The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup is only a year away, and 48 countries will compete to win soccer’s most important tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico. But before the World Cup can begin, about 200+ FIFA-affiliated countries must play in years-long qualifiers starting in September 2023 for their slot in the World Cup. To qualify for the World Cup, teams in Europe and Africa must win their group. 

In Asia, teams must be the top two in their group, with third and fourth playing another round to qualify. In South America, all 10 teams play in a league-like format, home and away, with the top six qualifying directly. North America is still in the second round of qualifiers, but the top two teams qualify for the last round.

As of now, seven countries have qualified: The three hosts – Canada, United States and Mexico automatically qualified along with Japan, New Zealand, Iran and Argentina. The other four countries qualified for the tournament from this past FIFA International Break Window, from March 19 through March 25, through continental qualifiers. As more countries qualify, here is a breakdown of the current contenders. 

Canada 

The Canadian National Soccer Team automatically qualified for the World Cup as host and will be the site for games in Toronto and Vancouver. Canada has never hosted the Men’s World Cup before, but it did host the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, where the U.S. Women’s Team won its third title.

Canada has only qualified for two World Cups, in 1986 and 2022. Both times, they finished in last place in their group. In 1986, Canada was placed in Group C against France, Hungary and the Soviet Union. In 2022, they were placed in Group F against Morocco, Croatia and Belgium. Both campaigns ended with the same -5 goal difference and three losses. 

Players to look out for on the Canadian squad are Alphonso Davies, playing for Germany’s Bayan Munich; Jonathan David, playing for France’s Lille, and Alistair Johnston from Scottish club Celtic.

United States

The United States Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) automatically qualified for the World Cup as host. Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area will host matches. The United States has only hosted the World Cup once, in 1994, when Brazil won its fourth title and set a new attendance record at a World Cup: 3,587,538 people.

The United States has made the World Cup 12 times, with its best appearance being at the 1930 World Cup, where they won bronze after losing in the semi-finals against Argentina. Yet, despite qualifying many times, the U.S. Men’s team has yet to win a World Cup Tournament. Even though it’s still incredibly early, this current team doesn’t look as promising unless some major attitude changes are made. The players only play for themselves with no unified identity for the national team, even with a new coach. The U.S. team has gotten close a few times, making it to the quarterfinals in 2002 in addition to the previous 1930 bronze effort.

But the United States has some heavy historical baggage, such as its World Cup appearance drought from 1954 to 1986 and missing out on 2018 by losing to Trinidad and Tobago.

Players to watch on the American team would be Christian Pulisic playing for Italy’s AC Milan; Timothy Weah, from Italy’s Juventus, and Anotonee Robinson from England’s Fulham.

Mexico

The Mexican National Team qualified for the FIFA World Cup automatically as host. Only three cities are hosting games: Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey. This will be Mexico’s third time hosting a World Cup, with its previous ones being 1970 and 1986. Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca will be the first stadium in the world to host three different World Cups.

Mexico has qualified for the World Cup 18 times, the fifth most at the World Cup, with them making the quarterfinals twice – in 1970 and 1986. But Mexico had an infamous streak from 1994 to 2018: They would make it to the Round of 16, only to be eliminated. The streak ended with them crashing out of the group in 2022, only needing to score one more goal against Saudi Arabia to advance, but they failed.

Players to look out for on Mexico are Raul Jimenez, playing for England’s Fulham; Santiago Gimenez from Italy’s AC Milan, and César Huerta, playing for Belgium’s Anderlecht.

Japan

Japan became the first country to qualify to the World Cup after beating Bahrain 2-0 on March 20, at Saitama Stadium in Saitama, Japan. 

Japan is in first place in Group A for Asian qualifiers. This will be Japan’s eighth World Cup appearance, having not missed one since first qualifying in 1998. Japan’s best appearance at the World Cup would be their four rounds of 16 in 2002, 2010, 2018 and 2022. Despite that, there were still moments of pride, like topping Group E in 2022 and winning 2-1 against powerhouses Spain and Germany.

Players to look out for will be Daizen Maeda, who plays for Scottish club Celtic; Ko Itakura from Germany’s Borussia Mönchengladbach and Kaoru Mitoma, who plays for England’s Brighton.

New Zealand

New Zealand qualified for the World Cup by winning the Oceanian qualifier final 3-0 against New Caledonia on March 24 at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand dominated the Oceania qualifiers, scoring 19 goals and only allowing 1 goal in the group stage. 

This will be New Zealand’s third World Cup, having last been seen at the 2010 World Cup. In both appearances, New Zealand was eliminated in the group stage. In 1982, New Zealand was in last place, losing all three games in Group 6. Then, in 2010, in Group F, they became the only country not to lose a game. Instead, they tied all of their games but fell short by three points behind Slovakia’s four and Paraguay’s five points.

Players to look out for on this team are Chris Wood, who plays for England’s Nottingham Forest; Marko Stamenic for Greece’s Olympiacos Piraeus and Joe Bell from Norway’s Viking, 

Iran

Iran qualified for their seventh World Cup in a 2-2 tie against Uzbekistan on March 25 at Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran. Iran is in first place in Asian World Cup Qualifiers Group A with 20 points, three ahead of Uzbekistan and seven ahead of the United Arab Emirates with two matches remaining. 

Iran has never advanced out of the World Cup’s group stage, usually ending its run in third or fourth place. Iran’s best chance came in 2018 in Group B when they were one point behind Portugal and Spain, with a chance to advance with a victory against Portugal, but the match ended tied 1-1.

Players to look out for are Mehdi Taremi, who plays for Italy club Inter Milan; Milah Mohammadi, playing for Iran’s Persepolis and Sardar Azmoun from UAE’s Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai. 

Argentina

Argentina is the last team to qualify during this international window, having qualified before their match against their rivals Brazil when Bolivia and Uruguay tied 0-0. From this outcome, Argentina would not have to worry about a possible seventh-place finish for the intercontinental playoffs. Argentina would later destroy Brazil 4-1 at Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

This will be Argentina’s 19th World Cup, having won three: once in 1978 when they hosted the tournament, their second in 1986 and most recently in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Players to look out for are Julian Alvarez from Spain’s Atlético de Madrid, Lionel Messi from the United States’ Inter Miami and Emiliano Martinez from England’s Aston Villa.

The next games of World Cup Qualifiers will be between June 3 and June 10, with Asia, Africa, South America, North America and Europe continuing their qualifiers. The three most likely countries to qualify during this time will be South Korea, Uzbekistan and Ecuador. There’s still many spots open, and, thankfully, it’s still anyone’s cup.

For those looking to tune in to the next qualifying round, the World Cup can be watched on multiple channels and streaming partners, depending on the continent. For Europe, it is on Fox Sports, FuboTV, ViX, TUDN and Univision. For Africa, it is on ESPN and ESPN+. For South America, it sometimes airs on Telemundo. For Asia, and North America, it is unknown who covers qualifiers at this time.