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PLAYER RESOURCES | May 20, 2026
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World Cup 2026 Primer
Every country’s 2026 World Cup Squad
The 2026 World Cup is within touching distance.
With mere weeks to go until the first game, each of the 48 head coaches has started to pick their 26-man squads to take to the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Already ‘on the plane’ are players such as Kylian Mbappe, Alexander Isak, and Chris Wood; as France, Sweden and New Zealand, are among those to have announced their final lists.
Some — like Argentina this week — have opted to announce provisional squads, which can be up to 55 names long, but will have to trim them down before FIFA’s submission deadline of June 1. These are noted with an asterisk.
Here, The Athletic takes you through every country’s World Cup squad as they are confirmed, revealing which players will have the opportunity to shine on soccer’s biggest stage.
World Cup 2026: A group-by-group guide to all the teams
by The Athletic Staff
The World Cup line-up is complete and countries know who they will face at this year’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Forty-eight nations have qualified for what will be the biggest World Cup yet, expanded from the 32 teams that had competed since the 1998 edition in France, with a host of debutants and plenty of countries not regularly seen on the global stage.
Our writers have spent the past few months watching the sides involved and compiling this guide to every country who will take the field this summer.
USMNT
How did they qualify?
After failing to qualify for the 2018 tournament, a young group got the U.S. back to the World Cup in 2022 in Qatar. There was no jeopardy during this cycle for the team, however, as the U.S. qualified automatically for the tournament as co-hosts.
What is their World Cup pedigree?
The U.S. ended their streak of qualifying for every tournament since 1990 when they missed out on the 2018 tournament. The country’s best showing in modern times was a run to the quarter-finals in 2002 in South Korea and Japan, before falling 1-0 to eventual runners-up Germany.
The Americans have advanced past the group stage in four of the six tournaments in which they have competed since 1994. That includes 2022, where the core that still makes up this team finished second in the group behind England, but lost to the Netherlands in the round of 16.
Who is the coach?
Mauricio Pochettino established himself as one of the top coaches at club level with successful stints at Espanyol, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. Now, he is testing himself on the international stage. It was considered a coup for U.S. Soccer when it hired the Argentine in September 2024. It was a bumpy first year under Pochettino, who said he saw it necessary to remake the culture of the program, but his hire signaled both the ambition and expectation around the U.S. team as it hosts the tournament for the first time in 32 years.
How do they play?
The U.S. are still figuring themselves out under Pochettino, but in the past few months, they have settled on a system that will use three centre-backs and rely on flexibility out of that formation to test opponents. The U.S. can defend out of a four or five-man back line depending on need. On the attacking end, the formation highlights the strengths of the outside backs in the pool, including Antonee Robinson and Sergino Dest, who like to bomb forward, while leaving some flexibility in midfield to match up with opponents.
Who is their key player?
Christian Pulisic. As much as we can talk about the emergence of Folarin Balogun at the No 9, or how Robinson and Dest create overloads on the wings, or how critical Tyler Adams is patrolling the midfield, the U.S. are at their best when the Milan attacker is running the show. Pulisic is a big-game player — his goal against Iran to send the U.S. through to the knockouts in 2022 is a good example — and whether attacking from the wing or as a No 10, Pochettino’s job is to ensure Pulisic can change games for the U.S..
What else should we know about them?
This will likely be the first U.S. World Cup team since MLS was founded in 1996 to have an MLS-based goalkeeper start a game — but, less than a year out, it is not clear-cut who the No 1 will be. The goalkeepers since 1998: Kasey Keller (Leicester City and Borussia Monchengladbach), Brad Friedel (Blackburn Rovers), Tim Howard (Everton) and Matt Turner (Arsenal). Turner had only just moved to Arsenal ahead of Qatar, but he is now back in MLS with New England and fighting for the starting spot against Matt Freese (NYCFC), Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew), and other MLS-based keepers.
Find write-ups for the rest of the teams in the field here.
New USMNT Documentary Showcases World Cup Journey in Different Light
by Tom Bogert
The most pivotal moment of the U.S. men’s national team’s disastrous run at the 2024 Copa América was Tim Weah’s untimely red card.
Weah, a player responsible for so many positive moments in his 49 caps, uncharacteristically lashed out and struck Panama defender Roderick Miller off the ball. The incident was spotted on video review and resulted in Weah’s 18th-minute ejection. Despite taking a lead a few minutes later, the U.S. would lose that game, ultimately leading to an embarrassing group-stage exit on home soil.
The tournament had massive reverberations for the program. Those matches featured the highest stakes and were the most important games for the U.S. leading into the 2026 World Cup, given that there was no qualifying campaign for one of the host nations. The early ouster ultimately cost head coach Gregg Berhalter his job. A few months later, Mauricio Pochettino took over.
That moment, the fallout in the locker room and around the team and the transition, was captured by a documentary crew — just like all other key landmarks dating back to just before the 2022 World Cup. Now, on the cusp of this team’s biggest tournament, fans will get to see it all.
On Tuesday, HBO will release the first episode of U.S. Against the World: Four Years With the Men’s National Soccer Team, a five-part documentary series that can also be streamed on HBO Max. Episodes will be released every Tuesday night leading into the start of the 2026 World Cup.
Welcome to New York New Jersey, hosting the final across the Hudson
by Dean Jones
Few places on the planet carry the global presence of New York, but this summer stage belongs to more than just the city.
It reaches beyond the five boroughs and into New Jersey, where eight World Cup games, including the final, will be played.
In East Rutherford, New York New Jersey Stadium — as the MetLife Stadium will be known during the tournament — has long proven itself as a stage for the biggest events.
Now it will have the eyes of the world upon it as host of the 2026 World Cup final on July 19.
The lights of Times Square and the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty will always draw visitors, but the tournament itself will play out across the Hudson River. Here’s everything you need to know about the stadium.
Which games will be played there?
June 13: Group C: Brazil v Morocco 6pm local time, 11pm BST
June 16: Group I: France v Senegal 3pm local time, 8pm BST
June 22: Group I: Norway v Senegal 8pm local time, 1am BST +1
June 25: Group E: Ecuador v Germany 4pm local time, 9pm BST
June 27: Group L: Panama v England 5pm local time, 10pm BST
June 30: Round of 32 5pm local time, 10pm BST
July 5: Round of 16 4pm local time, 9pm BST
July 19: Final 3pm local time, 8pm BST
Read more about the matches at MetLife Stadium here.
What You Can/Can’t Bring to 2026 World Cup Games
Fans will be allowed to bring empty, reusable water bottles into 2026 World Cup games, but a wide array of other items, including most bags, will be barred from stadiums throughout the tournament, which will be held from June 11 to July 19 at locations in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
FIFA, which runs the World Cup, spells out the semi-specific rules in a “Stadium Code of Conduct” that was published months ago and recently finalized, a FIFA spokesman confirmed to The Athletic.
The 35-page document, which is written in three languages, includes an extended list of prohibited items and behavior.
Among the banned items are obvious ones, such as weapons, but also items such as balloons and “devices that produce noise or other excessively loud sounds, such as vuvuzelas, whistles, air horns, loudspeakers, etc.”
Some of the rules are specific. Others are vague and leave subjective enforcement in the hands of several different entities. The code of conduct states that it can be enforced by FIFA, by any of its U.S., Mexican or Canadian subsidiaries, and by stadium management, “including their officers, employees, representatives, volunteers, security personnel, stewards and administrators, or any third parties contracted to provide services to the stadium.”
The requirement for water bottles to be emptied may come into particular focus during games played in high summer temperatures.
The following is a look at what will and won’t be allowed in stadiums during the World Cup.
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