What teams will be headed to North America next summer?
By Jack Dusek
Sports Editor
North America
With the World Cup being hosted in North America next summer, USA, Canada, and Mexico all automatically qualified as the host nations, meaning there were open slots for smaller countries to qualify. Many people expected the teams in the second tier of North America like Panama, Costa Rica, and Jamaica to run their respective groups. However, just Panama managed to qualify directly, whilst Jamaica will be going to the ICF (Inter-Confederation Playoffs); Costa Rica placed third in Group C, failing to qualify.
The story everyone was paying attention to was the upstart of Curacao and Suriname, who both have never played in a World Cup. Suriname was able to make the ICF with a strong campaign in Group A, and Curacao solidified their spot in the 2026 World Cup with a draw against Jamaica on the final matchday.
South America
The defending World Cup champions Argentina dominated going 12-4-2 and topping the group, while the other top teams such as Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay all qualified easily. Also, an on the rise Ecuador squad finished second in the standings, to qualify for back-to-back tournaments. The team that benefitted most from the expanded World Cup was Paraguay, who qualified for their first since 2010. Earning the ICF spot was Bolivia, looking to make their first World Cup since 1994, and who benefit from maybe the best home field advantage in soccer with their home stadium “Estadio Municipal de El Alto” boasting an elevation of 13,615 feet above sea level.
Europe
The European slate has to be the most competitive and exciting group to watch. Top teams like Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, England, and Croatia all topped their groups. Switzerland topped a group B that contained a surprising Kosovo team that are still looking for their first World Cup as an independent nation and managed to make the European playoffs.
In the entire continent, the British Isles managed to host most of the excitement. England are always a top team, but Northern Ireland haven’t qualified since 1986 and made the playoffs, as did a Welsh squad without recently retired Gareth Bale. Scotland had an epic finish to make it for the first time in 28 years, with a 93rd minute winner by Kierian Tierney on the final day sending them through. In Ireland, a new folk hero has arrived in Troy Parrott. He scored a pair of goals to upset top 10 team in the world Portugal to keep Ireland in the running, needing a victory against Hungary to send them to the playoffs. In that game, they trailed 2-1 and he had an 80th minute goal to tie, and in the dying embers a 96th minute goal sent Ireland into mayhem.
Africa
A mix of regulars and surprises came out of the African world cup qualifying. Expected teams like Egypt, Senegal, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tunisia and Ghana all dominated. On the other hand, a tiny island nation with a population just over 500 thousand in Cape Verde managed to qualify for their first ever World Cup, and South Africa made their first since 2010. DR Congo are trying to make their first as they qualified for the ICF spot.
Asia
Eight teams made it out of Asia including some first timers in Uzbekistan and Jordan, who established themselves as a team to watch making last year’s Asian Cup Final. The most dangerous teams out of the continent are probably Japan and South Korea, who both dominated the competition in qualifiers. Among the other nations that will participate are Iran, Australia, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, while Iraq got the ICF spot.
Oceania
With the expanded World Cup, Oceania will for the first time get one guaranteed spot and one ICF spot. The extremely heavy favorites were New Zealand, so most of the discourse was around who would get the ICF spot. As expected, New Zealand dominated, beating Fiji 7-0 and playing New Caledonia in the finals. There New Caledonia kept it scoreless in the first half, but New Zealand pulled away to win 3-0 and send them to the World Cup and New Caledonia to the ICF spot.
Inter Confederation Playoffs (ICF)
Two spots will be granted through the ICF, where six teams are competing. In the first bracket Jamaica will face off with New Caledonia, with the winner taking on DR Congo to see who gets through. Meanwhile, bracket two hosts Bolivia and Suriname, and the winner of that match will take on Iraq.
