𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Outside of Europe, several continents across the rest of the world are still whittling down their candidates for the 2026 World Cup finals.

Fates still hang firmly in the balance in Africa, Asia and the North America, Central America, Caribbean trident, with several nations dreaming of a first appearance at the sport’s biggest tournament.

From Cape Verde to Curacao and Stanley Menzo to Steve McClaren, here’s everything you need to know about five of the biggest matchups coming up this week.

Curacao v Jamaica, Ergilio Hato Stadium

Saturday October 11, 12am BST/7pm ET (Friday)

Stay calm, 90s football lovers – everybody’s favorite France ’98 underdog, The Reggae Boyz, are closing in on a World Cup return.

Jamaica head into a double-header against Curacao and Bermuda knowing two wins will clinch their spot next year, should the other Group B fixtures end in draws.

Steve McClaren is seeking to exorcise the demons of a rather infamous failed major tournament qualification campaign (wally, brolly, you know the rest) by steering the Caribbean side back to a first World Cup since 1998, where Theodore Whitmore’s brace secured the country’s first-ever win at the tournament against Japan.

The Englishman has made the perfect start. No other CONCACAF side won their first two qualifying matches last month, with McClaren’s side cruising past Bermuda before returning to Kingston to dispatch 2006 World Cup participants Trinidad and Tobago 2-0.

Yet with Curacao holding Dwight Yorke’s T&T team away before similarly beating Bermuda, Jamaica travel to the small island off the Venezuelan coast knowing defeat will see their hosts – managed by Dutch journeyman coach Dick Advocaat – leapfrog them to the summit.

Don’t be surprised if there’s significant interest some 7,500 kilometers away in a corner of southeast London. Four Charlton players have been called up by McClaren; Amari’i Bell, Tyreece Campbell, Karoy Anderson and Kaheim Dixon.

The Addicks quartet link up with a squad that would be headlined by Leon Bailey, on loan at Roma from Aston Villa, were the winger not absent through injury.

Yet the blow of Bailey’s loss is mitigated by the return of a host of players from the treatment room, including captain and Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Andre Blake, Brentford defender Ethan Pinnock and Leicester winger Bobby De Cordova-Reid.

United Arab Emirates v Oman, Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium

Saturday October 11, 6:15pm BST/1:15pm ET

Carlos Queiroz is not best pleased about the scheduling for the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) decisive qualifying round, and the Oman coach has no issue letting people know about it.

The former Manchester United assistant and Real Madrid boss was appointed in July to take the Arab side to their first ever World Cup and certainly has the track record for it, having been the lead architect for successful progressions with South Africa (2002), Portugal (2010) and Iran (2014, 2018).

Yet having steered The Reds to the fourth round of a gruelling qualification process that began in October 2023, Queiroz has taken umbrage with the AFC’s unexplained decision to stage the two mini-groups in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the previous and upcoming World Cup hosts respectively.

Oman held Qatar to a 0-0 draw in Doha on Wednesday to keep Group A finely poised ahead of a return to the Qatari capital to face the United Arab Emirates, who don’t play the group hosts until Tuesday.

“It would be a miracle [to qualify] in this complicated situation,” Queiroz, 72, told the Guardian ahead of their match against Qatar.

“Are there no stadiums in Japan or Kuwait where we could play? Maybe the people who organised this have a different vision of football.”

“We play Qatar and we play again three days later. Qatar play six days after, and they already know the result and what they need to do,” he added. “This has never happened before. The people that made the regulations didn’t think about this and did not pay attention … It is strange that the people in charge don’t feel uncomfortable with this.”

Saudi Arabia, still led by France’s Herve Renard, survived a scare to beat Indonesia 3-2 in their opening Group B fixture and will secure their World Cup return with victory over Iraq on Tuesday.

Only two automatic AFC qualification spots are left, with Iran, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Jordan, Japan and Australia having already clinched their berths in the third round.

 

Cape Verde v Eswatini, Estadio Nacional de Cabo Verde

Monday October 13, 5pm BST/12pm ET

Had it not been for a, to put it lightly, contended late offside call, Cape Verde would already be wildly celebrating a first-ever World Cup qualification.

The West African archipelagic state may as well have started researching transatlantic flights as four players bore down on the Libya goalkeeper deep in injury time on Wednesday, only for the flag to go up against the passer who set the quartet clean through.

The linesman found himself swarmed by the visiting bench before the ball had even hit the Tripoli Stadium net but, with no VAR in place in the Libyan capital, the wild protestations at what looked to be a clear onside pass fell on deaf ears.

It sealed a fittingly dramatic end to a 3-3 thriller that saw Cape Verde fall agonizingly short of completing a comeback from 3-1 down with just 15 minutes to play.

With Cameroon, Africa’s most capped World Cup attendee with eight appearances, two points behind but boasting a far superior goal difference, Cape Verde’s dream of becoming the second-smallest nation to make it to the tournament may well rest on beating winless Estwatini.

Victory in the capital of Praia come Monday would mark some achievement for a Blue Sharks squad that has an island population of roughly 600,000 to build a team from.

Only Iceland have previously qualified with a smaller population, with the Nordic team giving their approximately 330,000 compatriots plenty to celebrate when they held Argentina to a 1-1 draw in their opening fixture of the 2018 tournament in Russia.

Estwatini footnote Group D with just three points from nine games, but did hold Angola to a 2-2 draw on Wednesday to extinguish the 2006 World Cup participants’ faint hopes of qualification.

It leaves Cameroon praying for a favor when they host Angola, having seen off Mauritius with goals from Moumi Ngamaleu and Manchester United’s Bryan Mbeumo to keep the pressure on Cape Verde.

If Angola aren’t feeling charitable, then the Indomitable Lions – barring a huge goal difference swing to third-place Libya – will have to secure their place at next year’s tournament via the playoffs.

 

Panama v Suriname, Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez Stadium

Wednesday October 15, 2am BST/9pm ET (Tuesday)

They’ve got a ways to go, but you cannot fault Suriname for dreaming of a World Cup debut after a superb start to their CONCACAF qualifying campaign.

The former Dutch colony, geographically at the tip of South America but competing under the North American, Central American and Caribbean federation’s jurisdiction, are sitting pretty at the summit of Group A after following up a 0-0 draw against 2018 World Cup participants Panama with a 2-1 triumph at two-time qualifiers El Salvador

Led by Suriname-born former Dutch international goalkeeper Stanley Menzo, who racked up almost 250 appearances for Ajax before being ousted by a young Edwin van der Sar, the continent’s smallest independent country would surely have made it to the world stage sooner had several stars opted for them over the Netherlands.

Ruud Gullit, Edgar Davids, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Virgil van Dijk: the long list of players with Surinamese lineage reads like a who’s who of the modern game’s greats.

“Suriname has many similarities to Brazil,” Davids, born in the capital of Paramaribo, told These Football Times in 2018.

“There’s lots of poverty and a lot of kids on the street who have no money, come from broken homes and have plenty of time on their hands. They play football all the time and they learn to play with their bare feet.”

Sheraldo Becker is arguably the most high-profile star among the current Surinamese crop, the Ajax youth product having played more than 100 games for Union Berlin and winning Bundesliga Player of the Month in August 2022 before moving to Spain to play for La Liga’s Real Sociedad and Osasuna, whom he signed for last month.

Guatemala are up first before the reverse fixture against Panama, who have their work cut out to justify their tag as group favorites after opening qualifying with two draws.

Ivory Coast v Kenya, Alassane Ouattara Stadium

Tuesday October 14, 8pm BST/3pm ET

The reigning kings of Africa can expect no handouts from their continental rivals as they seek to outlast Gabon and secure a long-awaited return to the World Cup.

Ivory Coast defeated Nigeria on home soil to clinch their third Africa Cup of Nations crown last year but have been absent from the game’s biggest tournament since a third successive group stage exit in Brazil 12 years ago.

The pain of that premature departure still aches more than a decade on. The Elephants looked well on their way to the knockouts after opening with victory over Japan, only to lose 2-1 to Colombia before having their hearts ripped out by an injury-time Georgios Samaras penalty that saw Greece leapfrog them into second.

One point ahead of Gabon heading into the final two fixtures, victory over rock-bottom Seychelles, who have shipped an eye-watering 39 goals in eight games, would put Emerse Fae’s side on the brink heading into the closer against a Kenyan side whose hopes of a first World Cup bout have long since faded.

Yet Kenya manager Benni McCarthy, South Africa’s all-time leading scorer and once prolific marksman at Champions-League-winning Porto, among others, has no intention of rolling out the red carpet.

“We know we are not there to do favours for anyone,” McCarthy told Flashscore. “We want three points. That is our task, our objective.”

The Harambe Stars are certainly capable, having held Ivory Coast to a 0-0 draw in the reverse fixture last June.

They will undoubtedly have the full backing of Gabon and their captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who face Gambia and Burundi knowing there is no room for error if they are to hunt down the group leaders.