{"id":667732,"date":"2026-04-10T08:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=667732"},"modified":"2026-04-11T04:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:01:14","slug":"2026-fifa-world-cup-power-rankings-20-29-scotland-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/04\/10\/2026-fifa-world-cup-power-rankings-20-29-scotland-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 FIFA World Cup Power Rankings: 20-29 Including Scotland and Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

We continue reviewing the 48 nations participating in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the remaining host nations in addition to Canada<\/a> 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 G\u00fcler.<\/p>\n

29. South Korea
\n(Group A with Mexico, South Africa, and Czechia)<\/h3>\n

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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 \u2014 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>, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

28. Scotland
\n(Group C with Haiti, Morocco, and Brazil)<\/h3>\n

Steve Clarke’s Scotland \u2014 at times boring<\/a> but defensively sound \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

What you have to look at is what this team has achieved \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

27. United States
\n(Group D with Paraguay, Australia, and Turkiye)<\/h3>\n

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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 \u2014 they are targeting at least that again in a balanced group that features four closely ranked sides.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Since the Gold Cup, they lost friendlies to South Korea, Belgium, and Portugal<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

The final squad selections are in flux at the time of publishing \u2014 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 M\u00f6nchengladbach in the Bundesliga. Pulisic and the forwards, especially AS Monaco’s Folarin Balogun, will still decide this team’s fate.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 otherwise a group stage exit is quite possible against teams that are more defensively sound.<\/p>\n

26. Paraguay
\n(Group D with United States, Australia, and Turkiye)<\/h3>\n

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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 Am\u00e9rica 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.<\/p>\n

Key players include Sunderland’s Omar Alderete and Palmeiras’ Gustavo G\u00f3mez in the backline. Miguel Almir\u00f3n (Atlanta United), at 32, is the veteran leader of the squad, while Diego G\u00f3mez at Brighton is the young star. The key forward is 22-year-old Julio Enciso<\/a>, 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 \u2014 as evidenced by the previous analysis of Australia’s chances.<\/p>\n

25. Mexico
\n(Group A with South Africa, Czechia, and South Korea)<\/h3>\n