Draw in Washington
©IMAGO
The preliminary round opponents of the German national team at the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada have been determined. The DFB team will face Curaçao, Ivory Coast and Ecuador in Group E. This was the result of the draw at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the US capital Washington (follow the draw in the live ticker). National coach Julian Nagelsmann and his team are initially spared the trip to Mexico, which was undesirable due to the climatic conditions.
The DFB team will play its first game in the tournament on June 14th against Curaçao. The game takes place in Philadelphia or Houston. After that, they will go to either Kansas City or Toronto, Canada, for the encounter against Ivory Coast on June 20th. The group final against South American representatives Ecuador, whom Germany met at the home World Cup in 2006 at the end of the preliminary round, will be played on June 25th either in Philadelphia or in the final stadium in East Rutherford near New York.
The exact venues have not yet been determined and will only be announced on Saturday (6:00 p.m./CET) as FIFA wants to ensure the best possible TV times in all countries. The DFB selection was placed in Pot 1 of the best teams. Early duels with tournament favorites such as Argentina, Spain, France, Brazil or the English, coached by German coach Thomas Tuchel, were ruled out.
World Cup 2026: Austria challenges Argentina
Hosts Mexico and South Africa will play the opening game on June 11th at the Aztec Stadium. That already happened in 2010, back in South Africa. Group I with France, Senegal and Norway around top star Erling Haaland appears particularly tricky. Austria, coached by Ralf Rangnick, will play in the preliminary round against world champion Argentina with superstar Lionel Messi.
For the first time, 48 teams are taking part in the XXL tournament, increasing the number of games by 40 to 104 games from June 11th to July 19th in a total of 16 venues. With Cape Verde, Uzbekistan, Jordan and Curaçao, four teams have qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time.
National coach Nagelsmann will name his World Cup squad shortly before or shortly after the last Bundesliga matchday on May 16th. After the first training camp phase, the last game in Germany before the World Cup will be against Finland on May 31st (8:45 p.m.) in Mainz. The encouragement: Even before the 2014 triumph in Brazil, there was still a game in Mainz right before departure. The score against Armenia was 6:1.
Nagelsmann will then go to Chicago in the first week of June, where the USA will be the opponent at the World Cup dress rehearsal on June 6th (8:30 p.m./CET). This is followed by the move to the base camp and the tournament opener on June 14th against the huge outsider Curaçao.