Who is your pick for the 2026 World Cup dark horse - the team that could genuinely surprise

[Taker04]

Every World Cup has at least one team that goes further than anyone predicted. Japan's run in 2022 shocked everyone. Morocco reached the semi-finals. Senegal won AFCON and will arrive in the USA-Canada-Mexico with genuine knockout quality. The expanded 48-team format means more unexpected teams will navigate the group stage and potentially cause upsets in the round of 32 and 16. Who is your pick for the team that goes further than the world expects

[Pilgrim]

USA on home soil. They have genuine individual quality in Pulisic, Reyna and Musah, they are playing in stadiums they know, they will have the crowd advantage in every group stage game and the extra home tournament adrenaline has historically overperformed any reasonable expectation

[Andy81]

Japan. They knocked out Germany and Spain in 2022 from a group stage that should have eliminated them. They have maintained squad quality and the collective tactical discipline under Moriyasu is genuine. Do not sleep on them in any knockout bracket they enter