Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, Uzbekistan: Meet the Four Debutants
Curaçao becomes the smallest nation by population ever to qualify. Cape Verde follow as the second-smallest. Jordan and Uzbekistan complete a historic class.
F our nations will play their first ever World Cup match this summer. Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan — debutants from four different confederations, four different qualifying paths, four different stories that converged on the same December afternoon at the Kennedy Center.
Curaçao are the smallest. With a population just over 150,000, the island nation off the coast of Venezuela have rewritten the qualifying record book. Their CONCACAF campaign was unbeaten through the second round, with three wins and three draws in the third. They land in Group E with Germany, Ivory Coast, and Ecuador — the kind of draw that asks them to immediately take a punch.
Cape Verde, the second-smallest nation ever to qualify, took a different route. Group winners in CAF qualifying, finishing ahead of Cameroon, with a 4-0 win over Eswatini at home in October sealing a place that the country had chased for three decades. Group H pairs them with Spain, Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia — a group that will likely be decided by goal difference between teams two through four.
Jordan and Uzbekistan came through Asia. Jordan finished second in their AFC group, edging Iraq to the automatic spot — momentum that has carried over from a remarkable run to the AFC Asian Cup final in 2023. Uzbekistan, meanwhile, are the first Central Asian nation to ever play at a World Cup. Their squad spent the spring touring Europe in friendlies, picking up the seasoning that comes with the World Cup’s biggest stage.
Four nations. Four firsts. The 48-team format was sold to the world as expansion for expansion’s sake, but the debutant class is the part of it that landed exactly as FIFA hoped.