Japan have grow to be the primary staff – not together with the hosts Canada, Mexico and USA – to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, with their 2-0 win towards Bahrain on Thursday confirming their development to the principle match subsequent summer season.
In doing so, Argentina and the winner of Oceania’s automated qualification race have been spared the paradoxical ignominy of qualifying first for a World Cup , which hasn’t at all times been an excellent factor previously.
With a 48-team match set to be launched for the 2026 World Cup , although, Japan will likely be hoping they’ll dispel the curse nations earlier than them – together with themselves – have suffered at earlier editions.
Japan will wish to finish World Cup qualifying curse
Kubo celebrates scoring towards Bahrain (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Certainly, of the final three nations to attain the feat of qualifying first for a World Cup, Japan completed final of their group in 2014, Brazil misplaced within the 2018 quarter-finals and Germany went out within the group stage in 2022.
With over a 12 months to start out getting ready for the match in USA , Canada and Mexico , supervisor Hajime Moriyasu will likely be hoping his aspect can cease the rot and progress additional than the nation’s finest end of the final 16.
Japan have a good time qualifying for the World Cup (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
In the meantime, in Oceania, one nation is assured to qualify this month when a four-team finals match takes place to find out who will head on to the World Cup.
New Zealand are internet hosting the match however even when they weren’t, they’d nonetheless have been huge favourites to return to the World Cup for the primary time since 2010, provided that Chris Wooden has scored 257 targets within the Premier League this season.
For the primary time ever, Oceania has a spot assured, without having to win a play-off towards a stronger South, Central or North American nation. New Zealand, having ousted Vanuatu and Samoa already, will seal that place in the event that they beat Fiji on March 21 after which New Caledonia or Tahiti 5 days later.
It isn’t essentially the most troublesome path to a World Cup we’ve ever seen… however there’s a warning from comparatively latest historical past.
Japan supervisor Moriyasu (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
New Zealand misplaced 2-0 to New Caledonia of their 2012 OFC Nations Cup semi-final – the ‘Horror in Honiara’ – which prompted nice nationwide embarrassment and in addition resulted in Tahiti taking ‘their’ place on the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil.
