{"id":82870,"date":"2026-06-13T00:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T00:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/82870\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T00:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T00:47:10","slug":"qatar-set-for-world-cup-redux-starting-with-swiss-in-santa-clara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/82870\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar set for World Cup redux, starting with Swiss in Santa Clara"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA \u2013 Qatar manager Julen Lopetegui smiled through the half-hour news conference on Friday at Levi\u2019s Stadium<\/a>, talking up his team and its talents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They had survived a World Cup qualifier gauntlet and navigated war in the Middle East. The Spaniard charged with leading the small Gulf State nation to unprecedented heights projected confidence in his side \u2026 for the most part.<\/p>\n

When asked to divulge what his tactics would be against the powerful Swiss team in Saturday\u2019s World Cup opener for the two nations, Lopetegui couldn\u2019t help but unleash a sarcastic but realistic response.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we\u2019ll play with 12,\u201d Lopetegui quipped, before adding, \u201cWe have our ideas, and we will try to develop our idea, knowing that it will be difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there is any team in this year\u2019s World Cup that knows how difficult it is to succeed at the globe\u2019s most prestigious tournament, it is Qatar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Qatar was not ready for the world\u2019s most prominent sporting stage four years ago, having only qualified for the World Cup thanks to its status as the host nation, after spending the previous 70 years as an afterthought \u2013 or even a non-entity \u2013 in the soccer world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multiple figures within the sport have alleged<\/a>, under oath, that members of FIFA accepted bribes in exchange for giving the World Cup to Qatar, a nation that has also been accused of facilitating human rights abuses of the migrant workers who built the country\u2019s stadiums.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Afterward, the nation of just 3.4 million became the first host country in tournament history to lose each of its group stage games, falling to Senegal, Ecuador and the Netherlands over the course of nine days.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only a meaningless late goal by Mohammed Muntari in a 3-1 loss to Senegal prevented the hosts from going scoreless.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This time around, a markedly improved Qatar team has earned its spot at the World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the second time we have competed,\u201d team captain Hassan Al-Haydos said through an interpreter. \u201cThe first time taught us how to play, prepare and compete .. I can\u2019t promise to our fans anything, but we will compete and play as hard as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

After finishing in the middle of an Asian Football Confederation group that saw Iran and Uzbekistan advance at the top, Qatar earned a spot in the World Cup in the next round by beating out the United Arab Emirates and Oman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attacking players Akram Afif, Al-Haydos and Almoez Ali are the unquestioned stars of the squad.<\/p>\n

Afif has hit the double-figure totals in goals in seven of his eight seasons in the Qatari league, while Al-Haydos came out of retirement to play one last time for the national team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old has spent his entire 19-year club career with Al-Sadd, where he has scored 102 goals in 354 appearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That trio headlines a team that has had to deal with military action and uncertainty within both their home country and the wider Arab Gulf region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Israel conducted an airstrike on Qatar\u2019s capital of Doha in September of 2025, with the Israeli government claiming it was targeting leaders of Hamas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On March 1 of this year, the Qatari soccer federation postponed all matches during the ongoing war between Israel and Iran while other sporting events in the region were also affected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had to change all of our schedules, but OK, we\u2019ve had to get used to that,\u201d Lopetegui said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Qatar is a relative newcomer to the World Cup, its opponent is familiar with the stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Switzerland has participated 13 times and easily qualified for the 2026 edition. The Swiss won four matches and drew twice in their European group to breeze to North America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leading the Swiss is defensive midfielder Granit Xhaka, whose one goal, six assists and eight yellow cards for Sunderland in the Premier League paint quite the accurate picture of how the hard-tackling, slick-passing 33-year-old makes an impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Striker Breel Embolo (10 goals for Rennes in the French league) was almost kept out of the tournament after a 2018 brawl initially caused him visa issues when the Swiss team boarded its flight to the United States a week ago. But the forward was later cleared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the Qatari national team practiced at nearby PayPal Park Friday morning, Switzerland trained in San Diego early in the day before hopping on a plane and making the short flight to San Jose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a heat wave engulfs the Bay Area, temperatures at kickoff are expected to be around 90 degrees in Santa Clara. While that is a bit warm by Swiss standards, it should be nothing for the Qataris: The capital of Doha will hit 111 degrees on Saturday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being acclimated to the wilting temperatures might be the only advantage for Lopetegui and his men on Saturday, but they are ready for the challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made history in this last year, and we don\u2019t want to stop,\u201d Lopetegui said. \u201cWe have this ambition, and we were following one dream that we achieved, but now we have another new dream, and we know it\u2019s going to be very, very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA \u2013 Qatar manager Julen Lopetegui smiled through the half-hour news conference on Friday at Levi\u2019s Stadium,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[21383,42613,3033,42612,5999,2019,307,41,17,20910],"class_list":["post-82870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-swiss","tag-switzerland","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116740046377205652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}