分类： sports

For decades, the Netherlands has stood as one of international men’s soccer’s most enduring nearly men. Three times the Oranje have marched all the way to the FIFA World Cup final, and three times they have fallen short of lifting the sport’s most prestigious trophy—back-to-back defeats in 1974 and 1978, followed by a heartbreaker in 2010. This year, the three-time runners-up get a new chance to rewrite their legacy, drawn into Group F alongside rising Asian powerhouse Japan, resurgent Sweden, and African hopeful Tunisia, all hungry to upend the pre-tournament projections.

Pioneers of the revolutionary ‘total football’ framework that redefined the global game in the 1970s, the Netherlands has always produced sides celebrated for their dynamic, aesthetically pleasing style—yet that magic has consistently evaporated when the final whistle of the World Cup final blows. This cycle, the Dutch are led by head coach Ronald Koeman, who is in his second stint at the helm of the national team and is desperate to end his country’s decades-long title drought. Koeman already knows what it takes to win major honors with the Netherlands, having lifted the UEFA European Championship as a player in 1988, and he reached the UEFA Nations League final during his first tenure in charge back in 2019. Today, his squad draws heavily from English Premier League talent, including defensive anchor Virgil van Dijk, dynamic midfielders Ryan Gravenberch and Tijjani Reijnders, and dynamic attacker Cody Gakpo. While the current cohort is solid, analysts widely note it lacks the elite generational talent that defined some of the Netherlands’ most iconic squads of past tournaments. Even so, the Oranje enter Group F as heavy favorites to finish top of the table and advance to the knockout round—but they are not without potential pitfalls, the most notable being 2022’s giant-killers Japan.

Japan is making its eighth consecutive World Cup appearance this year, targeting a third straight advancement out of the group stage. The Blue Samurai were also the first team outside of this year’s three co-host nations to secure their spot in the tournament, booking their qualification with three group matches still left to play. At the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Japan authored two of the biggest upsets in modern World Cup history, knocking off both Germany and Spain on their way to topping their group—a run that sent shockwaves through the global soccer community. Still, the nation has never advanced past the round of 16, leaving its squad hungry to break that new barrier this cycle. A majority of Japan’s current national team players compete in top European club competitions, including Bayern Munich defender Hiroki Ito and Brighton & Hove Albion dynamic winger Kaoru Mitoma, both of whom have built strong reputations for outperforming expectations against elite competition.

For Sweden, the road to this year’s World Cup was far from straightforward. The side finished bottom of its direct qualifying group without recording a single win, and only secured a spot in the qualifying playoffs thanks to its strong performances in the 2024-2025 UEFA Nations League, granting it an unexpected second chance to qualify. Under new head coach Graham Potter, who stepped into the role looking to rebuild his managerial reputation following successive club exits from Chelsea and West Ham United, Sweden defied predictions to knock out both Ukraine and Poland in the playoffs to claim its spot in the 24-team field. The side boasts elite offensive talent that makes it a dangerous outlier in the group, including in-form Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak and Sporting Lisbon forward Viktor Gyökeres, two of the most clinically finishing strikers in European soccer. Additional key talent includes young midfield star Lucas Bergvall and Manchester United winger Anthony Elanga. Sweden has its own historic World Cup memories tied to co-host nation the United States: the side finished as runners-up in 1958, and reached the semi-finals the last time the U.S. hosted the tournament in 1994, giving the side a layer of historical confidence heading into this year’s competition.

Completing Group F is Tunisia, making its seventh World Cup appearance and still chasing its first ever advancement out of the group stage. The North African side came heartbreakingly close to breaking that streak in Qatar four years ago, beating defending champion France 1-0 and holding Denmark to a draw, only to miss out on knockout qualification by a single point. Following a disappointing early exit from the 2023 African Cup of Nations at the round of 16, Tunisia hired former head coach Sabri Lamouchi to lead the side through this World Cup cycle. A rising young star to watch for the Carthage Eagles is 21-year-old Khalil Ayari, who earned a transfer to Paris Saint-Germain ahead of this season and has recently broken through into the senior national team, bringing new energy to Tunisia’s bid to make history.

As Group F prepares to kick off, all eyes will be on the Netherlands as it chases the title that has eluded it for half a century—with three motivated opponents all ready to turn the group’s dynamics upside down.

LONDON – Months after England’s crushing 4-1 Ashes defeat on Australian soil left the cricket world questioning unity between the side’s star captain and revolutionary head coach, Ben Stokes has pushed back hard against reports of a deep split between himself and Brendon McCullum, calling claims that the pair are out of alignment “a massive overstatement.”

When Stokes and McCullum took charge of the England men’s Test team in 2022, they upended decades of cricket orthodoxy with their “Bazball” philosophy: an unapologetic, all-out attacking approach to batting that produced a string of memorable home wins, but crumbled spectacularly in Australia’s hostile conditions during the 2023-2024 winter series. A post-series review published earlier this year publicly hinted at underlying tension between the two leaders, with leaks indicating Stokes favored a more conservative tactical shift in response to Australia’s dominance, while McCullum insisted on doubling down on their signature aggressive style.

After the review concluded that both men would retain their positions last month, Stokes broke his months-long public silence in an official interview with the England and Wales Cricket Board to address the speculation head-on. The captain acknowledged that the pair do disagree on occasion, but argued that healthy debate is not a sign of a broken partnership – it is a necessary part of building a winning team.

“If anyone thinks that you’re always going to agree on everything when you share leadership, that’s just impossible,” Stokes said. “To me, that isn’t a healthy environment for sport, in particular. You need debate. You need discussions. Then you end up getting to the place you both want to end up getting to.”

Stokes emphasized that the pair’s shared commitment to England’s success far outweighs their rare differences, noting they agree on 95% of all team matters. “As similar as me and Brendon are, we’re also dissimilar in other areas as well,” he explained. “The 5% things that we might have different views on, we talk about it between each other and then we end up getting to the place where we want to get to.”

The captain admitted the period following the Ashes defeat has been the most challenging stretch of his leadership tenure, but confirmed he is thrilled to continue working alongside McCullum, a message he previously shared publicly on social media after the review’s outcome was announced.

Following the review’s recommendations, the pair will make minor adjustments to how they operate as a leadership team – a change Stokes says he fully supports. The captain added that their core alignment has never shifted: both men are focused on making England the best Test side in the world, a goal that has anchored their partnership from the start.

“I’m very confident in mine and Brendon’s ability to be able to work together, because we’ve done it for such a long period of time now, but work together in a slightly different way,” Stokes said. “The main point of me and Brendon is our alignment towards winning things and making this team as good as they can be. That’s always been the thing since we started. It might just look a little bit different now to how that operates — on the back of four years working together.”

Stokes has been sidelined since a freak preseason training accident with his county side Durham left him with a broken cheekbone, and he has not appeared in the 2024 County Championship. He is on track to return to competitive play in May, in preparation for England’s home Test series against New Zealand kicking off in June. Pakistan will visit England for another Test series later this summer, and Australia is scheduled to tour the country for the 2027 Ashes series. Stokes says he hopes he and McCullum will still be leading the side together when that series arrives, chasing the goals they set out when they first took the job.

“Hopefully we’ll still be together at the end of 2027, winning what we want to win,” he said.

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup nears its kickoff, all eyes are turning to Group D, where co-host the United States will face three familiar foes: Australia, Paraguay, and Turkey. The U.S. men’s national team has already squared off against each of their group stage opponents in international friendlies over the past 12 months – dropping a 2-1 decision to Turkey last June, before securing identical 2-1 wins over Australia and Paraguay that fall.

All Group D matches will be contested across western North America, with host venues spread across Vancouver, British Columbia; Seattle, Washington; Santa Clara, California (located south of San Francisco); and Inglewood, California, adjacent to Los Angeles. Group D is one of just four 2026 World Cup groups that will play all their matches within a single time zone, joining Group G (also based on the U.S. West Coast) and Groups C and I, which are hosted entirely on the East Coast.

For the U.S. side, the tournament brings mixed expectations as the team chases a historic deep run on home soil. Ranked 16th in the world entering the tournament, the Americans benefit from their seeding as a co-host, and have been drawn in a manageable group that opens against 27th-ranked Australia, followed by matches against 40th-ranked Paraguay and 22nd-ranked Turkey. Still, the squad faces notable structural weaknesses: analysts widely agree this is the shallowest, weakest goalkeeper cohort the U.S. has fielded since the 1980s, and only one starting-caliber central defender, Chris Richards, plies his trade in a top European league. The team’s biggest star, Christian Pulisic, has struggled for form ahead of the tournament, entering April mired in a scoring drought that has stretched all the way back to 2024, when he last found the back of the net in international play. Two key veterans from the 2022 World Cup squad – midfielder Tyler Adams and right back Sergiño Dest, who were part of the team that fell to the Netherlands in the 2022 Round of 16 – are also managing persistent fitness issues heading into the opening match.

It has been nearly a century since the U.S. last reached a World Cup semifinal, a milestone the 1930 inaugural tournament squad achieved, and more than two decades since the Americans last advanced to the quarterfinals. The 2002 side, fueled by young breakout talents Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, remains the last U.S. team to make a deep tournament run. Following the U.S.’s early group stage exit at the 2024 Copa America, veteran manager Mauricio Pochettino stepped in to replace former head coach Gregg Berhalter, tasked with unlocking the young squad’s potential on home soil.

Group D’s third-ranked side by FIFA ranking, Turkey, is making a long-awaited return to soccer’s biggest stage. Nicknamed the Crescent Stars, Turkey shocked global soccer fans with a semifinal run at the 2002 World Cup and repeated the deep run performance at the 2008 European Championship, but had failed to qualify for five consecutive World Cup tournaments before breaking that drought this cycle. They secured their 2026 spot with a playoff win over Kosovo, marking just the third World Cup appearance in the nation’s history – their first came back in 1954.

Led by head coach Vincenzo Montella, a former star striker for Roma who took over the national side in September 2023 after replacing Stefan Kuntz, Turkey has already proven its ability to compete at the top level: Montella steered the team to a quarterfinal finish at the 2024 European Championship, after hard-fought playoff wins over both Romania and Kosovo to earn World Cup qualification. Up top, Turkey’s attack is led by captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu, who has notched 22 international goals for his country, and winger Kerem Aktürkoğlu, who has 15 career international goals – including the game-winner that sealed their spot against Kosovo. Turkey has not faced Australia since 2004, and has only ever played Paraguay once, back in 1995, leaving tactical unknowns for all sides ahead of their group matchups.

Paraguay, meanwhile, is also making a return to the World Cup after a 16-year absence. La Albirroja secured the sixth and final automatic qualifying spot from CONMEBOL, South America’s confederation, with a scoreless draw against Ecuador to lock in their place, returning to the tournament for the first time since the 2010 edition. This will mark Paraguay’s ninth World Cup appearance in program history, and their best ever finish came during that last 2010 run, when they advanced all the way to the quarterfinals before falling 1-0 to eventual champion Spain on an 83rd-minute goal from David Villa.

Paraguay’s squad balances veteran leadership and exciting young talent. 32-year-old playmaker Miguel Almirón and 30-year-old striker Antonio Sanabria anchor the attacking line, while 22-year-old Julio Enciso and 23-year-old Diego Gómez bring fresh energy and pace to the squad as the next generation of Paraguayan soccer talent. Like the U.S., Paraguay made a late managerial change after a poor showing at the 2024 Copa America: Gustavo Alfaro took over from former coach Daniel Garnero after the team finished winless with three losses in the 2024 tournament.

Completing Group D is Australia, the Socceroos, who enter the tournament fresh off their best World Cup performance in decades at the 2022 edition. After four consecutive early group stage exits, Australia defied expectations in 2022, picking up group stage wins over Tunisia and Denmark to advance to the knockout round, where they pushed eventual champion Argentina all the way before falling 2-1 in the Round of 16.

Australia’s squad is led by veteran goalkeeper Matthew Ryan, who will become one of the few players in World Cup history to feature in four consecutive tournaments when he takes the pitch this year. The Socceroos also made a late managerial change during qualifying: former national team defender Tony Popovic took over from long-time coach Graham Arnold in September 2024, after inconsistent qualifying results that included a home loss to Bahrain and a draw against Indonesia. Arnold, who had served two separate stints as Socceroos head coach, was hired to take over the Iraqi national team in May 2025.