Tunisia Might Be the Worst Team at the World Cup
Another day is in the books for a World Cup that already looks like it could go down as one of the best in history, and it was one of teams on the rise and some teams on the plummet.
Japan and Netherlands look like legitimate title contenders, Curaçao got their first-ever World Cup point, and Tunisia might have to fire their new manager that they just hired following the firing of their original tournament manager.
Here are the winners and losers of Day 10 at the World Cup.
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Winner: Curaçao
The tiny nation of only 158,000 people were already winners after scoring a goal against four-time world champions Germany. They took it to a whole new level on Saturday by drawing an Ecuador team that has one of the best defenses in the world and is seen as a dark horse this event.
It was an emotional day for the entire team and country, with Eloy Room breaking the record for most regulation saves in a World Cup game in history and honoring their late Curaçao goaltender Jairzinho, who passed away seven years ago.
Loser: Tournament Formatting
While I am enjoying the 48-team tournament, we are torpedoing towards what could be one of the worst draws in tournament history. The Netherlands might win a group featuring Japan and Sweden with their prize at the end of it being a battle with reigning World Cup semifinalists Morocco in the Round of 32. How about Brazil, who might need a little warm up before they get going in the knockout rounds? Here’s Japan.
We might seen four of the best eight teams at this competition all facing each other in the opening round of the knockout rounds. While it’s going to be great entertainment, it will feel like we’re saying goodbye to two contenders way too soon.
Winner: Deniz Undav
While there were theatrics in other games, Germany looked dead in the water against Ivory Coast for most of the day in Canada before they came alive in the second half to steal away not only the win but the top spot in their group. A lot of that is thanks for Deniz Undav, who came off the bench and ignited a stale Germany attack, with him getting them back in the game with a tying goal and then scoring in the final minutes to put Germany ahead of their African adversary.
After failing to get out of back-to-back World Cups, Germany will happily breathe easy on their final match day of the group stage against Ecuador with their qualification already locked in.
Loser: Tunisia
It’s not pretty watching Tunisia right now.
After getting smoked 5-1 in their first game of the tournament against Sweden, they fired their manager Sabri Lamouchi. They brought in veteran nation manager Herve Renard, who oversaw the likes of Saudi Arabia, Ivory Coast, and Morocco in his day. Tunisia was crossing their fingers for a new manager bounce, but they were even flatter in their second match against Japan.
It wasn’t just that Japan won, but how they won. Tunisia had zero pressure or threat in the Japan end for the entirety of the game. It was humiliating. I’ve seen, skill-wise, worse teams at the World Cup, but in terms of on-field identity and spark, this is one of the weakest teams to ever play at a World Cup.
And the worst part is?
Their final game is against Netherlands, who need to score goals to make sure they beat out Japan for the top spot in their group. Already at -8 goal differential, it might get a lot worse before they are able to fly home next week.
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This story was originally published June 21, 2026 at 1:00 PM.