{"id":697957,"date":"2026-06-11T15:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/697957\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T15:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:29:09","slug":"ranking-all-48-teams-in-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/697957\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking All 48 Teams in the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"fill\" class=\"ui-object-cover\" style=\"position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;object-position:50% 50%;color:transparent\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781191749_625_image.jpeg\"\/>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p data-sentry-element=\"Text\" data-sentry-component=\"Component\" data-sentry-source-file=\"paragraph.tsx\" class=\"motion-safe:ui-transition-colors ui-text-black motion-safe:transition-colors\">The Netherlands retained manager Ronald Koeman following their run to the Euro 2024 semifinals, where the Dutch had a real mixed bag of results. Their semifinal appearance was a good result given how shorthanded their midfield was, but they also just had to beat Romania, Poland, and Turkey to get there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-sentry-element=\"Text\" data-sentry-component=\"Component\" data-sentry-source-file=\"paragraph.tsx\" class=\"motion-safe:ui-transition-colors ui-text-black motion-safe:transition-colors\">The Dutch were famous for their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7158343\/2026\/06\/06\/netherlands-world-cup-fans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">total football strategy<\/a> back in the Johan Cruyff days, but this squad and projected lineup are a major departure from that approach. The current expected midfield of Frenkie de Jong, Tijjani Reijnders, and Ryan Gravenberch is extremely light on passing quality. All three are ballcarriers, and starting them together would call Koeman\u2019s squad building into question.<\/p>\n<p data-sentry-element=\"Text\" data-sentry-component=\"Component\" data-sentry-source-file=\"paragraph.tsx\" class=\"motion-safe:ui-transition-colors ui-text-black motion-safe:transition-colors\">Teams that can execute a quality defensive press (like Japan) will be able to exploit the Dutch\u2019s inability to pass through and over them. The injury to Xavi Simons will limit their passing even more. And while Cody Gakpo\u2019s finishing has run hot in multiple international tournaments, the Dutch don\u2019t have anyone to consistently get him the ball.<\/p>\n<p data-sentry-element=\"Text\" data-sentry-component=\"Component\" data-sentry-source-file=\"paragraph.tsx\" class=\"motion-safe:ui-transition-colors ui-text-black motion-safe:transition-colors\">The Dutch have great defenders on paper, but under Koeman their stats haven&#8217;t lived up to their potential. In their four games against Spain and Germany in the 2024-25 Nations League, the Netherlands conceded eight total goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-sentry-element=\"Text\" data-sentry-component=\"Component\" data-sentry-source-file=\"paragraph.tsx\" class=\"motion-safe:ui-transition-colors ui-text-black motion-safe:transition-colors\">They are probably the \u201cbest of the rest\u201d after the big seven, but their floor is lower than people might realize. An injury to Japan\u2019s Kaoru Mitoma and the Swedish team\u2019s struggles make this group much weaker than it otherwise appears.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-sentry-element=\"Text\" data-sentry-component=\"Component\" data-sentry-source-file=\"paragraph.tsx\" class=\"motion-safe:ui-transition-colors ui-text-black motion-safe:transition-colors\">Key player: Cody Gakpo (Liverpool)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images The Netherlands retained manager Ronald Koeman following their run to the Euro 2024 semifinals, where the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-697957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}