World Cup team comes to KC this week trying to avoid making wrong kind of history
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- Tunisia won 28 of 30 points in qualifying and conceded no goals.
- After a 5-1 loss to Sweden, Tunisia fired coach Sabri Lamouchi during the tournament.
- Tunisia, already eliminated with a minus-8 goal differential, faces Netherlands in KC.
Tunisia rolled through World Cup qualifying in Africa, earning 28 of a possible 30 points and not allowing a goal.
Hopes were understandably high for Tunisia entering the World Cup, but it’s been an unmitigated disaster as the team already has been eliminated and changed head coaches.
Tunisia was put into a tough group with the Netherlands, Japan and Sweden. All are in the top 36 in FIFA’s World Cup rakings, so you might say Group F was a Group of Death.
Things started horribly for Tunisia when it lost 5-1 to Sweden. That cost coach Sabri Lamouchi his job as he became just the sixth manager fired during the World Cup, as ESPN noted, and one other resigned.
Lamouchi was hired in January after Tunisia lost in the Round of 16 at the Africa Cup of Nations. That result and coaching change, as it turns out, were a sign of trouble to come in the World Cup.
“The decision to dismiss Lamouchi after a single World Cup match was one of the most dramatic moves of the tournament,” Francis Onyach wrote for Dawan Africa.
“The Tunisian Football Federation replaced him with the highly respected Hervé Renard, a coach whose résumé includes Africa Cup of Nations titles with Zambia and Ivory Coast, a World Cup campaign with Morocco, and the famous Saudi Arabia victory over Argentina in 2022.”
The coaching move did not have the desired effect in Tunisia’s next match. Japan scored four minutes into the game and rolled to a 4-0 win.
Tunisia’s Ali Abdi got emotional talking about the defeat in a postgame interview. He hinted at dysfunction within Tunisia’s soccer federation.
“I apologize to the Tunisian supporters, not to the people who amuse themselves by leaking information left and right,” Abdi said, per a translation. “That’s not in the country’s interest. We didn’t have time to work as a team. Instead of fixing the flaws, we tear everything down and rebuild every time.
“We’re coming to play a World Cup with players who have never played together. If you look at the Japanese players, they are the same team from 2022, meanwhile we changed the team every tournament.”
A headline at Sport News Africa summed up things thusly: “2026 World Cup: Tunisia, the complete disaster.”
Tunisia hopes to save face in KC
Tunisia will be in Kansas City this week trying to avoid becoming one of the worst World Cup squads of all-time. Tunisia has a negative-eight goal differential and is set to face the Netherlands on Thursday at Kansas City Stadium (aka Arrowhead).
Holland pummeled Sweden 5-1 and has scored seven goals through its two matches.
Another dud from Tunisia could mean the wrong kind of history for the team. Zaire has the worst goal differential in a World Cup when they allowed 14 goals and didn’t score in the 1974 World Cup. Haiti, also in 1974, El Salvador in 1982 and Saudi Arabia in 2002 each had a negative-12 goal differential.
“Tunisia’s results are particularly poor because of the fact that they were ranked 44th in the world before the tournament, had qualified from Africa without conceding, have reached six of the last eight World Cup editions, and were expected to be competitive this tournament,” ESPN’s Ed Dove wrote.
“What also takes this Tunisian campaign to another level is the in-fighting, disharmony and bitter tensions that exist between players, federation officials, and media. They were a key factor behind the premature parting of ways with head coach Sabri Lamouchi after the opening defeat by Sweden, but his exit and Renard’s arrival didn’t get rid of the lingering animosity.”
Tunisia will play its final match of the 2026 World Cup in Kansas City on Thursday and try to end on a positive note.
“Against the Dutch giants, qualification will not be at stake, but pride,” Mansour Doum wrote for Sports News Africa. “For the Tunisian people, the players will have to show a completely different side, or risk turning this World Cup 2026 into one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Eagles of Carthage.”
This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 11:45 AM with the headline "World Cup team comes to KC this week trying to avoid making wrong kind of history."
