Free watch parties will be held Thursday throughout Los Angeles County as the FIFA World Cup begins with Mexico facing South Africa and Czechia playing South Korea.
The Mexico-South Africa match in Mexico City will begin at noon Pacific Daylight Time, with the first watch party starting at 10 a.m. at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in downtown Los Angeles. A reservation is required and can be made at lapca.org.
Watch parties will start at 10:30 a.m. at Ovation Hollywood and at 11 a.m. at the Plaza Mexico retail and cultural center in Lynwood and Burton Chace Park in Marina Del Rey, where there will be food trucks, arts and crafts, lawn games, a photo booth and live entertainment, continuing through 9 p.m. with the Czechia-South Korea match.
A watch party organized by the Los Angeles Galaxy will begin at 11 a.m. on Pine Avenue at Broadway in Long Beach. With capacity limited, fans are advised to arrive early.
“Kick It In the Park” watch parties organized by the Office of Mayor Karen Bass, Los Angeles City Council members and Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks will begin at noon for the Mexico-South Africa game at the Wilmington Recreation Center, Echo Park, Sheldon-Arleta Park, the Central Library and Sun Valley Youth Arts Center and at 7 p.m. for the Czechia-South Korea match at the Wilmington Recreation Center, Echo Park and Sheldon-Arleta Park.
Kick It In the Park events will also include youth soccer clinics, neighborhood programming and community resources.
The watch party organized by AV Alta FC of USL League One will begin at noon at Yellen Park in Palmdale.
Mexico is 14th in the rankings compiled by FIFA, the global governing body for soccer, while South Africa is ranked 60th.
The Opta supercomputer gives Mexico a 66.3% chance of wining based on 10,000 pre-match simulations, South Africa a 14.3% chance while a tie occurs in 19.4% of the simulations.
Mexico is playing in the World Cup for the ninth consecutive time and 18th overall. It failed to advance past the group stage in 2022 after losing in the round of 16 for seven consecutive tournaments.
Mexico’s furthest progression was the quarterfinals in 1970 and 1986, when it was the host nation.
South Africa is playing in the World Cup for the first time since 2010 when it was the host and the fourth time overall. It has never advanced past the group stage.
The match will be televised in English by Fox and in Spanish by Telemundo.
South Korea is ranked 25th. Czechia, more widely known in English as the Czech Republic, is ranked 40th.
The Opta supercomputer gives South Korea a 42.9% chance of winning, Czechia a 31.1% chance. There is a 26% chance of a tie.
South Korea will be playing in its 13th World Cup, the most among Asian nations. It reached the round of 16 in 2022. Its best finish was fourth in 2002, when it co-hosted with Japan.
This is the second time Czechia will be playing in the World Cup following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992. It failed to advance past the group stage in 2006.
The telecast from Guadalajara will begin at 7 p.m. The English-language version will air on cable’s FS1 and the Spanish version on Telemundo.