These nations could debut at the 2026 World Cup

congrarulations to Jordan and Uzbekistan.

They have deserved it after so many nears in the last 3 decades.

and they have that one penalty shootout as their common history as well.

especially happy for the Uzbeks after many qualifications at youth level

 

Congratulations for both teams. Uzbekistan has been so close for so mange years, and it finally happened. Uzbekistan is the countries with most votes, so Many members expected it.
But Jordan really is the Big surprise. Not Many expected this. If someone told me before the Asian Cup 2024 that Jordan would qualify I wouldnt believe Them. But Well deserved, they are a good team.

Iraq must be so disappointed after their 2-2 draw at Home against Kuwait and their 2-1 loss against Palestine, where they were up 1-0 until the end.
Now Palestine have to play Oman in a thriller for the last play off spot

 

Venezuela will take a huge step towards getting that elusive playoff spot if they defeat Bolivia at home tonight. It will put them 4 points up and with a far superior goal difference with just 3 games to play... note, they are currently 2-0 up at halftime. There is still some hope of catching Colombia for that last remaining automatic spot, but they need to make up a 3 point deficit + inferior goal difference.

 

Venezuela beating Uruguay on the road on Tuesday would bring them level on points, and with Colombia traveling to Argentina, there’s a very real possibility of a three-way tie at 21 points…and la Vinotinto might sneak their way into a direct spot.

 

Which is possible. The wheels have completely fallen off for Uruguay while Venezuela is trying to hold on to whatever hopes they have left for direct qualification. This is going to be such an intriguing match for so many reasons.

 

And people thought expansion would hurt CONMEBOL qualifying.
It actually is making it more exciting since more teams have a chance until the very end.

 

No it doesn't make it more exciting.

 

I don't see how the race for 6th is exciting. Yeah, only 3 points behind seems close until you look at the remaining games and factor in goal differences too.

VEN winning in Montevideo is a stretch but it's not even close to enough. They would then need a draw in Buenos Aires and a win over Colombia.

 

No? I guess that is subjective. But having more teams fight for that last spot and more teams trying to figure out if they will be in that spot or the playoff does make it more intense at the very end.

 

It's been everything but intense so far...

It's been a race of which teams will trip up less, than a team seizing anything.

 

So Brasil or Uruguay still having a chance this late in the game to drop down to a playoff spot is not intense or exciting. Especially when no one expected that.

Got it.

 

Yup. BRA fed waited until M15 to contract a proper WC coach. That tells you how forgiving its qualifiers have become due to WC slot over-allocation.

Yesterday, you had the entire Conmebol basement playing against each other:
- COL can't buy a goal to save their lives. Its rival, PER has not scored an away goal since Jan 2022 (W0-1, vs COL, 2022 qualifiers).
- BOL scores a 35-meter own goal, six minutes into the match.

It is like watching a potato sack race at this point.

 

Does not help Colombia was missing a lot of injured players and the best goal scorer in the competition was suspended.
But yes, it was frustrating to see not many good chances on goal.

 

In theory, yes. But it's not how it worked out. Basically everything is settled with 3 rounds still to play. I don't recall that ever being the case before.

But alot of that is on the teams. Bolivia choked away 2 points in injury time against Paraguay, and failed to score against Uruguay despite 32 shots. If they get those 4 points, and Peru doesn't disappoint so much, then the race for 6th/7th would have been intense.

 

Suriname and Curaçao dream of World Cup.
Suriname and Curaçao have qualified for the decisive World Cup qualifying tournament of North and Central America and the Caribbean. Suriname won against Puerto Rico (1-0) and Curaçao of Saint Lucia (4-0). Both countries will certainly finish in the first two in their group. National coach Menzo of Suriname had fielded several (former) Eredivisie players with Vaessen, Haps, Malone and Kerk. He saw Montnor score in Paramaribo after a beautiful cross from Jubitana (79.).
National coach Advocaat of Curaçao also had a lot of Eredivisie experience in his team (Room, Bacuna, Brenet and Floranus), but with a hat-trick, Kastaneer (ADO and PEC) the celebrated man in Willemstad.

 

This is the route for Indonesia to the 2026 World Cup.

With a first win over China in 47 years and Bahrain's defeat against Saudi Arabia, Indonesia can prepare for the fourth phase of the Asian World Cup qualification. In this way, the team of national coach Patrick Kluivert qualifies for the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
In total, there are (maximum) five phases that Indonesia must survive. Indonesia closes the third phase on Tuesday with an away game against Japan, but Timnas is already assured of a place in the fourth phase due to Thursday's results. In it, the numbers three and four of the three groups are divided into two groups of three in the third phase.
The countries all play each other once in October and all matches take place on neutral ground. This happens in a time frame of just seven days. The winner of each group qualifies for next year's World Cup, the numbers two go to the fifth (and final) phase.
In the fifth phase, a ticket for the intercontinental play-offs can still be earned. Six countries play for the last two spots at the world championship. Two countries from CONCACAF participate, and each continental football association provides a country, with the exception of UEFA. The Dutch-tinted Indonesia will not want to let it get that far.

 

With 1 point separating 5 teams not so long ago in group C it seems strange that the positions have been all but decided with a game to go. The only spot up for grabs is between Australia and Saudi Arabia with the Saudis needing a 5 goal win at home against Australia to take second spot on goal difference. The only other contest in AFC is the group B clash between Palestine and Oman., both potential debutants, where Palestine need a win in Jordan to take the last available round 4 spot.

 

That's a general problem when more than the majority of teams are getting through. It becomes more important to not lose than to win.

We see the same problem at the Euro since the "best 3rd place team" goes though. I don't believe that is necessarily the quality of teams that makes it boring but rather the reduced importance of winning.

I fear the same for the World Cup next year. Group stage may turn very boring with many teams playing to not lose. Considering there will now be 5 knock-out games to victory, the group stage may turn into glorified preparation games.

 

AFC third round groups seem so unbalanced on paper. I haven't seen any game but among the 5 regulars at the world cup (Iran, South Korea, Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia), 3 are in the same group.

I know that there's still a 4th round so probably all deserving teams will go through but I'm wondering how that was possible.

 

Yeah, group C ended up with the top ranked team from each of the first 3 pots. Saudi barely slipped into pot 3 by being one position lower than Iraq in the FIFA ranking. I am also guessing that Qatar was boosted by winning the AFC Cup in 2023, while Saudi went out in the round of 16 (though very unlucky to draw South Korea so early and they only lost on PKs).

Also, the FIFA rankings aren't very precise. This "favoritism" to teams that had more success (many) years ago could be mostly eliminated if the Swiss/UCL format was used. I mean, Belgium still seems to be benefitting from the 2018 WC.

 

Swirling Curaçao flawless to next World Cup qualifying phase.
Curaçao has in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday a convincing victory over Haiti, the number two in the World Cup qualifying pool. Dick Advocaat's men ended the second phase of qualifying in style and became group winners.

In Group C of the World Cup qualification, Curaçao was already qualified for the next phase. In the last match, at most the group win was still at stake in the match against Haiti, which had also been flawless until then. However, it was a walkover for a whirlwind Curaçao. Gervane Kastaneer, who scored a hat-trick in the previous match, happily continued to score goals. After ten minutes, he went in and shot the ball beautifully into the far corner. Then FC Groningen defender Leandro Bacuna made sure that Kenji Gorré could make the second. Don Deedson Louicius did something back for the home team, but Jearl Margaritha restored the margin twenty minutes before time by finishing a beautiful ball from substitute Jürgen Locadia.
Substitute RKC Waalwijk midfielder Kevin Felida also scored a goal. That was his first goal in the Curaçao shirt. Again, Bacuna was the assistant. The 1-5 was also quite Eredivisie-colored. Jeremy Antonisse scored on a pass from Joshua Brenet, both players come from PSV's youth, so Curaçao goes into the third qualifying phase with a lot of confidence.

 

Suriname too takes group win in first phase of World Cup qualification.
Just like Curaçao, Suriname too took the group win in the second phase of the World Cup qualification at the CONCACAF. The team of national coach Stanley Menzo played a draw on a visit to El Salvador and kept that country under them in the last game in this group.
Suriname was already sure of participation in the next phase. The duel with El Salvador had to decide who would qualify as number one and who as number two. In the first quarter of the match, Suriname took the lead. Former PSV, FC Utrecht and Fortuna Sittard player Justin Lonwijk opened the score. He got the ball at his feet just inside the penalty kick area and shot.
Fifteen minutes later, El Salvador equalized through Brayan Gil. It eventually remained at 1-1, so Suriname keeps the number two in the group behind them. In June, Suriname will play against Costa Rica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic in the Gold Cup. In September, October and November, the duels in the third World Cup qualifying phase are scheduled. It works with three groups of four. The group winners qualify for the World Cup, the two best numbers two qualify for the intercontinental play-offs.

 

Concacaf just made their draw. Group B only has Caribbean teams, so a Caribbean team will qualify for the first time since Trinidad and Tobago in 2006. The groups are:

Group A:
Panama
El Salvador
Guatemala
Suriname

Group B:
Jamaica
Curacao
Trinidad and Tobago
Bermuda

Group C:
Costa Rica
Honduras
Haiti
Nicaragua

Curacao should root for Panama and Costa Rica to dominate their groups so that second place in Group B gets a playoff spot. They should also root for AFC and CAF's playoff spots to go to teams with worse FIFA Rankings because the top two of six playoff teams get a first round bye.

 

I'd be surprised if the second place from Group A goes to the playoffs because they don't have a team that they could easily stack up goals against like Bermuda and Nicargua in the other groups.

This is the Golden Chance for Curacao to upset Jamaica imo

Suriname and Guatemala I think they are done because Panama is topping that group and I feel like the rest of the teams in that group are going to drop many points against each other to get to the play-offs