The World Cup is coming, and three former Phoenix Rising players will be representing their country at this summer’s tournament.
Winger Jearl Margaritha will be taking the field for Curaçao in Group E, with USL title winner Carlos Harvey expected to start for Panama in Group L. Meanwhile, Carl Sainté, who joined the squad on loan last season, will feature for Haiti in Group C.
But what chance do they actually have at making an impact on the world stage?
The smallest country to ever grace the World Cup
Jearl Margaritha joined Phoenix Rising late in the 2024 season, and quickly became a fan favorite.
The pacy, creative winger scored for the club in only his second appearance, snapping what could have become a five game streak without Rising managing to score.
The following season, he left Phoenix in August after receiving an offer from SK Beveren in the second tier in Belgium, with Rising receiving a transfer fee.
“We didn’t want to let him go, but we understand that what he needed was to be closer to his family, especially his son,” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said at the time.
Since then, Margaritha has shown off his abilities. With Beveren, he recorded 19 goal contributions in the 2025-26 season as his side won promotion to the top flight without losing a single league match. In the end, they finished top of the league with a 21 point gap to second place Kortrijk.
Club success may be one thing, but national team success is a completely different challenge.
While born in the Netherlands, Margaritha qualifies to play for Curaçao by descent, and has been a frequent face in the national squad since his first appearances with the team during their 2023-24 CONCACAF Nations League A campaign.
Margaritha and Curaçao do have tournament experience, with the winger featuring in all three of the Blue Wave’s games in the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Going back further, Curaçao’s predecessor team — the Netherlands Antilles — recorded two third place finishes in the CONCACAF Championship during the 1960s.
To qualify for the World Cup, though, meant making history. No country as small as Curaçao, by either area or population, had ever done so before. But facing a qualification campaign free from the United States, Mexico or Canada opened up opportunity, and Curaçao seized it. Drawn into a group with Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda and Jamaica, Curaçao went unbeaten, with a 0-0 draw in Kingston against the Reggae Boyz securing their place. Margaritha featured in the first four matches of that qualifying group, and was an unused substitute in the final match window.
The ex-Rising man is one of many players born in the Netherlands proper to compete for Curaçao. A large part of that process began in 2015, under the management of Patrick Kluivert, himself a Dutch footballer born to a mother from Curaçao. The approach from Kluivert was simple: find players in the Netherlands with links to Curaçao who are good, but not good enough to play for the Oranje. Among those called up by Kluivert include Leandro and Juninho Bacuna, with the former serving now as the team’s captain, and both following in the footsteps of their father John who represented the Netherlands Antilles. With the recruitment of new players, Curaçao’s fortunes ticked up, and the team qualified for the CONCACAF Gold Cup in both 2017 and 2019. Now, only one player in the World Cup squad — Tahith Chong — was actually born on the island.
The Blue Wave is now led by Dick Advocaat, himself a legendary Dutchman with a lengthy managerial history that stretches the globe. Advocaat will make his own history at this World Cup: at 78, he is the oldest head coach to ever lead a team at the tournament. It wasn’t clear he was actually going to be here, though. In February, Advocaat resigned from the team due to concerns about his daughter’s health. However, in May, he returned to the national team, with his replacement Fred Rutten stepping aside to clear a path for him to rejoin Curaçao.
Preparations for the World Cup have been a mixed bag. The team travelled to Australia in March for friendlies as part of the FIFA Series, suffering a 2-0 defeat to China and a 5-1 defeat to the Socceroos. More recently, they lost 4-1 away to Scotland in May, although were leading 1-0 in the first half until Jurgen Locadia (of Miami FC in USL Championship) was sent off in the 38th minute. A final send off friendly, against neighboring Aruba in Curaçao’s capital of Willemstad, ended in a 4-0 victory for the hosts.
Margaritha did not feature in Scotland, but did play 45 minutes against Aruba, albeit with what appeared to be more of a second-string side. It’s likely that the ex-Rising striker could play more of a super sub role for Curaçao, and with his pace and finishing abilities, it’s a role that he could prove effective in.
That being said, Curaçao faces something of a trial by fire in this debut World Cup appearance.
The Blue Wave begins its campaign in Houston against Germany, a four-time winner and four-time runner-up in the World Cup. There are some question marks over Germany’s hopes in the tournament. The last two World Cups for the country have ended in defeat at the group stage. The team, under Julian Nagelsmann, has been inconsistent at times, and seems something of an unfinished project. The goalkeeping situation is also questionable: an aging Manual Neuer has been recalled after the team failed to find a real replacement for him and, at the age of 40, does not live up to the level that he once played at. At the same time, it would be a genuine shock if a squad featuring attacking threats such as Leroy Sané, Jamal Musiala, Florian Wirtz and Kai Havertz couldn’t get the job done with ease against a small Caribbean island.
Next on the list is a match against Ecuador in Kansas City. Willian Pacho of Paris Saint-Germain and Piero Hincapié at Arsenal help to make this one of the better defensive sides out there, and those results showed in qualifying. Across 18 games in the gruelling CONMEBOL qualification phase, in which every South American side plays each other home and away, Ecuador conceded just five goals. In doing so, they’ve now gone unbeaten since September 2024 in the very first match of this qualifying cycle, away to Brazil. No team since Venezuela in the opener of the 2024 Copa America has succeeded in scoring more than one goal against them.
Rounding out Curaçao’s schedule is a matchup with Côte d’Ivoire. Coming out of African qualification unbeaten, Les Éléphantes will be expected to use pace out of their wing-back positions to put opponents under threat. They also boast a player up top in Yan Diomandé who is frequently listed as one of the youngsters to watch this tournament. At 19 years old, Diomandé has performed well in Bundesliga for RB Leipzig, a team he joined last summer for €20 million. This Côte d’Ivoire team may lack some of the star power that it had in the past, when players like Didier Drogba and Yaya Touré featured, but will still be a major challenge for Curaçao to rescue anything against.
Overall, Curaçao’s chances of getting out of the group have to be described as slim-to-none. However, if they lean into their role as a potential spoiler in the group, then any positive results against much bigger opposition could prove cause for celebration on an island with a population smaller than the city of Tempe.
Ending a 52 year absence
Carl Sainté joined Phoenix Rising on loan last season, featuring in both central midfield and bolstering the defense as injuries hit the squad. He was on loan from FC Dallas, and his signing in Phoenix wasn’t especially a surprise, given his previous links to then-new Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah, who he had played under at Dallas’ reserve team, North Texas SC.
Sainté has since left the club for a fellow-USL Championship side in El Paso, but he too will be travelling to the World Cup this summer.
A Haitian international since 2022, Sainté will likely play a smaller role in the tournament. But for Haiti, an incredibly politically volatile nation in the Caribbean, a first World Cup appearance since 1974 is a real cause for celebration.
That political backdrop is also what makes Haiti’s qualification all the more remarkable. Les Grenadiers have been unable to play a home match since the qualification cycle for the last World Cup. During that tournament, the Belize national team was briefly held at gunpoint by insurgents in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Local police negotiated the team’s release, but the incident proved the dangers of playing matches at home. Instead, the country played its home qualification matches for 2026 in the Curaçaoan capital of Willemstad, after previously playing its Nations League matches in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
Because of the instability, Haiti’s national team coach, Frenchman Sébastien Migné, has never stepped foot in the country.
Despite all of that adversity, Haiti finished on top of a qualifying group featuring Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In a pre-tournament friendly against New Zealand in Fort Lauderdale, Les Grenadiers ran rampant, scoring four in front of a delighted crowd primarily composed of members of the Haitian diaspora. They would fall late to Peru in Miami days later, with Wilson Isidor’s early goal overturned by a pair in the last ten minutes of the match.
Isidor is one of several second-generation Haitians pulled in by Migné to bolster his side, with others including Wolves’ Jean-Ricner Bellegard and Hannes Delcroix from Swiss side Lugano. There is still room for more established players in the Haitian squad, though, including national team record goalscorer Duckens Nazon, who currently plies his trade with Esteghlal in Iran. USL Championship fans will also recognize Duke Lacroix, a full-back who has made stops in Indy, Orange County, Reno, Charlotte, Sacramento and is currently with Colorado Springs.
Haiti’s style of play may be expected to favor transitions, but there is flexibility in how Migné sends out his squad. During the full qualification process, Haiti played ten games, but conceded three goals or more on three occasions, including a 5-1 loss to Curaçao in Oranjestad, Aruba, and a 3-3 draw with Costa Rica. Recently poached dual-nationals may help, but there’s a real chance that this team could be somewhat chaotic.
When it comes to the World Cup, Haiti has found itself in a tricky Group C. The squad will begin its campaign with a match in Massachusetts against Scotland, and it’s likely that the opening game will define Haiti’s campaign. Scotland themselves come in off a lengthy absence from the World Cup, and qualified thanks to a last-gasp winner at home against Denmark. There are some bigger names in the Scottish squad — Scott McTominay from Napoli, and Andy Robertson at left-back from Liverpool — but this is a team that can struggle in terms of goalscoring and with a coach in Steve Clarke who has been accused of playing with tactics that are too negative at times. This is the third tournament that Clarke has led Scotland to, but he has yet to win a game at one. In fact, Scotland hasn’t won a finals tournament match since Euro 96, and has never in its history made it out of a group stage. Both sides will view this match as their best shot at a win, and their main chance at sneaking out of the group in third place.
Looking at the next match, it becomes clear why success against Scotland is critical for Haiti. The second World Cup game for Les Grenadiers will be against Brazil in Philadelphia, and while there are some concerns about Carlo Ancelotti’s side, they don’t extend to seeing off Haiti. Brazil struggled through qualifying by their own standards, but eventually got the job done. Casemiro’s reintroduction to the midfield under Ancelotti has provided some stability, and this is also a team boasting one of the best players in the world in Vinícius Jr, even if he hasn’t shown it at a national team level. One of the big weaknesses in Brazil’s team comes at the full-back position, with Danilo and Douglas Santos not living up to the standards that the nation has previously produced, and with Roma’s Wesley out through injury.
Haiti’s final game sees them take on Morocco in Atlanta. The Atlas Lions were the talk of the last World Cup, becoming the first African team to make the semi-finals of the tournament. They enter this one as African champions, albeit they were awarded the title as a result of Senegal walking off the field in the final in dispute of a refereeing decision. Because they lost on the field in that match, they will now be coached by Mohamed Ouahbi, who led the country’s under 20s to World Cup success in Chile last October. Through qualifying, Morocco were defensively stout, conceding just two goals in eight games, and their tactical discipline could help them once again. Ayoub El Kaabi will lead the line coming off an 18 goal season for Olympiakos in Greece. Achraf Hakimi of PSG is the superstar of the team, and will line up opposite Manchester United’s Noussair Mazraoui.
Overall, it’s a difficult group for Haiti, but there may be some hope for Les Grenadiers. It’s simple: win against Scotland, limit the damage against Brazil and Morocco, and they will give themselves a chance of progressing in third place.
Seeking a first World Cup win
One season can be all it takes to cement your role as a club favorite. In leading Phoenix Rising to a league title as a critical midfield piece, Carlos Harvey did just that.
Just months after lifting the trophy, Harvey was transferred to Minnesota United in Major League Soccer, and played 25 matches in the top flight last season.
Harvey has now also become a consistent starter for his nation of Panama, either in defense or in midfield, and could well be called on to start throughout the tournament for his home country this summer.
This is only Panama’s second World Cup, and in its last showing, the Central Americans failed to win a single match in Russia in 2018. Since then, with Danish-born ex-Spanish international Thomas Christiansen at the helm, they have become one of the stronger sides within their region.
In three straight years, from 2023 to 2025, the Panamanians have played a role in knocking the United States out of a tournament. In 2023, a penalty shootout in San Diego saw Panama eliminate the U.S. at the semi-final stage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. A year later, a 2-1 group stage in Atlanta win helped push Panama on to the knockout stages at the United States’ expense in the Copa America. Then, in the 2025 CONCACAF Nations League semi-finals, Cecilio Waterman’s stoppage time strike once again knocked out the U.S.
Qualifying wasn’t straightforward for Panama, though, with dropped points against Suriname and Guatemala along the way. The team is compact, and well organized defensively, but still lacks a great deal up top. Yoel Bárcenas and Ismael Diaz, both playing in Liga MX, may need to provide creativity off of the wing when called upon, while José Luis Rodríguez offers pace.
Panama has played three tune-ups for the tournament, being brushed aside 6-2 by Brazil in a match that saw Carlos Harvey score from distance, before defeating a much weaker Dominican Republic side 4-2 and then drawing 1-1 with fellow qualifiers Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Panama’s group isn’t easy, and much like Haiti, they will have to get off to a quick start. The tournament kicks off for them against Ghana in Toronto, with a win against the Black Stars critical for Panama’s chances of progression. Carlos Queiroz, an experienced manager who has taken charge of a variety of national teams took the reins with Ghana just months before the tournament, with Otto Addo being fired after losing four friendlies in a row. Queiroz has several attacking options at his disposal, including Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo, but still faces the challenge of getting the best out of a team that hasn’t won a match since October.
Panama will stay in Toronto for their next match, taking on Croatia. This won’t be an easy match for the Panamanians, with Croatia making the semi-finals of both of the last two World Cups. That means they come in with experience, but this is very much one last hurrah for Croatia’s golden generation. Luka Modric has served his country well over the years, and has long been the driving force behind their success, but he is now 40. Ivan Perisic, another face of their long-term success, is 37. There are younger players available of course, including Josko Gvardiol of Manchester City, Nikola Vlasic from Torino, and even the teenager Luka Vuskovic who spent this sseason on loan with Hamburg in the Bundesliga. But this tournament feels very much like a changing of the guard for Croatia, and while they may well have enough to put up a good showing, the heights of their last two World Cup appearances may be a bit beyond reach.
Panama closes out its World Cup group campaign with a match against England, one of their opponents from their prior appearances in Russia. Back then, Panama fell 6-1, and England has since reached a World Cup semi-final as well as two European Championship finals. Thomas Tuchel has now taken the reins from Gareth Southgate, and the team won all eight of its qualifying matches without conceding a single goal. The biggest challenges for England will likely come after the group stage, when they’re forced to play against some of the best teams in the world, but Panama will still hope to keep this game far more competitive than the previous meeting. Harry Kane is expected to prove critical for England’s attack — lose him, and the questions will start to appear as to how they replace his impact.
Overall, it’s yet another difficult group for a former Phoenix Rising player. However, if Panama can lead off the group with a win over Ghana, and especially if they can find a way to pull a point out of either of the two following games, then you may well see Carlos Harvey grace the knockout stages of the World Cup this summer.
Top image: Caean Couto-Imagn Images
