yellow hue as Brazil’s supporters turn out in big numbers. But there are not insignificant pockets of Haitian blue, red, and white.
Both teams are wearing their away kits tonight.
For Brazil that means a black and blue Rorschach test, supposedly inspired by the warning colours of a poison dart frog. The manufacturer’s swoosh on the jersey has been replaced by that of a basketballer, because nothing is sacred.
Haiti will be wearing the all white version of the uniform that was hastily redesigned on the eve of the tournament.
Tonight’s officials are from Spain, led by referee Alejandro Hernández Hernández.
I’ve not seen a bald eagle captivate a football ground like that since the late great Jim Smith was at Derby County.
Philadelphia Stadium, AKA Lincoln Financial Field, AKA The Linc, opened in 2003, and seats just under 70,000 fans.
Primary tenants are the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles and the stadium design evokes the bird of prey with wing-like canopies above the east and west stands and the Eagle’s Nest balcony to the north. Three open corners of the stadium provide fans with views of the Philadelphia skyline.
The exterior of the stadium uses a brick façade to reference the historic architecture throughout the city. It is also one of the most environmentally sustainable megavenues in the United States.
The other match in Group C has just concluded with Morocco scoring early then holding off Scotland to win 1-0. Time for Brazil to respond.
Neymar would probably not even be in North America this summer had Rodrygo been fit. Instead the Real Madrid winger is recuperating from an ACL injury by penning thoughtful columns.
The pressure of wearing the Brazil shirt can be heavy but also creates a positive kind of responsibility. That pressure exists solely because of the greatness of our football, the titles we’ve won, and our historic standing in the sport. The fans’ mood often hinges on the result, which is only natural in a country so used to winning regularly.
So, as a player you have to realise that a barrage of criticism isn’t the end of the world, just as a massive wave of praise doesn’t mean everything is sorted out and that you will win the tournament. It is crucial to distinguish facts and balanced analysis from comments born of raw emotion and frustration.
Players aren’t immune to what is said on social media. I believe in using a filter: a process of separating what is relevant, what deserves a response or consideration from what is simply garbage, intended to cause hurt and completely detached from reality.
This is not a vintage Brazil squad but in Vinicius Junior they have a match-winner capable of upholding the grand traditions of the Selecao, if only they’d get over their obsession with Neymar and make this his team.
If Vinícius is now Brazil’s undisputed star, the 25-year-old has also yet to really make the team his own. He has turned in frustrating and often fruitless performances at major international tournaments, while scoring a mere nine goals in 49 appearances entering this, his second World Cup.
He has yet to wrest top billing from Neymar, whose jersey was worn by huge swaths of the Brazilian fans in their draw with Morocco on Saturday.
Haiti XI
Sebastien Migne has added an extra defender to his starting line-up with Jean-Kevin Duverne turning a back four into a back five. Wilson Isidor is the man sacrificed, while the only other change sees Deedson replaced by Casimir.
Haiti XI (5-4-1): 1 Placide, 2 Arcus, 4 Ade, 5 Delcroix, 22 Duverne; 8 Experience, 21 Casimir, 17 Jean Jacques, 10 Bellegarde, 15 Providence; 20 Pierrot.
Brazil XI
Ancelloti has made two changes to his starting XI and, I assume, a tactical switch. Danilo comes in at right back, while further forward Matheus Cunha replaces Igor Thiago. The Man Utd man’s inclusion means Brazil start without a recognised No 9 so expect a more fluid attack focussed on Vinicius.
Brazil (4-2-4): 1 Alisson, 13 Danilo, 4 Marquinhos, 3 Gabriel, 16 Santos; 5 Casemiro, 8 Guimaraes; 11 Raphinha, 20 Paqueta, 7 Vinicius, 25 Cunha.
Following that victory I have the USA as favourites to reach the quarterfinals. Complete your own Bracketology and prove me wrong.
Only one contest has been played to completion so far this matchday and it was a good one for the USA. The hosts guaranteed their participation in the knockout phase with a needly 2-0 victory over an Australian side that regressed towards the mean following their outstanding opening win over Turkey.
Australia looked like a bunch of bananas in their all-yellow strip against the USA, and it is tempting to call this comprehensive 2-0 defeat a banana skin in the Socceroos’ World Cup campaign. In truth, however, this was less a slip up than a humbling, and the visitors proved ripe opposition as the hosts came and took what they wanted.
Two presumably unrelated pieces of climate change and big sponsor news.
Two of the first round of matches at the World Cup were played at a level of severe heat that a football players’ union has previously said should trigger the delay or postponement of games, a Guardian analysis has found. A further four games were played in cities with temperatures also beyond that level of heat, though conditions inside the stadiums were mitigated by air conditioning.
Climate activists – including former and current professional athletes – are calling for Fifa and other professional sporting organizations to cut ties with the oil and gas industry…
The protesters’ key target is Saudi Aramco, the exclusive energy sponsor for this year’s tournament, which is also the world’s largest corporate carbon emitter. Players have for years called on Fifa to drop the company as a sponsor, and in May, a group of health, climate science and sports experts signed an open letter highlighting the organization’s Aramco sponsorship, arguing that the “active promotion” of fossil fuels creates “a conflict of interest with the protection of player welfare”.
If you prefer your World Cup roundups in written form, Dominic Booth has you covered.
An old footballing adage tells us that no World Cup is quite complete without a gutsy run of results from the host nation(s), who dutifully go deep in the tournament to stir up local fervour. See South Korea in 2002 for a prime example: a plucky and at times controversial slalom to the semi-finals before being crushed by a traditional heavyweight. Way back when, a host nation winning the whole thing was commonplace, occurring in five of the first 11 World Cups when Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934), England (1966), West Germany (1974) and Argentina (1978) triumphed on home soil. Nowadays, thanks to Fifa’s completely altruistic desire to spread the game globally, the prospect of a host nation actually lifting the trophy is somewhat diminished, with South Africa and Qatar crashing out in the group stage in recent-ish years.
With nearly two hours to kick-off, you have plenty of time to catch up with Max and Barry’s game of four quarters.
Preamble
Jonathan Howcroft
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of match 31 of the 2026 World Cup between Brazil and Haiti. Kick-off in this Group C clash at Philadelphia Stadium is 8:30pm local time (1:30am BST/10:30am AEST).
On paper this is a mismatch of historic proportions.
The Selecao have five stars above their crest, Carlo Ancelotti in the dugout, and the Champions League-winning skipper wearing the captain’s armband. Haiti have only played four matches at the finals, lost them all, and are managed by a Frenchman who has been in charge for two years without ever setting foot in the country.
But the team in gold were, to put it charitably, rusty, in their opening draw with Morocco, and Les Grenadiers were spirited in defeat to Scotland.
Anything other than a comprehensive Brazilian victory would set alarm bells ringing in the home of jogo bonito. It is 24 years and five World Cups since the country last tasted success. They have never gone longer between open top bus parades.
I’ll be back shortly with team news and a roundup of all the matchday action so far. In the meantime you can keep an eye on Scotland v Morocco and email any thoughts about the World Cup to jonathan.howcroft.freelance@theguardian.com.
