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FIFA 2026 WC - general

Poor reflecton on AFC: Jordan were losing finalists to Qatar in last Asian Cup Final and went close to winning. . But Jordan were beaten 4-1 by (a very good) Swiss side in weekend pre-WC friendly. Meanwhile Qatar, Asian Cup consecutive winners of last 2 Asian Cups, lost a pre-WC friendly 0-1 to Ireland. My hypothesis is that Middle Eastern teams whose players are mainly home-based, don't do well away from home. I prefer that hypothesis to the view that AFC teams are m i l e s behind UEFA standard
 
All the final squads should be out by this time tomorrow (if they aren’t already - I haven’t checked them all yet today)
Getting there through the night - just 6 remaining (although all of them had a preliminary squad so I know where the players are coming from now):
  • Qatar
  • Turkey
  • Senegal
  • Jordan
  • Uzbekistan
  • Ghana
I'll expect by the time I'm up for work tomorrow, these 6 will be finalised. Will be just squad numbers to go then (which some are doing alongside the announcements, or afterwards - others have not yet).
 
Poor reflecton on AFC: Jordan were losing finalists to Qatar in last Asian Cup Final and went close to winning. . But Jordan were beaten 4-1 by (a very good) Swiss side in weekend pre-WC friendly. Meanwhile Qatar, Asian Cup consecutive winners of last 2 Asian Cups, lost a pre-WC friendly 0-1 to Ireland. My hypothesis is that Middle Eastern teams whose players are mainly home-based, don't do well away from home. I prefer that hypothesis to the view that AFC teams are m i l e s behind UEFA standard
Many of Qatar and the UAE’s players are naturalised foreigners playing domestically.
 
10-man Austria defeated Tunisia 1-0 in their only pre-World Cup friendly after their second and final match against Guatemala prior to their campaign getting underway was cancelled.
 

All group stage uniform matchups released

Socceroos to wear home kits for all games (although full Banana against USA)
New Zealand to wear black for opening fixture against Iran, and white for matches 2 and 3
 
Socceroos to wear home kits for all games (although full Banana against USA)
Socceroos will only be using the black and purple keeper strips for the entire group stage, with the black keeper kit used for our matches against Turkey and Paraguay and the purple keeper kit used for our game against the USA.
 
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