Welcome to The Athletic’s 2026 World Cup tactical group guides, walking you through the key battles on the pitch, the players to look out for, and the fun facts to impress your friends ahead of the tournament.
In this article, we will break down Group F, containing the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden and Tunisia.
With no previous world champions among them, but plenty of international pedigree, this feels like a group of dark horses.
The Dutch, quarter-finalists in 2022 and ranked seventh in the world by FIFA, will be favourites to progress. Their biggest challenge is likely to come from Japan, who became the first side to secure their place at the tournament in March last year after breezing through their qualifying group.
By contrast, Sweden stuttered their way into the tournament via the play-offs, but the squad is not short of talent, particularly in forward areas. Tunisia are the rank outsiders. In five previous World Cup appearances, they have never progressed beyond the group stage.
The games
Matchday one
- Sunday, June 14: Netherlands vs Japan (4pm ET, 1pm PT, 9pm BST) — AT&T Stadium, Dallas
- Sunday, June 14: Sweden vs Tunisia (10pm ET, 7pm PT, 3am Monday BST) — Estadio BBVA, Monterrey
Matchday two
- Saturday, June 20: Netherlands vs Sweden (1pm ET, 10am PT, 6pm BST) — NRG Stadium, Houston
- Saturday, June 20: Tunisia vs Japan (12am Sunday ET, 9pm ET, 5am Sunday BST) — Estadio BBVA, Monterrey
Matchday three
- Thursday, June 25: Japan vs Sweden (7pm ET, 4pm PT, 12am Friday BST) — AT&T Stadium, Dallas
- Thursday, June 25: Tunisia vs Netherlands (7pm ET, 4pm PT, 12am Friday BST) — Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City
Key tactical approaches
In keeping with tradition, the Netherlands play a technical, short-passing style under head coach Ronald Koeman, but their approach is far more pragmatic than the free-flowing Dutch sides of previous generations.
Koeman is leading the Netherlands into a second successive tournament after guiding them to the semi-finals of Euro 2024, and there has been little tactical upheaval since then. His side generally lines up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, though their shape shifts depending on the phase of play.
“I have the reputation of being a cautious coach. But I would like to have the ball, attack, put pressure on the opponent. That is possible with multiple systems,” said Koeman before a friendly against Scotland in 2024.
Once settled in possession in the opposition half, they typically shift into a 3-2-5 shape, with one full-back — usually Inter’s Denzel Dumfries — pushing forward while the other tucks inside to form a back three. An example is shown below from their 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw at home to Poland last September, with Dumfries occupying an aggressive wide position.
Their reliance on Dumfries as an attacking outlet was a familiar tactical wrinkle from that Euros campaign, with the graphic below showing that 40 per cent of their attacking touches came down his flank, the third-highest share in the competition.
The purpose of this structure is to generate attacking overloads across the front line, creating one-v-one situations for Koeman’s dribbling specialists such as Cody Gakpo and Donyell Malen. Often, they build up down one flank, drawing the opposition across before switching play to the free winger or full-back on the opposite side.
While there is some variation (often with Dumfries advancing into the right-sided No 10 space and the winger instead holding the width), their play can still feel sterile and predictable, lacking the fluid rotations that once defined Dutch football.
In their reverse fixture against Poland — also a 1-1 draw — captain Virgil van Dijk said that his side were “perhaps too slow” in attack. The Liverpool centre-back will often try to inject more urgency himself, punctuating their short-passing approach with longer diagonals, as shown below.
Without a recognised target man up front, these long balls are rarely viable. Memphis Depay was their top scorer in qualifying with eight goals, but the Corinthians forward is more of a wide attacker than a traditional No 9.
“It is clear that at the moment we do not have the classic striker of the past,” said Koeman before their opening qualifier against Finland. The forward line are also not natural pressers, so the Netherlands focus their off-ball efforts on making themselves difficult to play through rather than aggressively winning the ball high up the pitch.
While the Netherlands’ approach can often lack energy, no such accusation can be levelled at Japan, whose high-octane style sits at the opposite end of the tactical spectrum. Hajime Moriyasu has been in charge since 2018, and has now settled on a 3-4-2-1 formation that suits the characteristics of his squad. With a solid base of three centre-backs and two energetic ball-winners in central midfield, Moriyasu deploys more attack-minded wingers as wing-backs, allowing him to squeeze more dribblers into the starting line-up.
The approach leans into Japan’s two primary strengths: an aggressive high press and rapid counter-attacks. After their 1-0 friendly victory away to England in March, England head coach Thomas Tuchel praised Japan as a “well-drilled” side, and the coordination and intensity of their press unsettled England from the off.
The example below, taken from the match’s first minute, shows right wing-back Ritsu Doan aggressively jumping onto England left-back Nico O’Reilly, while defensive midfielder Kaishu Sano pushes all the way to the edge of England’s penalty area to stay tight to Kobbie Mainoo. This pressure forces Marc Guehi into a backpass to Jordan Pickford, with centre-forward Ayase Ueda immediately rushing the goalkeeper into a wayward clearance.
Doan plays as an attacking midfielder for Eintracht Frankfurt, and there is an argument that Moriyasu stifles the creativity of the forwards he shunts out to wing-back, particularly when Japan retreat into a 5-4-1 low block under sustained pressure.
The counter-argument is that when Japan do pinch the ball high up the pitch, they have five natural attackers ready to pounce, with Kaoru Mitoma’s winner against England coming from a sweeping counter-attack.
Moriyasu gives his players considerable freedom to rotate, constantly dragging opponents out of position. In the example below, left centre-back Hiroki Ito bursts forward on the overlap following a turnover and ends up as Japan’s most advanced player.
Wataru Endo contrasted Moriyasu’s fluid approach with the tactics of his former Liverpool manager, Arne Slot.
“With regards to attacking, you could say Slot is more positional — he’s the kind of coach who is very precise about where each individual player should be positioned,” said Endo. “Moriyasu is more flexible, and while he has a base structure, he gives the players the option to sometimes build as a back four and sometimes as a back three.”
Slot comes from the possession-oriented Dutch school of coaching, and the opening group fixture between the Netherlands and Japan presents an intriguing clash of styles. Japan’s gung-ho approach is exciting to watch, but their eagerness to play quick, direct football means they rarely exert the same level of control as the Dutch.
At the last World Cup, Japan caused an upset by beating Spain 2-1 through their usual counter-attacking approach. They won that match with just 18 per cent possession — the lowest recorded by a winning side in the competition’s history — and it is difficult to consistently rely on such a reactive approach.
Japan deservedly beat England at Wembley earlier this year (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
By virtue of having long-term coaches at the helm, Japan and the Netherlands have been able to craft distinct, well-rehearsed tactical identities. Rounding out the group are Sweden and Tunisia, who are more unknown quantities, with both countries appointing a new head coach within the last year.
Sweden were at their lowest when former Chelsea and Brighton manager Graham Potter took charge last October. They finished bottom of their qualifying group with just one point, but snuck into the play-offs courtesy of their UEFA Nations League performance. Potter typically favours possession football, but with Sweden shorn of confidence and in urgent need of results, he opted for a more basic system that prioritised defensive solidity.
Sweden beat Ukraine in their play-off semi-final despite having just 32 per cent possession, with Potter setting his side up in a conservative 3-4-2-1 shape with five defenders.
“Sweden didn’t let us play in the final third — it was a very intense defence and very hard to open them,” said Ukraine head coach Serhiy Rebrov afterwards. Potter’s side shifted across effectively to close space, regularly doubling up on Ukraine’s wingers. Their attacking approach was straightforward: play long towards muscular centre-forward Viktor Gyokeres, with pacy winger Anthony Elanga flitting around his orbit to pounce on knock-downs.
“We anticipated the game was going to be a bit more on the counter-attack for us, also acknowledging that our front players are as good as any in the world at attacking big spaces,” said Potter.
Van Dijk will face Gyokeres on June 20 in Houston (Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Potter will eventually want to add greater tactical complexity to Sweden’s play, but the squad have reacted well to simpler instructions and are unlikely to move too far away from this structure.
Tunisia are another side likely to plump for a safety-first, stripped-back approach. Across their 10 qualifying games, they did not concede a single goal, and defensive solidity has long been a cornerstone of their tactical identity.
But that defensive resilience comes at the expense of attacking threat, an issue that cost Sami Trabelsi his job in January after Tunisia’s limp Africa Cup of Nations exit to Mali. He was replaced by former Nottingham Forest manager Sabri Lamouchi, but he is unlikely to usher in a more adventurous approach. His first match in charge was a dull 1-0 friendly win over Haiti, followed by a 0-0 draw against Canada.
Tunisia will be tough to break down, and expect a disciplined, defensive 4-5-1 block. Their chronic attacking bluntness, however, means they will probably require set pieces and a slice of luck if they are to have any chance of emerging from this group.
Standout players
An ankle injury meant Frenkie de Jong missed the 2024 European Championship, and the Barcelona midfielder’s absence was keenly felt in the Dutch midfield. De Jong is the beating heart of the side, combining a superb passing range with an ability to dictate the tempo of matches. He excels at escaping pressure through his ball carries, a trait that brings far greater thrust and purpose to the Netherlands’ build-up.
Behind De Jong, Van Dijk brings an authority and assurance to the Dutch defence. Powerful, quick, and boasting outstanding positional awareness, the Liverpool centre-back rarely dives into challenges recklessly. Across the last eight Premier League seasons, he has been dribbled past just 35 times.
Spearheading Japan’s attack is Ayase Ueda, the Feyenoord striker who topped the Eredivisie scoring charts this season with 25 goals in 27 appearances. As shown by his Skillcorner run profile below, Ueda’s movement is heavily geared towards attacking crosses and exploiting the space in behind, and he is also an effective presser out of possession.
Ueda has been in sparkling form, but the group’s standout strikers — in terms of profile anyway — are Swedish duo Gyokeres and Alexander Isak. Both were the subjects of big-money transfers last summer, with Gyokeres joining Arsenal for £55million and Isak moving to Liverpool for a British-record £125million fee.
Fitness problems have dominated Isak’s disappointing first season at Liverpool, while Gyokeres has been productive without ever fully convincing. Fully firing, they offer complementary, contrasting threats: Alexander Isak providing fluid movement, quick footwork and mastery of tight spaces, while Viktor Gyokeres is a powerful, battering-ram of a forward.
Isak showed that he is nearing full fitness last Monday, scoring a sensational goal for Sweden in a 3-1 friendly defeat to Norway, while Gyokeres scored as his side came from from behind to beat Greece 2-1 on Thursday.
Rani Khedira, the brother of 2014 World Cup winner Sami Khedira, switched his international allegiance to Tunisia earlier this year and made his debut against Haiti. As his brother did, Khedira operates as a defensive midfielder, where his strength in duels will be vital for a Tunisia side expected to spend long stretches without the ball.
Rani Khedira has added experience to the Tunisian squad (Ronny Hartmann/Getty Images)
Things to look out for
Keep your eyes peeled for some innovative set-piece routines. Premier League sides have placed a greater emphasis than ever before on dead-ball situations, and the trend is spilling over into international football.
Long throws in particular have spiked this season, and Japanese coach Ryoichi Maeda has discussed incorporating them into their tactics. They have also added Shunsuke Nakamura, one of the game’s greatest ever free-kick takers, to the backroom staff, further bolstering their set-piece expertise.
Meanwhile, The Athletic has previously reported that Koeman is considering specialist coaching to improve the Netherlands’ set-piece threat. Their defensive record is already strong — conceding just once from set pieces during qualifying, with the towering Van Dijk able to repel danger — but Dutch sides have lacked a cutting edge from dead-ball situations. Graham Potter has followed suit by bringing in Andreas Georgson, Tottenham Hotspur’s set-piece coach.
With this set to be the warmest World Cup in decades, fluid attacking football may prove difficult in the sweltering heat. In such stop-start conditions, dead-ball situations become even more valuable, making it little surprise that teams are placing greater emphasis on them.
