We continue reviewing the 48 nations participating in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the remaining host nations in addition to Canada will be ranked in this section, along with fan favorite Uruguay. These teams have real hope of reaching the knockout stage, but beyond that expectations are modest for the likes of Son Heung-min and Arda Güler.
29. South Korea
(Group A with Mexico, South Africa, and Czechia)
South Korea continued their streak of World Cup qualification that dates back to 1986. Their best ever result was fourth place as hosts in 2002. However, the road wasn’t completely smooth this year — they drew with Jordan and Oman at home last March, were beaten 5-0 by Brazil in October in a friendly, and just lost a pair of friendlies this March to Ivory Coast and Austria without scoring a goal. The squad is quite global in terms of where they play their football: a sprinkling of domestic-based players, but also Bayern Munich’s defender Kim Min-jae, Wolverhampton’s veteran midfielder Hwang Hee-chan, and of course LAFC’s Son Heung-min, a genuine national hero who has scored 54 times for the national team in 142 caps. At 33, this could be his last World Cup and he wants to make memories.
South Korea’s team is technically skilled and cohesive. The upside is limited offensively if Son doesn’t fire, but they still expect to finish in the top 2 of the group before going into deeper waters in the knockout stage.
28. Scotland
(Group C with Haiti, Morocco, and Brazil)
Steve Clarke’s Scotland — at times boring but defensively sound — are a tough team to rank. Having never made it past the group stage in 9 World Cup appearances, they are still not certain to do so out of this year’s group despite qualifying directly in UEFA. Brazil and Morocco are expected to take the first two slots. Clarke’s Scotland has 32-year-old Liverpool legend Andy Robertson as captain, there’s of course players from Celtic and Rangers here including Kieran Tierney. Though both clubs have been down in the SPL this year.
The difference makers for Scotland have a dash of Italian seasoning now: Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour are midfielders for Napoli, Bologna’s Lewis Ferguson is also in the midfield, and striker Che Adams plays for Torino. The midfield is strong, but having Lyndon Dykes (Charlton) and Adams as the top scorers is tough against Morocco and Brazil.
What you have to look at is what this team has achieved — their first World Cup since 1998, two consecutive UEFA Euro appearances. They narrowly lost March friendlies at home to Japan and Ivory Coast, they beat Denmark at home in qualifying and drew away. At this point they enter the World Cup playing with house money.
27. United States
(Group D with Paraguay, Australia, and Turkiye)
The hosts spent big to hire the famous Mauricio Pochettino to run the squad. Poch makes headlines, but it’s uncertain if he’s made this US team better, or up to the standard of a truly globally competitive side. In 1994 as hosts, the USA went to the Round of 16 — they are targeting at least that again in a balanced group that features four closely ranked sides.
The U.S. team has not been clutch in tournament play during this current international cycle: they were eliminated in the Copa America group stage in 2024, lost the 2025 Nations League to Panama, they squeaked past the opposition in the 2025 Gold Cup before falling to Mexico in the final — all on U.S. soil. Admittedly they were playing with a “B” squad that missed some key European-based internationals like Christian Pulisic (AC Milan) for the Gold Cup.
Since the Gold Cup, they lost friendlies to South Korea, Belgium, and Portugal, but beat Japan, drew with Ecuador, and beat Paraguay and Uruguay (the Uruguay win being 5-1). That’s the opposite of consistency, but it does show the upside in this roster.
The final squad selections are in flux at the time of publishing — 38-year-old Tim Ream for example is still in consideration for the backline, midfielder Giovanni Reyna, once a great hope, is still trying to rebuild his career at Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga. Pulisic and the forwards, especially AS Monaco’s Folarin Balogun, will still decide this team’s fate.
There’s other European-based options like Atletico Madrid’s Johnny Cardoso in the midfield. They are unlikely to defend for 90 minutes, so they need goals — otherwise a group stage exit is quite possible against teams that are more defensively sound.
26. Paraguay
(Group D with United States, Australia, and Turkiye)
One of the best teams defensively in world football, Paraguay have been to eight World Cups and reached the quarterfinals in 2010. After a winless 2024 Copa América campaign, they survived the grind of South American qualifying, including a win in 2025 against Uruguay. They also beat Mexico and Greece in recent friendlies. This team has a high ceiling, but hasn’t been consistent enough to be ranked higher than this.
Key players include Sunderland’s Omar Alderete and Palmeiras’ Gustavo Gómez in the backline. Miguel Almirón (Atlanta United), at 32, is the veteran leader of the squad, while Diego Gómez at Brighton is the young star. The key forward is 22-year-old Julio Enciso, who is part of the BlueCo system at Strasbourg. They have the most balanced group in the World Cup; a case could be made that they’ll top the group, but they could also finish bottom if their rivals perform well and they can’t find ways to score goals — as evidenced by the previous analysis of Australia’s chances.
25. Mexico
(Group A with South Africa, Czechia, and South Korea)
For co-hosts Mexico, football isn’t just a sport, it’s identity. While the other host nations, The United States and Canada, measure progress in terms of how football is growing and developing in their nations as secondary sports, Mexico measures itself in results — and historically, those results have plateaued. Eighteen World Cup appearances, just two quarterfinals (both at home in 1970 and 1986), and a long run of Round of 16 exits before a group stage elimination in 2022 define a team that has always been good, but never elite, despite football being the national sport, with Liga MX defining the entertainment calendar in the country.
Under the management of former national team player Javier Aguirre for a third campaign, that reality hasn’t changed. Mexico play disciplined, defensive tournament football — enough to win the 2025 Gold Cup — but recent results show their limitations: losses to Switzerland, Paraguay, and Colombia, along with draws against Portugal, Belgium, and others. At home, they are expected to top the group, but questions remain about where the goals will come from.
Veteran striker Raúl Jiménez could be in his final World Cup, while naturalized forwards Julián Quiñones and Germán Berterame offer options. The new hope is 22-year-old Hormiga González from Chivas, with a solid midfield and experienced backline behind him.
In goal, 40-year-old Guillermo Ochoa could make the El Tri World Cup squad for a sixth tournament. On the opposite end of the age spectrum, if fit, teenager Gilberto Mora of Tijuana Xolos is the best midfielder Mexico has, and he’s going to dazzle at the World Cup. Mexico will play all three group games on home soil, where expectations are enormous given they are on paper better than the opposition. They should advance, but beyond that, the familiar question remains: can this team finally be more than just good?
24. Algeria
(Group J with Argentina, Austria, and Jordan)
Algeria are in a 5th World Cup after a solid 2025 that saw them lose away in a friendly to Sweden in June, and draw with Guinea but otherwise post a solid, if uncompetitive qualifying campaign. They reached the quarterfinals of AFCON in January, falling to Nigeria 2-0 in a poor performance, and recently drew with Uruguay. Ranking 24th out of 48 teams, that’s what Algeria is — effectively an middle of the pack side with the upside and downsides that entails. Zinedine Zidane’s son Luca is going to the World Cup as a goalkeeper for Algeria, Dortmund’s Ramy Bensebaini is in the backline along with Manchester City’s Rayan Ait-Nouri.
The midfield is unheralded and a weak spot with the most experienced player being FC Twente’s Ramiz Zerrouki. 35-year-old Riyad Mahrez will bid farewell to the World Cup, while Marseille’s Amine Gouiri is an attacking option. With questionable depth, Algeria may struggle later in games when they have to take on Argentina and Austria. The game against Austria will be the pivot game of the group.
23. Sweden
(Group F with Japan, The Netherlands, and Tunisia)
Many pundits will argue, and with some merit, that Sweden shouldn’t be in this tournament at all — they didn’t win a single match in UEFA World Cup qualifying. Instead, they used the UEFA Nations League path to reach the playoff, and in that playoff, under new manager Graham Potter, they looked like a very different team, the team that their squad value suggests.
Sweden lost twice to Kosovo and Switzerland during the qualification campaign, then Arsenal’s Viktor Gyökeres put the country on his back and scored a hat trick against Ukraine, and a decisive goal against Poland in the UEFA playoff — those margins being 3-1 and 3-2 to reach the World Cup. Despite the struggles on the field, the actual squad Sweden has is genuinely good: Aston Villa defender Victor Lindelöf is the captain, Dortmund’s Daniel Svensson, Tottenham’s Lucas Bergvall, Frankfurt’s Hugo Larsson, Newcastle’s Anthony Elanga, and of course Gyökeres are all here.
This team is young, this team has genuine potential for upsets, but they are in a brutal group against a talented Dutch side, and an in-form Japan, plus a tactically sound Tunisia who are not easy to break down. This tournament may not go well for the Swedes, but there’s always a chance when you can provide service to a striker as good as Viktor Gyökeres.
22. Turkey (Turkiye)
(Group D with United States, Paraguay, and Australia)
Given football is the national sport, and supporting one of the big four clubs in the Turkish Super Lig is practically a religion, it’s still shocking to see Turkey (Turkiye) have only reached three World Cups historically, despite a third-place finish in 2002. It took a lifetime for Turkey to return to the World Cup. They lost to Mexico in June but had a solid qualification campaign, losing once to Spain and drawing the other game in November. Surprisingly, the result at home was much worse than the one away, though it was a dead rubber.
Turkey needed the playoffs to qualify — they scored two goals and conceded none across games against Romania and Kosovo. They were expected to qualify, and they took care of business. Inter Milan’s Hakan Çalhanoğlu is captain, there’s young star power with Real Madrid’s Arda Güler, the most hyped Turkish prospect of the modern era, and Juventus’ Kenan Yıldız in the goalscoring roles. This is a group Turkey believes it should win, and their performance this tournament may help define how much deeper the UEFA region is compared to the rest of the World.
21. Egypt
(Group G with Belgium, Iran, and New Zealand)
So many of Egypt’s players are domestically based, and although Egyptian clubs frequently win the CAF Champions League, that means the team is always a bit of a mystery and not the easiest to measure against global competition. To their benefit, they are in a very favorable group — Belgium are good, but no longer elite, Iran and New Zealand are far from their best. Egypt is expected to reach the knockout stage. This is likely a World Cup farewell for Mohamed Salah, who turns 34 in June, and is set to leave Liverpool this summer. Salah has scored 67 goals in 116 appearances for Egypt — he’s a genuine national hero, and he’s not doing everything alone, as his strike pairing is with Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush.
Many teams lack the attacking stocks to go and score goals, they are forced to defend and grind out results — Egypt has options, but with a limited midfield, how they win games is still a narrow path. This is a veteran experienced team; at 37, Mohamed El Shenawy from Al Ahly is still the goalkeeper. A solid draw with Spain, and a 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia were impressive in March, they beat the Ivory Coast at AFCON 2025 after an excellent World Cup qualifying campaign. Egypt are not going to back down against anyone.
20. Uruguay
(Group H with Spain, Saudi Arabia, and Cape Verde)
Uruguay have been to the World Cup 14 times. In a tough region with a much smaller population than their powerhouse neighbors Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay have always been a fan favorite for those who believe in the underdog. La Celeste are proud of their technical football and how they develop players from cradle to the World Cup stage.
All of that nostalgia aside, this is still a Uruguay team that exited in the Group Stage in 2022, and lack starpower and talent this cycle compared to years past. The match against Spain will be tough, but they will be heavy favorites to finish second, after being the third place team at the 2024 Copa America. They play their first two group stage games in Miami — the crowd will be heavily partisan in their favor, and with two wins, they would be able to secure qualification to the next phase.
There are questions at striker: Darwin Nunez now plays in Saudi Arabia at Al-Hilal and is the main striker — having to rely on players like Club America’s Rodrigo Aguirre is frankly questionable at the World Cup.
The midfield is the strength: Flamengo stars Nicolas de la Cruz and Giorgian de Arrascaeta have chemistry, Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde is a world class midfielder on the Champions league stage, there’s Sporting CP’s Maxi Araújo and Manchester United’s Manuel Ugarte — that’s starpower in the middle. And in the back you have players at the highest level in Europe: Jose Maria Gimenez (Atletico Madrid), and Ronald Araujo (Barcelona) are a centerback pair; at 39, Fernando Muslera (Estudiantes) still may feature in goal.
In the knockout stage it’s simply uncertain if they can score enough — since June they have losses to Paraguay and the United States, and a range of draws including England, Algeria, and Mexico. Marcelo Bielsa is on the hot seat for his “pragmatic” approach to football, and we’ll see if his players rise to the occasion when the real games begin.
Main Photo Credit: Smartframe Images
