This Thursday (early Friday morning in Spain) the road to the 2026 World Cup begins. Less than nine months after Leo Messi’s Argentina will be proclaimed world champion in Qatar 2022 after defeating the Mbappe’s France by penalties, begin the South Americans qualify for the 2026 World Cupto be held together in United States, Canada and Mexico.
Ten teams will participate in this league ends in October 2025 and the first two days are played between this Thursday (early Friday morning in Spain) and this Tuesday (early Wednesday morning Spanish time).
Six automatically classified
With the new format of the World Cup, expanded to 46 teams, the six best CONMEBOL teams are automatically present. The other will participate in an intercontinental qualifying tournament where rivals from all confederations except UEFA will be present.
The second confederation to begin the qualifying phase for the 2026 World Cup is Asia, which will do so in October, while Africa will begin in November. The CONCACAF phase will begin in March 2024 and the Oceania phase in September of that year. The last phase of the start of the 2026 World Cup is Europe: it will start in March 2025.
In this league, he will debut against at home Ecuador this Thursday the world champion of Qatar 2022, Argentinawith the Leo Messi on the head; while the other two parties face each other Paraguay with Peru and Colombia with Venezuela. On Friday the curtain will fall on the first day of matches Uruguay-Chile and Brazil-Bolivia.
The first 2 days of the league
day 1
Friday 8 September
Paraguay-Peru 0.30
Colombia-Venezuela 1.00
Argentina-Ecuador 2.00
Saturday 9 September
Uruguay-Chile 1.00
Brazil-Bolivia 2.45
day 2
Tuesday 12 September
Bolivia-Argentina 22.00
Ecuador-Uruguay 23.00
Wednesday 13 September
Venezuela-Paraguay 00.00
Chile-Colombia 2.30
Peru-Brazil 4.00
* The first six qualify and the seventh goes to an intercontinental playoff
They are in Qatar 2022 Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador. Peruwhich finished fifth, did not play in the World Cup after losing the play-off match Australia through sanctions. Next to Peruthey will seek revenge in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela.
Only two selectors continue
Of the ten teams, only two kept their coaches: Argentina Continue on Lionel Scaloni and Paraguayan together Guillermo Barros Schelotto.
Seven of the selectors are Argentine. So, in addition to Scaloni and Barros Schelottois Gustavo Costas with Bolivia, Eduardo Berizzo with Chile, Nestor Lawrence with Colombia, Fernando Batista including Venezuela and Marcelo Bielsa including Uruguay.
Others are Peruvian Juan Reynosoin charge of the red and white, the Brazilian Fernando Dinizwho is temporarily practicing ‘canarinha’ and Spanish Felix Sanchezwho sits on the bench of Ecuador.
match to match
1. PARAGUAY-PERU
Without Julio Enciso, winger for English Brighton and out for the rest of the year with a meniscus injury, Paraguay will face Peru next Thursday in Ciudad del Este.
The Albirroja coach, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, on the other hand, will have Ramón Sosa and Mathías Rojas and plans to play against Peru with Miguel Almirón on the left wing, and not rely on just one winger.
On the Peru side, coach Juan Reynoso is relying on experienced players like Paolo Guerrero, from Liga de Quito, because of the many casualties he will receive.
The big absentees were Christian Cueva, Edison Flores and Bryan Reyna, all due to muscle problems; while Gianluca Lapadula and Carlos Zambrano are still recovering from injuries.
2. COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA
Luis Diazfrom Liverpool, and John William Squarefrom Inter, led the Colombian team against Venezuela in Barranquilla, in a list where James Rodríguez and Juan Fernando Quintero caused surprises in their few minutes of play with Sao Paulo and Racing, respectively.
The team led by Argentine Néstor Lorenzo will be without goalkeeper David Ospina, who is injured; nor the striker Radamel Falcao García.
The novelties are the return of Santiago Arias, from Cincinnati; the appearance of Jhon Durán, who scored his first Aston Villa goal; goalkeeper Devis Vásquez, from Sheffield Wednesday of the English second division and midfielder Richard Ríos, who stood out for Palmeiras.
Coach Fernando Batista, for his part, called up 29 footballers to Vinotinto, 27 of them playing abroad.
In the group, Josef Martínez, Messi’s partner in attack at Inter Miami; Tomás Rincón, from Santos; and Salomón Rondón, from River Plate; the great references of a Venezuela that dreams of qualifying for its first World Cup.
3. ARGENTINA-ECUADOR
The group of Leo Messi Venezuela will welcome four new faces to the Mâs Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires.
Lionel Scaloni’s group includes Fiorentina striker Lucas Beltrán; to the end Alan Velasco, from Dallas; midfielder Bruno Zapelli and defender Lucas Esquivel, both from Paranaense.
Defender Marcos Acuña, from Sevilla, was the only casualty due to injury.
For Tri, Enner Valencia, Ecuador’s historic scorer, will lead the team led by Spaniard Félix Sánchez, who also used Moisés Caicedo, Kendry Páez, Gonzalo Plata and Jhojan Julio, against the Albiceleste.
His most heartbreaking absence was that of Miguel Parrales, the leading scorer in the Ecuadorian Pro League with Guayaquil City.
Ecuador will start the qualifiers with a negative balance of 3 points, due to the resolution issued by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) before the start of the World Cup in Qatar for the case of Byron Castillo, after the accusation filed by Chile and if where it joins Peru against suspicions of the player’s birth certificate.
4. URUGUAY-CHILE
Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde and Liverpool striker Darwin Núñez stand out as references from a new list of Uruguayans called up by Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa.
Among the 25 players named on September 4 was not Celeste’s leading scorer, Luis Suárez, 36, whose number 9 shirt will be inherited, at least for the next two games, by Núñez, who turned 24 three months ago that was a while ago.
Eduardo Berizzo, coach of Chile, was surprised to call up 45 players for the first two days of the qualifiers, many from the Red sub-23.
Prominent on the list are Arturo Vidal, Alexis Sánchez, Charles Aránguiz and Gary Medel. The great absentee is goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.
5. BRAZIL-BOLIVIA
The temporary ‘canarinha’ selector, Fernando Diniztrust the talent of neymarwho has just signed for Saudi el-Al Ahli, to get Brazil their first points against Bolivia in Belém.
Diniz is not with Real Madrid striker Vinícius Jr. on his list due to injury, as well as Paranaense’s Bento, who was replaced by Botafogo goalkeeper Lucas Perri.
Bolivia, for its part, led by Argentine Gustavo Costas, has called up 48 players for the double date.
Among them are Green’s historical striker Marcelo Martins Moreno, goalkeeper Carlos Lampe, youth forwards Miguel Terceros and Enzo Monteiro, Jaume Cuéllar and Fernando Nava.
Defenders Luis Haquín, Roberto Carlos Fernández, Efraín Morales and midfielders Boris Céspedes and Moisés Villarroel were also called up.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
