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2026 World Cup Qualifying


narduch

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The first group of 211 nations in FIFA were eliminated from the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers this week.

First nation gone was Guam. Then it was Mongolia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Macau, Maldives, Bhutan, Laos & nation #202. Brunei.

All of them were eliminated over 2 legs with Brunei sufferng the biggest aggregate loss of 0-12 to Indonesia. Pakistan won their first ever WCQ as they advanced over Cambodia. They played in Pakistan for the first time in 8 years in front of 13k in Islamabad.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

#201 country to be eliminated is Eritrea because they seem to be the Cuba of Africa.

A joint statement from FIFA and CAF said that “all of Eritrea’s matches have been cancelled”, but provided no explanation.

According to several sources, the main reason is to prevent players from escaping when abroad and requesting political asylum from the oppressive regime of the Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki, which imposes lifetime military service on many subjects. Since 2009 it is estimated that more than 60 players have used their status as internationals to seek asylum. 

Eritrea no longer has a FIFA ranking having not played a match in the past 48 months, with all fixtures having to take place away from home owing to the lack of a stadium in Eritrea that meets CAF requirements.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/13/eritrea-withdrew-from-2026-world-cup-qualifying-over-fears-players-will-flee

 

Edited by red card
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Diaz pots 2 late in the 2nd half for Colombia's comeback 2-1 win over Brazil while his recently released kidnapped father watched. 

“My dad is my hero,” Diaz said a few years ago. “He taught me how to play.”

Both Brazil & Argentina lost today just before they face each other next week. Brazil has dropped to 5th,

 

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Brazil could conceivably be in the playoff spot after a third the way through qualifying.  They're at home to Argentina, and while they are the favourites I would say, it's not crazy to think Argentina may get three points.  But I guess this is an example of why this new format is bonkers: there's really little threat to a team like Brazil and so they just go through the motions.  

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Brasil lost their first-ever WCQ at home. Spain is now only country never to lose a home WCQ. 

Brasil have only 2 defeats at home in 70 years. Both against Argentina, both against Messi.

Their last four games against Argentina: LLDL 

Brasil in 6th and final spot for 2026.

The Brasilian police also lost it against Argentinian travelling supporters during the Brasilian anthem.

 

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  • 4 months later...

Aside from 4 Concacaf teams. AFC was only Confed to have WCQs in the March window. So, the newly eliminated countries are:

200. Chinese Taipei
199. Hong Kong
198. Turkmenistan
197.  Nepal
196. Pakistan
195. US Virgin Islands
194. Turks & Caicos
 

The sextet of Australia, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, UAE and Uzbekistan have reached the 3rd round of AFC qualifying with 2 matches to spare.

After defeating Korea DPR 1-0 in Tokyo last week, the return leg was abruptly cancelled by Korea DPR. It doesn't appear the match will be rescheduled but Japan hasn't received yet their 3 points from a 3-0 default win. Japanese women played their recent Olympic qualifier vs Korea DPR in Saudi Arabia after various issues were raised by the Japanese federation.

 

 

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2 hours ago, red card said:

After defeating Korea DPR 1-0 in Tokyo last week, the return leg was abruptly cancelled by Korea DPR. It doesn't appear the match will be rescheduled but Japan hasn't received yet their 3 points from a 3-0 default win. Japanese women played their recent Olympic qualifier vs Korea DPR in Saudi Arabia after various issues were raised by the Japanese federation.

IIRC from the statement put out from FIFA the match will simply cease to exist. No points awarded for default. I don't believe it's as simple as DPRK forfeiting, although i'm welcome to be wrong. It's still going through organizational review at the FIFA level.

I tried to watch some of those AFC matchups because I so rarely catch the lower-rated AFC sides. I think Nepal might be the worst side i've seen at an international level...at least the lower Caribbean sides have athleticism. Nepal were just slow, unskilled, and otherwise incredibly rough around the edges. Hong Kong had a tough draw, IMO.

An aside, but there were a few interesting friendlies in the March window for Concacaf sides. I'm always interested in seeing how lower Concacaf sides fair against other confederations since it feels like they rarely play outside of their region.

Guyana lost 1-0 to Cape Verde and beat Cambodia 4-1
Cayman Islands lost 4-0 to Moldova
Bermuda lost to Guinea 5-1 but beat Brunei 2-0
St Kitts & Nevis beat San Marino 3-1 and drew San Marino 0-0
Dominican Republic lost to Peru 4-1

 

Edited by Mihairokov
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Japan deserve to get the three points.

Athletes shouldn't have to risk life and limb or go to extraordinary circumstances in what is already incredibly unstable nations just to play a game of football. Look at what our men had to risk our last trip to Haiti, for instance. FIFA needs to enforce their minimum safety standards before a whole national side gets kidnapped at gunpoint or is arrested and whisked off to some mystery detention centre.

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On 3/28/2024 at 8:37 AM, nolando said:

Japan deserve to get the three points.

Athletes shouldn't have to risk life and limb or go to extraordinary circumstances in what is already incredibly unstable nations just to play a game of football. Look at what our men had to risk our last trip to Haiti, for instance. FIFA needs to enforce their minimum safety standards before a whole national side gets kidnapped at gunpoint or is arrested and whisked off to some mystery detention centre.

And in the end they were rightfully awarded the three points

 

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On 4/1/2024 at 12:28 PM, nolando said:

And in the end they were rightfully awarded the three points

 

Indeed. I'm surprised AFC even entertains the idea of North Korea hosting matches. They should get the default Middle East treatment like a number of other countries already do.

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