World Cup 2026 has confirmed its first casualties. During the Friday games, early Saturday in European time, Brazil thrashed Haiti 3-0 and Paraguay defeated Turkey 1-0, and both countries have been eliminated from the competition after playing two of the three group stage games.
Haiti was participating for the second time in history. The first time was in 1974, but just qualifying for the tournament was a huge success for the small country, ravaged in the last decades by natural disasters (the 2010 and 2021 earthquakes, numerous floods and hurricanes) and a political vacuum with criminal bands effectively running the country (its head coach, Sébastien Migné, never visited the country in person).
Turkey's elimination has been more shocking: it was their first World Cup finals appearance since 2002, and led by quality players like Arda Guler from Real Madrid, Kenan Yildiz from Juventus and Orkun Kokcu from Besiktas. Bad luck contributed: on Saturday's match they shot 33 times, 6 on target, but fell because of Matías Galarza early goal in the second minute, that allowed Paraguay to go full defensive. In the previous match, they shot 28 times, 7 on target against Australia, but still fell 2-0.
Turkey faces Morocco next, but has no chances of qualifying. In the same group D, United States became the second country to qualify for the next stage, after Mexico, after beating Australia 2-0.