I am not much of a boxing fan, but styles make fights and I think Group F has got a tremendous clash of styles.
The Netherlands and Japan will be going at it with their impressive technical ability while Sweden and Tunisia try to impose their more attack and defensive styles to counteract their opponents.
The other element here is form, Netherlands and Japan have it and Sweden and Tunisia really don't. Sweden in particular maybe had the most disappointing qualifying cycle in the world – especially boasting two world class attackers – but still salvaged and won a playoff berth through Europe. And in a group that I don't think is going to put up massive goal numbers, I think Tunisia will be in a lot of these games.
Why a primer and not a preview? Because this is more of a handy reference guide than it is expert analysis. I did not watch or scout 32 international teams to prepare for the World Cup let alone 48 of them because I enjoy sleep and I am not apologizing.
TV SCHEDULE
Sunday, June 14
Match 10: Netherlands vs. Japan, 4 p.m. on Fox (Dallas)
Match 12: Sweden vs. Tunisia, 10 p.m. on FS1 (Monterrey, Mexico)
Saturday, June 20
Match 33: Netherlands vs. Sweden, 1 p.m. on Fox (Houston)
Match 36: Tunisia vs. Japan, midnight Sun./10 p.m. local Sat. on FS1 (Monterrey, Mexico)
Thursday, June 25
Match 57: Tunisia vs. Netherlands, 7 p.m. on Fox (Kansas City, Mo.)
Match 58: Japan vs. Sweden, 7 p.m. on FS1 (Dallas)
GROUP F TEAM PRIMERS
Author's Notes: FIFA Rankings are from the November 2025 listing at the time of the tournament draw. Players international caps/goals are relatively accurate but may not include the recent warm-up friendlies as research for these articles started weeks ago. Abbreviations next to the country names should be their official Olympic code on the score bug and the Letter/Number is their draw position for the group schedule not their pot from the initial tournament draw. Warm up friendlies in the USA are noted otherwise vs/at indicates true home/away matches.
Jake Catanese
JAPAN [JPN/F2]
Head Coach: Hajime Moriyasu (JPN)
FIFA Ranking: 18 Nickname: Blue Samurai
Qualification: AFC (Asia) Third Round Group C Winners
Appearance: 8th Best Finish: Round of 16 (2002, 2010, 2018, 2022)
Roster Breakdown: 3 Domestic, 6 Germany, 5 Netherlands, 3 Belgium, 3 England, 2 France, 1 Denmark, 1 Italy, 1 Scotland, 1 Spain
Recent Matches: Friendly W at Scotland 1-0, Friendly W at England 1-0, Friendly W vs Iceland 1-0
Player To Know: DF Yuto Nagatomo, FC Tokyo (JPN), 145 Int’l Caps/4 Int’l Goals – The 39 year old is the first Japanese player to be named to five World Cup rosters, the long time Inter Milan man was a regular in Serie A a decade ago. Played at Galatasaray and Marseille before returning to his boyhood club in 2021 where he’s made over 200 appearances to bookend his career.
Player To Watch: Takefusa Kubo, Real Sociedad (ESP), 49 Int’l Caps/7 Int’l Goals – This would normally have gone to Kaoru Mitoma of Brighton but he’s out after having surgery on his hamstring. Kubo is solid fallback option though and a tremendous creator but missing Mitoma’s 1v1 ability is a real bummer for a very technically strong team.
Tournament Outlook
Nearly went unbeaten in qualifying but gave up a 90th minute goal to Australia in the ninth of ten round robin games. Finished four points clear of the Aussies with a staggering +27 goal difference thanks to only conceding three times (with an own goal) in a solid qualifying group that also included Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Their opener against the Netherlands is a passing aficionado's dream and we’re going to cross the Blue Samurai off the list of countries that have never won a knockout game sooner rather than later.
Sam Lattof
NETHERLANDS [NED/F1]
Head Coach: Ronald Koeman (NED)
FIFA Ranking: 7 Nickname: Oranje, The Flying Dutchman
Qualification: UEFA (Europe) Group G Winners
Appearance: 12th Best Finish: Runner up (1974, 1978, 2010)
Roster Breakdown: 2 Domestic, 15 England, 4 Italy, 1 Brazil, 1 France, 1 Germany, 1 Spain, 1 Turkey
Recent Matches: Friendly L vs Algeria 0-1, Friendly (New York City/closed door) W vs Uzbekistan 2-1
Player To Know: DF Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool (ENG), 90 Int’l Caps/12 Int’l Goals – The Dutch captain is still in his prime though not at his Ballon D’Or levels of elite like he was a few years ago. He's going to have his hands full with a pretty diverse group of attackers in this group.
Player To Watch: FW Memphis Depay, Corinthians (BRA), 108 Int’l Caps/55 Int’l Goals – The former Man United starlet has carved out a pretty solid career outside of the EPL, mainly with Lyon but stops at Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and now in Brazil. Totaled 8 goals in qualifying to go along with the four each from Cody Gakpo and Donyell Malen makes this Dutch attack very formidable.
Jake Catanese
Tournament Outlook
SWEDEN [SWE/F3]
Head Coach: Graham Potter (ENG)
FIFA Ranking: 43 Nickname: Blagult (The Blue and Yellow)
Qualification: UEFA Nations League Playoff Qualifier, Path B Winners
Appearance: 13th Best Finish: Runner up (1958)
Roster Breakdown: 3 Domestic, 10 England, 4 Germany, 2 Belgium, 2 Italy, 1 Cyprus, 1 France, 1 Portugal, 1 Spain, 1 Scotland, 1 USA/MLS
Recent Matches: UEFA Playoffs W vs Ukraine 3-1 (in Spain), W vs Poland 3-2; Friendly L at Norway 3-1, Friendly D vs Greece 2-2
Players To Know/Watch: FWs Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal/ENG) and Alexander Isak (Liverpool/ENG), Combined 99 Int’l Caps/36 Int’l Goals – Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not walking through that door...but that’s okay, Sweden is doing just fine on the striker front with these two EPL stalwarts. Isak had a down year with his new club after having back to back 20+ goal seasons with Newcastle while Gyokeres led Arsenal with 14 league goals this season.
Tournament Outlook
We can’t ignore the absolute dumpster fire qualifying campaign that led to Jon Dahl Tomasson’s sacking in October. Somehow Sweden got relegated in back to back Nations Leagues AND finished last in their qualifying group by going winless, but since they won their C Flight group over Slovakia they got one of the last four spots in the UEFA Playoff and beat Ukraine and Poland to make the big show. Depending on which Swedish side shows up, this could be one of the most competitive groups in the entire tournament but that right now is a big question mark.
Jake Catanese
TUNISIA [TUN/F4]
Head Coach: Sabri Lamouchi (FRA/TUN)
FIFA Ranking: Nickname: Eagles of Carthage
Qualification: CAF (Africa) Group H Winners
Appearance: 7th Best Finish: Group Stage (6 times, last in 2022)
Roster Breakdown: 6 Domestic, 4 Germany, 3 France, 3 England, 2 Turkey, 2 Switzerland, 1 Canada/MLS, 1 Denmark, 1 Slovenia, 1 Scotland, 1 Sweden, 1 Russia
Recent Matches: Friendly L at Austria 0-1, Friendly L at Belgium 0-5
Player To Know: FW Rayan Elloumi, Vancouver Whitecaps (CAN/MLS), 3 Int’l Caps/0 Int’l Goals – Why yes, Tunisia does have a Canadian born dual international teenager in their squad. The Whitecaps youngster made a couple of starts and notched two goals in 2025 but is still mostly making cameo appearances off the bench. Probably not going to get the minutes borderline superstars like Lamine Yamal and Gilberto Mora are going to get this tournament but still a pretty cool thing to have on the resume.
Player To Watch: Hannibal Mejbri, Burnley (ENG), 45 Int’l Caps/1 Int’l Goal – The former Man Untied academy member and French youth international could crack the half century mark internationally at this tournament and has settled into regular soccer with Burnley after a good loan spell a few years back with Birmingham City.
Tournament Outlook
Not sure how much stock we can put in the Eagles blitzing their qualifying group with a 9-1-0 mark and no goals conceded. Only a goalless draw away to Namibia kept them from perfection. Despite never making it out of the group stage at the World Cup, they’ve always gotten at least one result and they absolutely should continue that trend but a knockout spot is far from assured.
Josh Nye
GROUP OVERVIEW
Obviously Netherlands are the heavy favorites and get the mirror matchup first against Japan. This first matchday is so important for teams to separate themselves from their stiffest competition. The Dutch have not been overly dominant this year and if Japan is on their game, the Samurai are fully capable of not just getting a result, but beating them.
Sweden despite their mediocre form have at least been scoring in the run up to the World Cup and I think need a strong performance to start their tournament. They have the attackers like the Netherlands that might be able to unsettle organized teams like Japan and Tunisia or find a way through on set pieces. While this is a step up for Tunisia competition wise, I think they can hang but I do worry where the goals are going to come from on a roster with that doesn't have any player with double digit international goals on it.
I'm going to go with something weird here, I think Sweden beats Japan but they'll both end up with four points as the Swedes spoil a chance for the Samurai to win the group on the final day. I think three teams will go through from this group but if it goes chalk and Japan is second, Sweden could find themselves on the wrong end of a goal difference grouping or just on a single point. Tunisia gets relegated to a spoiler role in this scenario which is a bummer cause I could see them getting a result or two here but their recent form absolutely has them on the back foot.
If Day 3 was any indication, this could be another group that gets very squirrelly very fast.
Third Place Advancement: High (Japan)
GROUP PREDICTIONS
- Netherlands 2. Sweden 2.* Japan 4. Tunisia
