Could my World Cup dreams for Kansas City come true Friday?
FIFA, the worldwide soccer group, is hosting the World Cup Draw in Washington, D.C., on Friday. (Illustration by Eric Thomas/Kansas Reflector)
With Kansas City hosting six matches of the 2026 World Cup, you might wonder who will be playing in Arrowhead Stadium next summer.
Friday, Dec. 5, is the day we will find out.
FIFA, the worldwide soccer cabal, is hosting the World Cup Draw in Washington, D.C. At the event, teams will be put into groups of four. Those groups will determine what nations play each other in the first round.
It will also determine what nations come to Kansas City to compete, particularly in the initial games.
We already know a few things about who won’t compete in these World Cup matches in Kansas City. The first four Kansas City games are part of the first round (or group stage, as FIFA calls it) of the tournament. The host nations — the United States, Canada and Mexico — have already been assigned to venues for the first round. Sorry, American Outlaws, Kansas City is not a venue for any of the three North American teams.
For that reason, the host nations would only play at Arrowhead if they advanced to one of the matches that is part of the knock-out stage. (In other words, don’t hold your breath. Seeing the U.S. men’s national team in KC is very unlikely.)
If the host nations aren’t coming to Kansas City for any of the four first-round games, then who is?
We won’t know that until later Friday. (If you read the fine print, we will likely need to wait one more day, until Saturday, to find out all of the pairings and locations.)
But that won’t prevent me from reckless speculation. How improbable are my predictions? There will be 48 teams in the tournament field, some who haven’t even been selected. Slotted into 12 groups, those dozens of teams will play at 16 venues.
The odds of me getting the KC matches correct are the same as California Gov. Gavin Newsom winning a Republican primary in Goodland.
Really, this is simply my dream list of match-ups that we might host in the heartland. In doing so, I hope to preview some of the best teams and storylines coming to the tournament in 2026.
(I have also tried my best to obey the bonkers number of stipulations that FIFA creates in grouping teams, such as the number of neighboring countries that can be in the same group.)
Dream game #1: Tuesday, June 16, 2026: Group J
I’ll get greedy right away: Argentina vs. Scotland. The defending champions feature Lionel Messi, a player so good that my son wore his jerseys to middle school virtually every day. A player so beloved that sports giant Adidas struggled to produce enough Messi jerseys when he signed to play at Inter Miami.
If previous Argentina legend Diego Maradona played “like the ball was tied to his shoe,” Messi is said to play like “the ball is inside his shoe.” The best player ever, by my estimation, playing in Kansas City for a consecutive World Cup would be incredible.
Not delicious enough for you? I am matching them with Scotland, a team that qualified in one of the most entertaining games I have seen this year. Watch the highlights and marvel at the Scottish commentator losing his mind not just once but four times.
Kansas City could not luck into two more entertainingly rabid fan bases. Could the bars, hotels and city handle it? I would love to find out. This game would electrify the city at any point in the tournament, but to have it played as the first game? Truly a dream.
Dream game #2: Saturday, June 20, 2026: Group E
Consider Spain vs. Japan. Spain, the world’s No. 1 ranked team, boasts superstar talent, especially Lamin Yamal, the nimble highlight reel who lines up as a right wing. Still only 18 when my fantasy game is played, Yamal might be the best player in the world. If not, he is among the most charismatic and promising.
Why match Spain with Japan? First of all, the team from Japan features a playing style that would be interesting to see opposite Spain. The team works well in tight spaces with short passes and intricate footwork. Since they would have trouble matching Spain, I must have another reason.
Here it is: I would love to host Japan in Kansas City. Their fans are known for their devotion to leaving stadiums and cities cleaner than they found them. In 2022 in Qatar, a story from the Associated Press noted that the Japanese soccer association supplied “8,000 trash bags to help fans pick up after matches with ‘thank you’ messages on the outside written in Arabic, Japanese, and English.”
Let’s be clear. I’m not asking the Japanese fans to come pick up after the Argentinians and Scots from my Fantasy Game #1. I just love the idea of hosting the most fantastic guest nation.
Dream game #3: Thursday, June 25, 2026: Group F
This game is personal: England vs. Norway.
If Kansans know a soccer league in the world, it’s the Premier League, the top soccer competition in England. The league is generally regarded as the best quality soccer, from top to bottom, especially this year, when “middle” teams in the league are anything but middling.
U.S. fans watch Premier League games more than any other European league because of NBC’s broadcasts each weekend. Therefore, I know who Jørgen Strand Larsen is (a promising forward for Wolverhampton) and what nation he represents (Norway, if his name didn’t give it away).
This fantasy game of mine would be a riot for all Premier League fans. Only the best domestic players in the league will earn a spot on the England roster: international superstars such as Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane.
Meanwhile, the best scorer in the Premier League would lead Norway into Arrowhead Stadium, the Norse goal-scoring goliath Erling Haaland. He has shattered Premier League records for his club team Manchester City. Many of his teammates feature for English teams as well, from Arsenal to Brentford.
The familiarity of these players with one another would make the game unmistakably personal. Personally, it’s just a treat for me, a guy who checks on his fantasy team in the Premier League a bit too often.
Dream game #4: Saturday, June 27: Group J
The fourth game dips into the same group as the first game: Group J. I’m rooting for two new teams in Kansas City for the sake of variety.
However, that also means that I must select from lower-ranked teams, since I was so greedy at the start. (Greedy indeed! I selected three of the top four teams worldwide to play in KC.)
My fourth game might feel like a bit of a comedown: Paraguay vs. Cabo Verde. But hear me out.
The exceptional team here is a nation you might have never heard of. The island nation of Cabo Verde, also known as Cape Verde, sits off the west coast of Africa with less than 500,000 people, meaning that Kansas City’s metro population is about four times as large.
I promise that a “Kansas City National Team” would not qualify for the World Cup.
The nation’s total land area? Roughly three Kansas counties.
Readers, this is your underdog, if not by ranking. The squad is ranked No. 68 of 210 teams in FIFA’s current rankings. (That’s 18 slots above No. 86 New Zealand, which is the lowest-ranked team to qualify so far.)
Why pit them against Paraguay? Mostly because I had to find a relatively weak team from the South American federation to complete Group J.
Two relatively unknown teams would also give Kansas City a gift for the final game: more reasonable ticket prices. As I have written before, FIFA is wringing every last dollar from ticket sales with dynamic pricing, so bargains will be rare.
This match, however, would create the least demand on ticket prices, allowing Kansans a chance to enjoy the novelty of a lifetime: World Cup soccer in the heartland.
Eric Thomas teaches visual journalism and photojournalism at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.