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2026 FIFA World Cup – Group I Focus

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

I know I haven’t focused too much on the controversies with this World Cup. My biggest focus is on the teams and the play happening. Nevertheless they are hard to ignore.

More controversies? First, the war in Iran proved difficult for the players of Iraq to play their intercontinental playoff game against Bolivia. Political tension was so tight, FIFA sent the players a chartered jet to bring them into Mexico. Second, FIFA decided to declare one match as a ‘Pride Match’ It was to be decided by draw and it ended up being Iran vs. Egypt: two nations with a terrible record of LGBT rights (if any). Third, there’s talk of a halftime show right in the middle of the Final. That goes against game protocol for most FIFA members.

I’m sure if you go to Wikipedia, you will see all of the controversies about this year’s World Cup. I won’t talk about them anymore. Let’s get back to focusing on the groups of the Group Stage. I’d rather focus on the teams about to play rather than the controversies.

Group I is a unique set of four. Two teams competed last Cup and both made the Round Of 16. One team is in their first World Cup in 28 years and another their first in 40 years and their second only! Also the first match of France vs. Senegal should be interesting because it was the very first match of World Cup 2002 and France was shocked by Senegal with a 1-0 loss! Should be interesting. Anyways enough with the trivia. Here’s my look at Group I:

-France (3): These last thirty years has been about the meteoric rise of Les Bleus. No other nation has been in four World Cup finals nor has won twice. They’ve had rough spots back in 2002 and 2010, but they would come back. They even proved the ‘curse of the defending World Cup champions wrong by making it to the final in the last World Cup. Although their success at the Euro isn’t as big, it’s still consistent, like semifinalists in the most recent tournament in 2024.

The team’s coaching staff is completely French and the head coach is Didier Deschamps who has coached the team since 2012. The players part of the World Cup roster play for teams all over Europe. Top stars include goalkeeper Mike Maignan who plays for AC Milan, defender Lucas Digne who plays for Aston Villa, midfielder N’Golo Kante who plays for Turkey’s Fenerbahce, and striker and captain Kylian Mbappe who plays for Real Madrid. France’s play in the last twelve months has been strong. France has had notable wins including against Brazil, Germany and twice to Ukraine, a draw against Iceland and their only loss being to the Ivory Coast earlier this June. Chances are France can rise to the occasion again and win the world over in 2026.

-Senegal (15): Many people would describe either Cameroon or Nigeria as the best African team in history. Neither qualified for this World Cup. One team to look out for is Les Lions de la Teranga. They made the quarterfinals in their first World Cup in 2002 where they defeated defending champions France in the opening game. They qualified again in 2018 and they made the Round Of 16 back in 2022. Adding to their glory, they won the African Cup Of Nations in 2021 and could have won again in 2025, but their walkout in the final caused the AFC to overturn their win.

Senegal’s coaching staff is completely of Senegalese coaches and head coach Pape Thiaw was part of Senegal’s first-ever team at the World Cup back in 2002. The players play for various teams in Europe but most of them in France’s Ligue 1. Top players include goalkeeper Edouard Mendy who plays for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahli, defender Kalidou Koulibaly who plays for Saudi team Al-Hilal, midfielder Idrissa Gueye who plays for England’s Everton and striker Sadio Mane who plays for Saudi team Al-Nassr. Senegal’s play in the last twelve months has been a mixed showing. Notable wins include against England, Sudan, Egypt and the United States. They had a win and a draw against DR Congo, a draw against Saudi Arabia, and they’ve had losses to the United States and Brazil. If Senegal is all there in North America, they could deliver another shocker result.

-Iraq (56): The last time the Lions Of Mesopotamia played in the World Cup was their debut tournament in 1986. Since then, the nation of Iraq has gone through a lot of turmoil with the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, two American-led wars, Saddam’s overthrow and retaliation from his supporters. This has affected their football as well. In recent years, they made progress. They were AFC Champions in 2007 and runners-up in 2015. For qualification to the World Cup, they played well enough to be relegated to an intercontinental playoff berths. Training and preparing was difficult as Iraq was in the crossfire of the War In Iran. The team had to train in the United Arab Emirates for safety reasons and had to fly in a jet chartered by FIFA to get them to play the match. In that match, they faced Bolivia and won 2-1!

Iraq’s coaches are a mix of Iraqi coaches and coaches from other nations and head coach Graham Arnold is from Australia and is Australia’s coach from 2022. Most of Iraq’s team plays for teams in the Iraq Stars League and European teams. Top players include goalkeeper Jalal Hassan, defender Rebin Salaka, midfielder Ibrahim Bayesh and striker Aymen Hussein. All of their wins have been against Asian teams except for Bolivia and Andorra both this year. They had three draws, against the UAE, Spain and Saudi Arabia and had losses against Algeria, Jordan and Venezuela. It’s very possible Iraq could defy people’s expectations and become one of the tournament’s biggest surprises.

-Norway (31): Norway is a nation not entirely known for its football. More often, Norway is known for winter sports athletes. The best Norway ever did at the World Cup was the Round Of 16 in 1998. Very rarely do their footballers deliver big on the world stage, but things are changing for the Rode Hvite Bla. They qualified for their fourth World Cup by topping their UEFA group (and beating out favorites Italy) and Erling Haaland was the top scorer of the World Cup qualifiers! Haaland is also UEFA’s 2022-23 Men’s Player Of The Year.

Norway’s team is coached by coaches from around the world but most are from Norway and head coach Stale Solbakken is from Norway’s 1998 World Cup team. The team plays for various clubs from around Europe. Stars include goalkeeper Orjan Nyland who plays for Sevilla, defender Kristoffer Vassbakk Ajer who plays for England’s Brentford, midfielder and captain Martin Odegaard who plays for Arsenal and striker Erling Haaland who plays for Manchester City. Norway’s play in the last twelve months has been mostly strong. Notable wins include Sweden, Israel and twice against both Estonia and Italy. They’ve also had draws against Switzerland, New Zealand and Morocco and their only loss was against the Netherlands back in March this year. The stage is ready in North America and Norway can prove itself to be a delightful upsetter at this World Cup.

My Qualifier Predictions: Many of the teams are tough rivals and this is one of the groups many are labelling the ‘Group Of Death.’ I predict France to top with Senegal second. Norway will be third and they will play well enough to qualify for the knockout round.

And there you have it! That’s my look at World Cup Group I. Isn’t it something about World Cup group play? You have the favorites and can make all these predictions but it’s their three games that will decide if they’re worth advancing or not!

WORK CITED:
“Concerns: 2026 FIFA World Cup.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2026. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_FIFA_World_Cup#Concerns>

2023 Women’s World Cup Intro And Group A Focus

Jon The Blogcentric2 Comments

Yes, the Women’s World Cup is back for its ninth edition. This is actually the very first Women’s World Cup that the hosting will be between two countries: Australia and New Zealand. This will be quite something as their time zones greatly differ and most of the games will be contested during times most people aren’t used to: early morning in Europe and sleeping hours in North America.

This year’s tournament promises excitement with this being the very first WWC to have thirty-two teams competing! How about that? Right after Qatar 2022 becomes the last men’s World Cup with 32 competing teams, Australia/New Zealand 2023 will be the first Women’s World Cup to contest 32 teams. I will be focusing more on various aspects of this year’s Women’s World Cup over future blogs. In the meantime, this is the first of my eight group focuses. Here’s my look at Group A. In addition, FIFA ranking as of June 2023 is in brackets:

-New Zealand (26): Usually for the World Cup, the draw is to make sure the host nation or nations don’t have such a tough time trying to qualify to the knockout round. It backfired for Qatar 2022 as the host nation achieved three ignominious World Cup records: first host nation to lose its opening game; first host nation to lose all three of their Group Stage games; and first-ever host nation to get a last-place finish at the World Cup.

New Zealand is one of the two host nations. It has always finished in the Group Stage in all five of their previous Women’s World Cup appearance without ever winning a game. Nevertheless the Football Ferns are a team that can deliver. They once made the quarterfinals of an Olympics (in 2012) and have won two Olympic matches. The current team plays for teams mostly in Australia and the United States. The team is coached by Czech coach Jitka Klimkova. You can be sure New Zealand won’t deliver the same Qatar-like disappointment here.

New Zealand has not had it good this year. They played seven friendlies this year, five at home, and they lost all but one. Their last win was back in September against the Philippines. Whatever the situation, New Zealand knows they will need to deliver a team that will make their nation proud. Sometimes home-field advantage can work and I’m confident the Ferns will deliver. Even achieve New Zealand’s first WWC win ever.

-Norway (12): If there’s one thing about Norway, they want people to stop seeing them as a blast from the past. Their WWC and Olympic wins may have come in 1995 and 2000 respectively and their last Top 4 finish may have been in 2007 but they still have a lot to prove. In fact 2019 saw them return to the WWC quarterfinals and win the Algarve Cup that year The team is even coached by Hege Riise who was part of both the 1995 World Cup winning team and the 2000 Olympic champions.

Most of the team plays for the Norwegian league and other leagues around Europe. The Grasshoppers, as they are commonly known, finished third at this year’s Tournoi de France. Since the start of 2022, their play has been off and on. They’ve won against New Zealand and the Netherlands, had draws against England and Sweden, had a win and a loss against Denmark, a draw and a loss to France and losses to England, Brazil and Spain. The World Cup is where the team has to come together if they want to prove they’re a force to be reckoned with now.

-Philippines (46): It seems as though ever since the Philippines have qualified for this World Cup, they’re doing the best they’ve ever done. Mind you football is a new sport in the Philippines. The team has had a stellar set of last few years winning the AFF Championship (for Southeast Asian teams and Australia) and becoming semifinalists at last year’s Asian Cup. The Filipinas even won their first medal at the Asian Games since 1985.

This will be the team’s World Cup debut. The team is coached by Australian Alen Stajcic. The team members play mostly for leagues in Europe and Australia. In its play since 2022, the team have amassed a lot of wins but they were all against Asian teams. Outside of Asian teams, they’ve had a draw and a loss to both Costa Rica and Chile. They’ve also had losses to New Zealand, Scotland and Iceland. Whatever the situation, this World Cup is the perfect opportunity for the Philippines team to grow and learn and maybe surprise us sooner than we expected.

-Switzerland (20): Switzerland is a team working to make a name for themselves. La Nati have competed at Euro 2017 and 2022 but never made it past the group stage. In their first and only previous World Cup back in 2015, they did qualify for the knockout stage but lost to hosts Canada in the Round of 16.

The current team is coached by German Inka Grings who was part of Germany’s bronze medal-winning team at the 2000 Olympics. The team mostly plays for leagues in Switzerland, Germany, England and Spain. Since the start of 2022, Switzerland have had wins against Croatia and Wales, draws against Portugal, Poland and China and losses to Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark. Australia and New Zealand provide Switzerland with another chance to make a name for themselves and a chance to go further than most will predict.

My Prediction: For first timers at my blog, I usually predict as I go with the World Cup. That means whenever I do group reviews, I predict who from that group will qualify into the knockout round. Group A is not too easy to predict which two will advance to the knockout round. All four teams have noticeable strengths and noticeable weaknesses. My prediction will be Norway will top but New Zealand will also qualify.

And there you have it. That’s my review for Women’s World Cup Group A. There’s more to come over time. Hard to believe it’s just two weeks away!