One happy, one sad — or both sad: Assessing the most Austin FC of European World Cup qualifiers
Myrto Uzuni and Oleksandr Svatok start Thursday 180 minutes of winning soccer away from a trip to the World Cup. They could be facing off against each other for one of those final spots.
On Thursday, two Austin FC teammates will set out to win matches with their respective international teams — which would then put them on a collision course to a Tuesday match in Spain to decide which one of them goes to the World Cup.
Oleksandr Svatok's Ukraine and Myrto Uzuni's Albania have played well enough to get to Thursday and Tuesday's high-stakes matches, making it to one of a series of playoffs to determine remaining spots in this summer's global tournament.
The U.S., which has already qualified as a host nation, will learn who its European opponent in group stage play will be on Tuesday, as Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia, and Turkey go through their own three-match mini-tournament to determine who gets in a group with the Yanks (and Paraguay and Australia).
On Thursday, Albania plays Poland in Warsaw, while Ukraine plays Sweden in Valencia, Spain. The winners play Tuesday in Valencia (unless Sweden advances; they would then host in Solna, Sweden), and the winner of that match will join Japan, Netherlands, and Tunisia in Group F for matches in Monterrey, Dallas, and Houston.
Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez, understanding the significance of those matches ahead, noted after Saturday's 0-0 draw with LAFC, "One is going to come back happy, and the other is going to come back sad ... or both will come back sad."
To help preview the teams in this grouping, we turned to Seth Vertelney, soccer editor for USA Today, which has provided among the most comprehensive coverage of these qualifiers I've seen.
Alphabetical order just happens to be the way the matches lineup, starting with the longest shot, but also the team Austin fans would love to see get into the World Cup, so we'll proceed that way.
Albania
Current FIFA World Ranking: 63
Putting them in the neighborhood of: South Africa (60), Saudi Arabia (61), Honduras (65)
How they got here: Albania finished second to England in Group K, going 4W 2L 2D (to England's perfect 8W 0L 0D), and besting rival Serbia plus Andorra in the standings.
Names to know: Obviously, Myrto Uzuni is who you're focused on, but also consider defenders Berat Djimsiti and Elseid Hysaj (the captain and vice-captain), playing in Serie A with Atalanta and Lazio respectively, and Rey Manaj (who plays club soccer in Turkey with Sivasspor), who has 11 international goals thus far.
Seth says: "They've never been to a World Cup, so this is going to be a big opportunity for them. They had a really good qualifying campaign, and that's going to give them a lot of confidence ... They managed to finish one point ahead of Serbia; that was probably a team that they would have been expected to finish behind."
Despite recent Euros experience, he added, "They're definitely going to be considered the underdogs ... They'll have to play a really strong, defensive, tight game to stay with Poland in Warsaw. That'll be a tough environment for them, for sure, but they'll have a lot of confidence after how they've performed over the last couple of years."
Poland
Current FIFA World Ranking: 34
Putting them in the neighborhood of: Norway (32), Panama (33), Wales (35)
How they got here: Poland finished second in Group G, going 5W 1L 2D to Netherlands' 6W 0L 2D, but ahead of Finland, Malta, and Lithuania.
Names to know: You're most likely to know 37-year-old Robert Lewandowski, but you also may know Matty Cash (Aston Villa), Karol Świderski (Panathinaikos by way of Charlotte FC), Piotr Zieliński (Inter Milan), and Jakub Kiwior (Arsenal, but currently on loan to Porto).
Seth says: "Robert Lewandowski's still scoring goals on a regular basis for Barcelona. He's still doing it for Poland. And again, this is a really experienced team ... Poland's been at the last two World Cups. They still use a number of players that you're probably familiar with, if you followed them at all over the last decade ... They have a strong team, and they'll definitely be favored going in."
He also said, of Cash, "He's somebody who may or may not have broken through with England at this point, but he has some Polish heritage, and decided several years ago that he was going to represent Poland, and he's been a big player for them."
Sweden
Current FIFA World Ranking: 42
Putting them in the neighborhood of: Paraguay (40), Czechia (43), Cameroon (45)
How they got here: Though they finished fourth out of four teams in Group B — with second-place Kosovo going into the Face the U.S. Qualifier — a triumph in their 2024-25 Nations League group allowed Sweden to slot in against Ukraine.
Names to know: Viktor Gyökeres (Arsenal), captain Victor Lindelöf (Aston Villa), Mattias Svanberg (Wolfsburg), and Emil Forsberg (Red Bull New York).
Seth says: "They're kind of an underachiever, but talent wise, probably has a little bit of advantage on Ukraine ... I think it'll be a really close matchup."
Ukraine
Current FIFA World Ranking: 30
Putting them in the neighborhood of: Australia (27), Canada (29), Egypt (31)
How they got here: Ukraine finished second to France in Group D with a 3W 2L 1D journey in a four-team group.
Names to know: Aside from Oleksandr Svatok, look for Ruslan Malinovskyi (Genoa), Heorhiy Sudakov (Benfica), and Roman Yaremchuk (Lyon).
Seth says: "For them to do as well as they have done through qualifying. without being able to play any home games, speaks highly of of them as a team and their resilience through the situation that they're dealing with back home. They should have home field advantage for this game, but this will be in Spain. That will challenging for them, but it's of course nothing that they haven't faced before."
How to watch
The matches start at 2:45 pm CT, with broadcasts starting at 2:30 pm CT for both, according to Amazon Prime Video, which houses Vix and Fox One, which both offer seven-day free trials to get you through this whole international window of Thursday/Tuesday matches.
Here's the Poland-Albania link on the Prime Video site, and here's the Ukraine-Sweden one. Both matches are on Vix (I'm assuming Spanish-language announcing there), and the Poland-Albania match requires free trial with Fox One, whereas the Prime Video site claims Sweden-Albania is free through Fubo Sports Network.
If you're going to watch via one of these avenues, I recommend getting in at least a few minutes before kickoff to do the necessary troubleshooting, assuming you're not already set up with these services.
Should Albania and Ukraine progress ...
The dream scenario of Svatok vs. Uzuni, playing for two World Cup games guaranteed in Texas, would take place Tuesday should Albania upset Poland and Ukraine do what many expect. That match would be in Valencia, with a 2:45 pm CT start time.
What else is happening?
In European qualifying, aside from the two series already mentioned, Italy risks missing another World Cup, finding themselves in a qualifying group with Northern Ireland, Wales and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to join the Canada, Qatar, and Switzerland group, while Mexico, South Africa, and South Korea will receive one of Denmark, North Macedonia, Czechia, and Ireland — to determine what San Diego FC's Andres Dreyer will be doing this summer.
Mexico will also be hosting two three-team playoffs, with Jamaica and New Caledonia facing off in Guadalajara to play Congo DR for a spot in Colombia, Portugal and Uzbekistan's group, while in Monterrey, it's Bolivia and Suriname facing off, with the winner playing Iraq to join France, Norway and Senegal.
... and then?
With a match against Miami looming April 4, it's not as if Estévez will jaunt over to Valencia to watch the game in person, and as Verde goalkeeper Brad Stuver said after Saturday's match, both Svatok and Uzuni will have to regroup and resume their role as teammates (after the latest installment in a rivalry the entire locker room's now aware of) to face one of the sternest tests of the young season.
And, as we know, only one of them, at best, will be happy with the results experienced in Europe.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
Calling a scoreless draw a new standard might be surprising, but in the context of how Verde played in this match, the assessment from both coach and veteran players makes sense. While most of the team now gets some rest, two players will vie for a place in the World Cup this coming week.
As 0-0 matches go, this one was full of action — including a Myrto Uzuni goal taken away by VAR. Yet, in the end, Verde wasn't able to stop LAFC's ongoing string of clean sheets.
LAFC is out to a strong start in 2026, but the MLS of it all might mean that they concede their first goal of the season on Saturday. If you need a little glimmer of hope that it happens, read on.
Based on recent form and what oddsmakers are saying, this match doesn't bode well for Austin FC. But as this team's coach and captain will tell you, it's really up to the players.
On Thursday, two Austin FC teammates will set out to win matches with their respective international teams — which would then put them on a collision course to a Tuesday match in Spain to decide which one of them goes to the World Cup.
Oleksandr Svatok's Ukraine and Myrto Uzuni's Albania have played well enough to get to Thursday and Tuesday's high-stakes matches, making it to one of a series of playoffs to determine remaining spots in this summer's global tournament.
The U.S., which has already qualified as a host nation, will learn who its European opponent in group stage play will be on Tuesday, as Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia, and Turkey go through their own three-match mini-tournament to determine who gets in a group with the Yanks (and Paraguay and Australia).
On Thursday, Albania plays Poland in Warsaw, while Ukraine plays Sweden in Valencia, Spain. The winners play Tuesday in Valencia (unless Sweden advances; they would then host in Solna, Sweden), and the winner of that match will join Japan, Netherlands, and Tunisia in Group F for matches in Monterrey, Dallas, and Houston.
Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez, understanding the significance of those matches ahead, noted after Saturday's 0-0 draw with LAFC, "One is going to come back happy, and the other is going to come back sad ... or both will come back sad."
To help preview the teams in this grouping, we turned to Seth Vertelney, soccer editor for USA Today, which has provided among the most comprehensive coverage of these qualifiers I've seen.
Alphabetical order just happens to be the way the matches lineup, starting with the longest shot, but also the team Austin fans would love to see get into the World Cup, so we'll proceed that way.
Albania
Current FIFA World Ranking: 63
Putting them in the neighborhood of: South Africa (60), Saudi Arabia (61), Honduras (65)
How they got here: Albania finished second to England in Group K, going 4W 2L 2D (to England's perfect 8W 0L 0D), and besting rival Serbia plus Andorra in the standings.
Names to know: Obviously, Myrto Uzuni is who you're focused on, but also consider defenders Berat Djimsiti and Elseid Hysaj (the captain and vice-captain), playing in Serie A with Atalanta and Lazio respectively, and Rey Manaj (who plays club soccer in Turkey with Sivasspor), who has 11 international goals thus far.
Seth says: "They've never been to a World Cup, so this is going to be a big opportunity for them. They had a really good qualifying campaign, and that's going to give them a lot of confidence ... They managed to finish one point ahead of Serbia; that was probably a team that they would have been expected to finish behind."
Despite recent Euros experience, he added, "They're definitely going to be considered the underdogs ... They'll have to play a really strong, defensive, tight game to stay with Poland in Warsaw. That'll be a tough environment for them, for sure, but they'll have a lot of confidence after how they've performed over the last couple of years."
Poland
Current FIFA World Ranking: 34
Putting them in the neighborhood of: Norway (32), Panama (33), Wales (35)
How they got here: Poland finished second in Group G, going 5W 1L 2D to Netherlands' 6W 0L 2D, but ahead of Finland, Malta, and Lithuania.
Names to know: You're most likely to know 37-year-old Robert Lewandowski, but you also may know Matty Cash (Aston Villa), Karol Świderski (Panathinaikos by way of Charlotte FC), Piotr Zieliński (Inter Milan), and Jakub Kiwior (Arsenal, but currently on loan to Porto).
Seth says: "Robert Lewandowski's still scoring goals on a regular basis for Barcelona. He's still doing it for Poland. And again, this is a really experienced team ... Poland's been at the last two World Cups. They still use a number of players that you're probably familiar with, if you followed them at all over the last decade ... They have a strong team, and they'll definitely be favored going in."
He also said, of Cash, "He's somebody who may or may not have broken through with England at this point, but he has some Polish heritage, and decided several years ago that he was going to represent Poland, and he's been a big player for them."
Sweden
Current FIFA World Ranking: 42
Putting them in the neighborhood of: Paraguay (40), Czechia (43), Cameroon (45)
How they got here: Though they finished fourth out of four teams in Group B — with second-place Kosovo going into the Face the U.S. Qualifier — a triumph in their 2024-25 Nations League group allowed Sweden to slot in against Ukraine.
Names to know: Viktor Gyökeres (Arsenal), captain Victor Lindelöf (Aston Villa), Mattias Svanberg (Wolfsburg), and Emil Forsberg (Red Bull New York).
Seth says: "They're kind of an underachiever, but talent wise, probably has a little bit of advantage on Ukraine ... I think it'll be a really close matchup."
Ukraine
Current FIFA World Ranking: 30
Putting them in the neighborhood of: Australia (27), Canada (29), Egypt (31)
How they got here: Ukraine finished second to France in Group D with a 3W 2L 1D journey in a four-team group.
Names to know: Aside from Oleksandr Svatok, look for Ruslan Malinovskyi (Genoa), Heorhiy Sudakov (Benfica), and Roman Yaremchuk (Lyon).
Seth says: "For them to do as well as they have done through qualifying. without being able to play any home games, speaks highly of of them as a team and their resilience through the situation that they're dealing with back home. They should have home field advantage for this game, but this will be in Spain. That will challenging for them, but it's of course nothing that they haven't faced before."
How to watch
The matches start at 2:45 pm CT, with broadcasts starting at 2:30 pm CT for both, according to Amazon Prime Video, which houses Vix and Fox One, which both offer seven-day free trials to get you through this whole international window of Thursday/Tuesday matches.
Here's the Poland-Albania link on the Prime Video site, and here's the Ukraine-Sweden one. Both matches are on Vix (I'm assuming Spanish-language announcing there), and the Poland-Albania match requires free trial with Fox One, whereas the Prime Video site claims Sweden-Albania is free through Fubo Sports Network.
If you're going to watch via one of these avenues, I recommend getting in at least a few minutes before kickoff to do the necessary troubleshooting, assuming you're not already set up with these services.
Should Albania and Ukraine progress ...
The dream scenario of Svatok vs. Uzuni, playing for two World Cup games guaranteed in Texas, would take place Tuesday should Albania upset Poland and Ukraine do what many expect. That match would be in Valencia, with a 2:45 pm CT start time.
What else is happening?
In European qualifying, aside from the two series already mentioned, Italy risks missing another World Cup, finding themselves in a qualifying group with Northern Ireland, Wales and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to join the Canada, Qatar, and Switzerland group, while Mexico, South Africa, and South Korea will receive one of Denmark, North Macedonia, Czechia, and Ireland — to determine what San Diego FC's Andres Dreyer will be doing this summer.
Mexico will also be hosting two three-team playoffs, with Jamaica and New Caledonia facing off in Guadalajara to play Congo DR for a spot in Colombia, Portugal and Uzbekistan's group, while in Monterrey, it's Bolivia and Suriname facing off, with the winner playing Iraq to join France, Norway and Senegal.
... and then?
With a match against Miami looming April 4, it's not as if Estévez will jaunt over to Valencia to watch the game in person, and as Verde goalkeeper Brad Stuver said after Saturday's match, both Svatok and Uzuni will have to regroup and resume their role as teammates (after the latest installment in a rivalry the entire locker room's now aware of) to face one of the sternest tests of the young season.
And, as we know, only one of them, at best, will be happy with the results experienced in Europe.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
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