Last updated: 2026-06-17 | Real-time data is subject to official announcements.
Australia pulled off an upset in their opening match of Group D at the 2026 World Cup, beating Turkey 2-0 at Vancouver’s BC Place stadium, writing a thrilling opening chapter for this Canadian host city’s World Cup debut. Before the match, the widely favoured side was Turkey, with their deep European footballing pedigree, but in the end it was Australia, the so-called underdog “Socceroos,” who walked off the pitch smiling.
Australia’s first goal came from the 20-year-old Nestory Irankunda. In the 27th minute, he received a long ball from Paul Okon-Engstler, shook off his marker with a beautiful piece of control, and then calmly slotted home, becoming the youngest World Cup goalscorer in Australia’s history. In the 75th minute of the second half, Connor Metcalfe collected the ball in midfield, drove forward all the way, and unleashed a long-range shot from about 23 metres out to find the net, sealing the 2-0 victory.
Another hero of this match was Australia’s goalkeeper. Coach Tony Popovic boldly handed a start to young goalkeeper Patrick Beach in place of the experienced Mat Ryan, and on his debut in an official World Cup fixture the newcomer made 8 saves, the most by any goalkeeper in a single match in the tournament so far. Throughout the game Turkey actually enjoyed plenty of possession and attacking time, but were repeatedly thwarted by Australia’s solid defensive line and goalkeeper, while Australia struck decisively on the counter, in what foreign media described as a “masterclass in counter-attacking.”
This victory instantly clarified the picture in Group D. In the group’s other match, hosts the United States thrashed Paraguay 4-1, so after the first round, the United States and Australia are level on 3 points at the top, while Paraguay and Turkey both suffered defeats and sit at the back for now. For a Turkey side that had high hopes placed on them, this is a rather unfavourable start — it is their return to the World Cup finals after many tournaments away since the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup (where they took third place), and having hoped for a good start, this opening defeat has now added pressure to their path to qualification. The remaining Group D fixtures are scheduled to take place on 19 June and 25-26 June, with every team still having room to turn things around, and the final list of qualifiers will only be revealed once all the group stage matches have been played.
For fans here in Canada, this match kicking off at Vancouver’s BC Place carries special meaning, because it is one of Canada’s host venues for this World Cup. I live in the Greater Vancouver area myself, and being able to watch a World Cup-level match right on my doorstep is a truly rare experience. If you too want to head to the venue or find a good spot around town to watch, you can refer to our compilation of where to watch and broadcast information within Canada; to keep up with the latest schedule and scores for every match, we recommend keeping an eye on the official FIFA match centre (FIFA.com), or simply checking our World Cup live scores page. As for broadcasts, within Canada you can watch the English-language coverage via TSN (full matches) and CTV (selected matches, including Canada’s games), while French-speaking viewers have RDS (along with the free-to-air channel Noovo); actual channels and time slots remain subject to the announcements of each broadcaster.
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