Argentina begins its World Cup defense on Tuesday, June 16, against Algeria in Kansas City, with kickoff set for 22:00 Brasília time and a chance to break two long-running World Cup curses in one night. The reigning champions will be in the same place every titleholder dreads: back at the start, with history already waiting.
That is why the search around Argentina Vs Algeria is turning now. Argentina has never played Algeria in a World Cup before, and this opener is its first step in a group that later brings Austria and Jordan. If Argentina gets through the night, it can move toward a fourth title and join Italy and Germany on that mark.
Marcio Resende, watching from Buenos Aires, said the city hardly looks like a World Cup capital at all. Temperatures are below 10º C and there is little decoration in the streets, he said, a sharp contrast with the celebration seen in 2022. “It does not even seem like we are in the capital of the current world champion,” he said, even as a large crowd is still expected to gather and relive those scenes when the team steps on the field.
The first curse is plain enough. Argentina has lost every World Cup opener it has played as defending champion, beginning with Belgium in 1982 after winning in 1978 and Cameroon in 1990 after lifting the trophy in 1986. Diego Maradona was on the field in both of those defeats, and Argentina repeated the pattern again in 2022, when Saudi Arabia beat it 2-1 in Qatar. The second curse is colder and longer: no team has won the World Cup twice in a row since Brazil in 1962. Only Italy in 1934 and 1938, and Brazil in 1958 and 1962, have ever managed back-to-back titles.
Resende summed up the pressure in one line: Argentina goes into Tuesday’s match carrying the task of breaking two decades-old curses. That is the real test in Kansas City, before the group stage turns toward Austria and Jordan and the question becomes whether the champions can finally make a first step that looks like a champion’s step.
