IFAF World Flag 2026 Men’s Group A: United States, Australia, Israel, American Samoa

Despite having competed on the world stage since 2008, defending champion the United States’ opponents in Düsseldorf are relatively unknown quantities. The Americans will meet two teams from Oceania – Australia and American Samoa – for the first time in IFAF competition, although the Aussies have lined up on the opposite side in friendly competitions. A more familiar opponent, European qualifier and traditionally high-scoring Israel, completes the group.

“I’m excited because Australia has become really talented and won their continental and American Samoa took bronze, so I’m super excited for the competition,” says USA head coach Jorge Cascudo. “Israel always brings great athletes, and they’ve been playing for a long time so I’m looking forward to playing them.”

Australia triumphed at the 2025 IFAF Asia-Oceania Flag tournament and were joined in qualification for IFAF World Flag 2026 by third-place finisher in their debut tournament American Samoa. There is some familiarity in the group for Australia, who beat American Samoa twice last year, coming out on top 24-18 and 41-12. Both Oceania nations face the United States and Israel for the first time in IFAF competition.

Israel and the United States have not met since 2018 when the Americans beat them in the quarterfinals en route to the IFAF world championship gold medal.

“We have an automatic bid, which is great, but for us, I don’t like that,” admits Cascudo. “We have to earn it, so our mindset is we don’t have anything earned yet. We have to win the tournament in order to get the bid. We want to make sure that we win and continue winning championships and stay on top of flag football.”

The Basics:

Ranked number one in the world, the United States has won five straight IFAF world titles and six in total, is the reigning two-time Americas continental champion, won at The World Games in 2022 and is the sport’s gold standard.

Australia was the only team to win every game at the IFAF Asia-Oceania continentals, winning both the joint competition and the Oceania tournament. They climbed eight places in the IFAF World Rankings to take eighth place among 59 nations.

As the ninth-ranked team in the world, Israel is an offense-first-minded team that amassed 50 points or more per game in winning its group at Euro Flag 2025 and arrives in Düsseldorf having gone on to finish fifth at IFAF Euro Flag 2025.

A third-place playoff win over China earned American Samoa a first-ever berth at an IFAF world championship and an inaugural entry in the IFAF World Rankings at number 33.