Would you love me in a Bentley? Would you love me on a $95 bus from downtown Boston to Gillette Stadium? Footnote is asking 48 questions, and they’re all about the 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup.

Welcome to 48 questions: The Footnote guide to the 2026 World Cup. See below for one guiding question for each team at the biggest World Cup ever.

Group A

• Is Mexico’s dream still the quinto partido it’s just the round of 16?
• Can the 1970s West Germany model work for South Africa?
• Why exactly are Czech people so good at penalties?
• Can South Korea build on 2022 and help Son Heung-min reach the pinnacle?

Group B

• Will Canada’s chaotic golden decade set the stage for an historic World Cup?
• Can a 13-year-old satirical ska song and a 40-year-old striker make history for Bosnia and Herzegovina?
• What does the Qatari national do after the Qatar World Cup?
• Was Xherdan Shaqiri the greatest international soccer player of all time, or are Switzerland just fine without him?

Group C

• Will Carlo Ancelotti break the Neymar emergency case? (Brazil)
• Will Scotland feel as good as they did when Archie Gemmill scored against the Netherlands?
• Can Morocco speak to your manager?
• When is Haiti’s inspiring feel good story also an indictment for the state of the world?

Group D

• Can the USMNT team beat a team that is better than them, and will anyone be normal about it?
• Is this the World Cup where Australia gets rewarded for two decades of competence?
• Is Paraguay’s new generation ready to restore the golden years?
• Turkiye has three of the best players in the world. Does anyone know they are a good team?

Group E

• Is Germany’s decade of inexplicably losing early in tournaments finally over?
• Will Curaçao, the smallest nation in World Cup history, do more than just make up the numbers?
• Was AFCON 2023 a fluke, or is the Ivory Coast back?
• Is anyone paying attention to how good Ecuador are?

Group F

• Without Memphis or Xavi Simons, who is the star for the Netherlands?
• Is the real Sweden the team with a ton of really good players or the team that lost all their qualifying games?
• Can Japan recover from consecutive World Cup heartbreaks?
• Tunisia have been constantly pretty good for 10 years. Does anyone notice?

Group G

• Is the Belgium Very Good Generation secretly as good as the Belgium Golden Generation?
• Can Mohamed Salah make history for Egypt at his first and only healthy World Cup?
• Can New Zealand manage a real victory, rather than a moral one, in their return to the World Cup?
• There isn’t really a fun blog question to ask about Iran at the 2026 World Cup.

Group H

• Is the most important Spain player a left-footed goalscorer not named Lamine Yamal?
• What can the Cape Verde team of veteran journeymen do at their first World Cup?
• Can Marcelo Bielsa’s shit work for Uruguay in the playoffs?
• Can Saudi Arabia have a more sustainable good time at the 2026 World Cup?

Group I

• Can Michael Olise and Rayan Cherki overcome Didier Deschamps instincts to make France boring?
• If Norway aren’t dark horses, what are they?
• Are Senegal about to validate one of sportswriting’s oldest clichés?
• Can Iraq throw a wrench into the Group of Death?

Group J

• How many One Last Rides do Argentina and Lionel Messi have left in them?
• Can Ralf Rangnick and Austria break the pretty good barrier?
• Will Algeria’s return to the World Cup be Houssem Aouar’s long-delayed coming out party?
• Are Jordan better than people realize, or are they actually overrated?

Group K

• Can DR Congo make up for 50 years of lost soccer time?
• Can James Rodriguez hold up for one more magical World Cup for Colombia?
• Did Portugal have to wait for Cristiano Ronaldo to not be their best player to finally win?
• Can Uzbekistan be good enough that Americans will have to actually learn something about Central Asia?

Group L

• Can the Antoine Semenyo fairytale reverse the Ghana decade of bad breaks?
• Will football come home, or will England realize that the song is about something else?
• Can Croatia get one last tournament out of Luka Modric, Ivan Perisic, and the rest of the gang?
• Can Panama beat a good team that is not the United States?