World Cup 2026 Day 6: Group J Recap

The sixth day of the 2026 World Cup was Group J's introduction, and the four nations came in with a bang! The reigning champions, Argentina, with their living legend, Messi, took on Algeria. While Austria's 28-year World Cup drought ended, Jordan made their debut on the World's stage.

General view inside the stadium of Argentina and Algeria flags on the pitch before the match

Siphiwe Sibeko

World Cup Group J - Matchday 1

Argentina 3 - 0 Algeria

Argentina brought many of their players who won the World Cup four years ago in Qatar to North America. Of course, the star of the team, 38-year-old Lionel Messi, led the line in his "last dance" at the World Cup. Algeria came out in its usual 4-2-3-1 formation, hoping to slow Messi down and frustrate him. That did not work.

Within the first 10 minutes, both Algeria and Argentina had goals ruled offside; however, that would not be the case soon after. The legend himself, Messi, opened the scoring in the 17th minute with a great strike. The goal seemed to shatter Algeria's bend-don't-break mentality, as they were now the team frustrated by midfield overloads.

Argentina's Lionel Messi celebrates scoring their first goal

Claudia Greco

In the second half, those frustrations continued for Algeria as they found little success in creating real chances to get back in the game. They took seven shots in the match, none of which were on target.  Then the inevitable happened again. Messi scored two goals in 16 minutes to make it 3-0 and put the game out of reach. The hat trick put Messi on 16 World Cup goals over the last six tournaments!

Argentina's Lionel Messi scores their third goal to complete a hat-trick

Bernadett Szabo

Algeria will hope their remaining two games in the group go a bit better than this one; they'll need that to be the case if they want any chance of getting out of the group. As for Argentina, they're sitting pretty at the top of Group J.

Austria 3 - 1 Jordan

General view inside the stadium before the match

Luisa Gonzalez

The nightcap of day six saw countries that have not been on this stage in a long time, or at all. 28-years later, Austria is back at the World Cup. Their world-class players got to play in the World Cup, and so did Jordan's players for the first time ever. Jordan set up in a 5-4-1 formation. Much like the first game in this group, they wanted to stay compact and not concede, and just like Algeria, this did not go as planned for Jordan.

The first half was close, but after 20 minutes, Austria found a way to score the game's first goal. Some great buildup and a strong finish from Romano Schmid was quite a welcome for Austria back at the World Cup. They took a lead into halftime, but did suffer a scare in the second half thanks to some history.

Jordan's Abdallah Nasib celebrates with teammates after Ali Olwan scores their first goal

DARREN YAMASHITA

In the 50th minute, Jordan had their first big moment in their first World Cup. Ali Iyad Olwan stunned Austria after a long run into the box and beat the keeper. It was 1-1, and things seemed they might be drama-filled, until an own-goal re-gave Austria the lead. Austrian legend Marko Arnautovic converted a PK in second-half stoppage time to make it 3-1.

Austria got the win and the crucial three points, but Jordan should not feel down and out. They stuck with the European side and should feel like they could get their first-ever World Cup points by just tweaking a few of those mistakes they made. 

Day 6, Group J, Round-up:

Argentina and Austria sit atop Group J  after the first games. Will we see more of the same in Matchday two, or will Algeria and Jordan get points? We'll have to wait and see next week.

Day Seven showcases some favorites to win the World Cup. England and Portugal enter the tournament on the final day of matchday one. All 48 teams will have played by the end of today!