5 Key World Cup Storylines To Watch: New Faces, Big Stars And USA’s Outlook

It’s starting to feel real. In less than a month, fans from around the globe will be tuning in and filling up iconic stadiums for the most popular sporting event in the world: the 2026 FIFA World Cup. And a lot will happen between now and June 11. Rosters will be finalized. Teams will begin to assemble for their final tune-up matches. Fans will start to plan out their days and circle which games and star players they’ll follow along through it all. To get you started, here are five key storylines to get you set with just 30 days to go before the world hangs on to every goal and moment. Who Can Win The 2026 World Cup? Just eight nations — Brazil (five times), Germany (four), Italy (four), Argentina (three), France (two), Uruguay (two), Spain and England (once each) — have ever lifted the FIFA World Cup on the men’s side. Will a ninth be crowned on July 19? For all the pomp and circumstance leading up to the biggest World Cup of all time, it will quickly be forgotten as the action gets underway across three countries and 16 cities as the 48 participating teams embark on a marathon group stage. Upsets will happen. But the business end of the 39-day tournament promises to feature many of the usual suspects: France is FIFA’s top-ranked team and the bookies’ co-favorite to win it all, along with reigning European champions Spain. Argentina, the current World Cup holder and South American champion, will defend the title it narrowly won over France in Qatar in 2022. Brazil is overdue; the record five-time World Cup winner last won in 2002 and has never gone more than 24 years between titles. Interestingly enough, it hoisted the trophy the last time the U.S. held the final in 1994. England is looking for its first major men’s trophy since claiming its lone World Cup exactly 60 years ago this summer. The Three Lions have the third-best odds. After that, who knows? Portugal is stacked, but is it capable of becoming the first new World Cup winner since Spain finally scaled the mountain in 2010? Same goes for Belgium, whose so-called golden generation has one last chance to redeem itself after not even reaching the 2022 knockout round. Or how about the Netherlands, a three-time runner-up that lost to Argentina on penalties four years ago in the quarterfinals? We won’t have to wait much longer to find out. USA, Canada And Mexico: How Far Can The World Cup Host Countries Go? There’s no question about it: Playing at home helps. There’s a reason that, for decades, no World Cup host nation had failed to survive the first round (South Africa and Qatar missed out in 2010 and ’22, respectively). At the Stade de France just outside of Paris in 1998, Les Bleus won the first of their two World Cups. Four years later in 2002, South Korea reached the semis as co-hosts, losing 1-0 to Germany in Seoul. And back in 1994, a hosting American team just hoping to avoid embarrassment shocked the world by beating Colombia before being eliminated by eventual champs Brazil in the knockouts by the same razor-thin margin. Expectations are far higher for the current U.S. squad.  After missing the 2018 event, a new generation led by Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams qualified for Qatar and reached the round of 16. Now, on home soil, the bar is higher. The USA’s 2002 quarterfinal run was almost a quarter-century ago now. Is this squad good enough to emulate it? Fellow co-hosts Canada and Mexico have goals of their own. While the Canadians have never won a World Cup game, reaching the knockouts is a must. Mexico will host World Cup games for a record third time, with the iconic 1970 and 1986 editions also held south of the U.S. border. Mexico hasn’t reached the quarters since the latter; losing in the round of 16 seven straight times between 1994 and 2018. Returning to the last eight is the clear goal. Still, simply advancing would be an improvement, as El Tri didn’t make it out of its group in 2022. Lionel Messi And Cristiano Ronaldo’s Last Dance … Although he still hasn’t officially confirmed his participation for Argentina, Lionel Messi — who’ll turn 39 during the World Cup group stage — will surely captain the Albiceletse if he’s healthy. Cristiano Ronaldo definitely will lead Portugal; even at 41, he remains a key player for coach Roberto Martinez. For both living legends, there is a lot at stake this summer. Messi was supposed to retire from the international game after 2022, then changed his mind after willing his country to its first World Cup win since 1986 and cementing his status as the global game’s GOAT. No way he wants to sully that image with a dud of a showing in the country where he now plays his club ball as the face of Inter Miami. The stakes for Ronaldo are even higher. As the international men’s soccer’s all-time scoring and appearance leader, the World Cup trophy is all that’s missing from CR7’s otherworldly résumé. Clinching it wouldn’t just equal the feat Messi pulled off four years ago. It would also deliver Portugal its first title — and return Ronaldo to the GOAT conversation for decades to come. … And Welcome to Erling Haaland And Lamine Yamal If the 2026 World Cup represents a swan song for Messi and Ronaldo, consider it a launching pad for two of soccer’s burgeoning megastars. [FIFA WORLD CUP: Full World Cup Game-by-Game Schedule] Yamal is already being compared to Messi, for obvious reasons: The 18-year-old is also a graduate of Barcelona’s famed La Masia development academy and a slick-dribbling left-footed attacker. And while this will be the Spaniard’s maiden World Cup, he helped La Roja win UEFA Euro 2024 before his 17th birthday by scoring a crucial and spectacular semifinal goal. A hamstring injury in April has kept him out of action for Barcelona, but he is expected to be back at some point this summer on the big stage. At 25, Haaland is no kid. The Premier League and Champions League winner with Manchester City has been scoring at will at the highest level for years; in 49 appearances for his native Norway since his 2019 debut, the striker has an astonishing 55 goals. Like Yamal, this is also Haaland’s first World Cup. If the two newcomers are at their electric best this summer, don’t be surprised if both Haaland and Yamal are household names in America by August. Debut Squads and Long-Absent Teams Back on Biggest Stage The 16-team expansion of the 2026 World Cup was always going to spawn Cinderella stories. Last October, the tiny West African archipelago of Cape Verde — population 525,000 — became the smallest nation ever to reach a men’s World Cup. The record stood for a month, when the Caribbean island of Curaçao (pop. 155,000) qualified in November. Jordan and Uzbekistan will also join the party for the first time this summer. Haiti and Congo DR return for the first time since 1974. Iraq is back after 40 years. Scotland, Norway and Austria have waited 28 years. Türkiye, who will join the U.S. in Group D, is capable of sticking around late into the competition despite not qualifying since 2002 — when it went all the way to the semifinals. 2026 FIFA World Cup: How To Watch The World Cup will run from June 11–July 19, 2026. Spread across three countries, the tournament will culminate with the final on July 19 at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. All 104 tournament matches will air live across FOX (70) and FS1 (34) with every match streaming live and on-demand within both the FOX One and the FOX Sports apps. A record 40 matches, more than one-third of the tournament, will air in prime time across FOX (21) and FS1 (19). The opening match on June 11 between Mexico and South Africa (3 p.m. ET) will stream for free on Tubi, as well as the USA’s opening match against Paraguay on June 12 (9 p.m. ET).