Who are Kansas City Getting in the World Cup Round of 32?

Coming into the 2026 FIFA World Cup, four of the matches that Kansas City would host were known. There remains one more group stage game today, between Austria and Algeria. But after that, things are up in the air.

KC is set to host a round of 32 and a quarterfinal game. You’ve probably heard that the quarterfinal game could be Portugal versus Argentina, perhaps the biggest international football match in the world. That is still on the table. But there is a distance to go to get there.

The round of 32 game needs to be sorted out first.

That match is set to be the winner of Group K and the third-place team from group D, E, I, J or L.

Group K includes Colombia, Portugal, Congo DR and Uzbekistan. Only Colombia and Portugal can win the group. If you are hoping to see Messi versus Ronaldo, Portugal needs to win the group. The only way they can do that is by defeating Colombia in the final group stage game. They have four points to Colombia’s six, so only a win gets that done. Whoever finishes second, gets the 2nd place team in Group L.

As for which third place team is likely to face the winner of group K, there is one team we can eliminate. Paraguay (Group D), is locked in to play Germany. Ecuador and Senegal are clinched into the third-place spots in their group (E and I) but aren’t locked into what team they will face in the round of 32. The last two groups, J or L are yet to be sorted, but no one from group J will play in KC.

As for group L, three teams are still in the running for 3rd place: Ghana, England and Croatia. England play Panama, who are already eliminated, at 4:00PM CST. That gives them the cleanest shot at winning the group. As you can see on the chart above, the third-place team from this group is overwhelmingly likely to be the team headed to Kansas City. If not one of them, it’ll almost certainly be Senegal as Ecuador has a mere 0.2% chance.

Whoever is in the game, the match will take place on Friday, July 3rd at 8:30 PM CST. If it’s Portugal and they win, and Argentina dispatch the Cinderella team of Cape Verde, then it’s a lone win by each team away from the only game that might get more attention than the World Cup final making its way to Kansas City in the quarterfinals.

TLDR: The higher finisher of Portugal and Colombia will most likely face the third-place team between England, Ghana and Croatia.