Canada Looks to End Its World Cup Curse as Several Teams Could Overtake Israel

Canada will try to begin its home World Cup on a high note when it hosts Bosnia in Toronto on Friday night in the opening match of Group 2. The expectation is that Jesse Marsch’s team will take three points against the European side, which is returning to the tournament for the first time since 2014, but Canada will be without Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies, who has not recovered from injury.

The bigger story is historical: Canada is chasing its first World Cup victory after six straight defeats. It lost all three of its group-stage matches in Mexico 1986 and all three of its games at the most recent World Cup in Qatar. In the all-time World Cup standings, Canada sits 77th with a goal difference of minus 10, behind only El Salvador among teams with a worse record. El Salvador is last at 80th with minus 21. Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, both with worse goal differences than Canada, are also below it, though each has appeared in only one previous World Cup.

The article also notes that in the 2026 tournament there are three teams with no World Cup points at all, Iraq, Qatar and Panama, each having lost their only three matches, not counting debutants Curaçao, Cape Verde, Uzbekistan and Jordan. Canada could therefore become the national team with the most defeats without earning a point in World Cup history, although the record for consecutive losses belongs to Mexico with nine, from 1930 to 1958.

For Israel, the concern is that Canada and other teams could move ahead of it in the all-time table. Israel is currently 64th with two points from three matches, earned through a 1-1 draw with Sweden and a 0-0 draw with Italy at the 1970 World Cup. The article says 11 teams in the current tournament could pass Israel, including Egypt, which has drawn twice and lost five times and will try to make history in 2026.