With the 2026 FIFA World Cup another week closer, the next team being put in the spotlight is Panama. The team is relatively inexperienced in the tournament, with this being just its second time qualifying. Panama will be coming to MetLife Stadium on June 26, 2026 to take on England in a group stage match.
Panama’s lone FIFA World Cup appearance before 2026 came in the 2018 iteration of the tournament, when the team finished in 32nd, failing to make it past the group stages or win a game. Next year, the team will hope to change that and capture its first FIFA World Cup win, however, their path will not be easy.
Panama will be playing in Group L, which consists of England, Croatia and Ghana. While Panama outranks Ghana in the FIFA rankings, England and Croatia are both top-10 teams according to FIFA, which doesn’t help Panama’s odds.
The team is currently ranked 30th in the world, which is the best ranking that Panama has held since March 2014. Though the odds are stacked against them, Panama will be going into the 2026 FIFA World Cup with one of its most talented squads in recent history.
The team’s recent success has gone beyond this tournament, as Panama finished as the runner-ups for the 2023 CONCACAF Championship. In the 2023 tournament, Panama took down the United States in the semi-finals and fell to Mexico by a score of 1-0 in the final match.
Panama’s matchup against England will be a rematch from the 2018 World Cup, in which Panama suffered a brutal defeat at the hands of England. The final score was 6-1, with Panama’s lone goal being the team’s first in World Cup history. This year, at MetLife Stadium, the team will have an opportunity to avenge their loss and secure a spot in the round of 16 by doing so. The game will be Panama’s last group stage match, setting the stage for a high-stakes matchup between the two squads.
If the team defies the odds and makes it out of the extremely talented Group L, Panama will hope to find itself back in the Meadowlands later in the tournament, where MetLife Stadium will be hosting the final match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. While the final match may be a hefty goal to set for a team’s second appearance in the tournament, even the round of 16 would be an impressive accomplishment for this team, which has shown continued growth.