On Sunday, the match schedule for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ will be unveiled and the three co-hosts will learn where they will play their group-stage fixtures.

But how are Canada, Mexico and USA shaping up as this latest World Cup landmark approaches? And what challenges and opportunities lie in store for the trio in 2024?

FIFA.com has been looking closer.

Canada
Recent form
It’s now six months since John Herdman, the coach who led the Canadians to their first FIFA World Cup in almost four decades, departed to take charge of Toronto FC. The team remain in a period of transition, with Mauro Biello – Herdman’s long-serving assistant – still in charge on an interim basis.

Biello, a former Canada international himself, is desperate to be handed the reins permanently and has spoken of “working my whole life for this moment”. The team, however, failed the first major test of his tenure when they lost at home to Jamaica and failed to qualify for the 2023/24 Concacaf Nations League Finals.

Canada, who had seemed to do the hard work by winning the first leg 2-1 away from home, surrendered an early lead in Toronto to go down 3-2 and exit the competition on away goals. It was Jamaica’s first-ever win on Canadian soil and, coming hot on the heels of a 4-1 friendly loss to Japan, did little to boost Biello’s hopes of becoming Herdman’s long-term successor.

Looming challenges
By missing out on the Nations League Finals, Canada were also denied a guaranteed passage to this year’s Copa America. But with Concacaf assured of six spots at the USA-hosted showpiece, they still have one last chance to secure their place.

That will come on 23 March, when – with Biello still in temporary charge – they will take on Trinidad and Tobago in a one-off Texas showdown. That currently stands as the Canadians’ one and only confirmed fixture this year, so a huge weight of significance rests on the outcome in Frisco. Should they succeed, they will face world champions Argentina in the Copa America’s opening match before taking on Peru and Chile.