2026 World Cup: USA Now ‘Unofficial World Champions’ After Australia Win

He joined in April 2024, having previously worked at VAVEL as Deputy Editor-in-Chief, where he produced a variety of content, including pieces from press conferences and games. He also won an award for his role as lead editor for the Women's Football section of the online newspaper.

Covering football all across Europe, he has worked at stadiums such as Anfield, Old Trafford, and Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park, as well as having reported at both the 2023 men's and women's Champions League finals in Eindhoven and Istanbul.

He is infatuated with every aspect of football, but likes other sports as well, being an avid coffee-desperate Buffalo Bills supporter from across the pond and a darts' newbie. Sign in to your GiveMeSport account Following their 2-0 World Cup win over Australia on Friday night, the USA now hold a bizarre “unofficial world title”, as Mauricio Pochettino’s side continue to prove the nation is improving match by match. Their latest victory saw the Stars and Stripes record their first back-to-back wins in football’s showpiece tournament since 1930 - almost a century ago.

The free-flowing brand of football they have adopted has caught the attention of many, and it has put them in the driver’s seat to finish Group D as winners. A glance at their potential opponents for the rest of the World Cup suggests they could still make even more history, with a relatively favourable route to the semi-finals on paper.

Indeed, when they eventually come up against a traditional footballing powerhouse - tournament favourites such as England, Spain, or France, for example - they are expected to run out of yellow brick road. But there is an interesting, if not unusual, title they can hold until then, a lesser-known honour in international football that dates back to when Scotland first claimed it in 1967.

The reason why FIFA made a slight change to USA's national anthem during their second 2026 World Cup game has emerged.

The Unofficial Football World Championships is an informal way of determining the world's best international football team, using a knockout-style title system similar to those found in combat sports.

The idea originated with Scotland fans and sections of the media, who jokingly claimed that because Scotland had beaten England in a British Home Championship match on 15 April 1967 - the Three Lions' first defeat after winning the 1966 World Cup - they were the new "world champions".

It's a quirky tradition that has endured ever since. After the USA beat Australia on Friday night - who had beaten Kosovo, who had beaten Sweden, who had beaten Algeria, who had beaten Sierra Leone, who had beaten Ivory Coast, who had beaten Uruguay, who had beaten 2022 world champions Argentina - the Americans became the current holders of the unofficial title.

An entire Wikipedia page is now dedicated to tracking the unusual honour, and the all-time rankings make for a fascinating read, packed with unlikely champions, winding title reigns and plenty of underdog stories.

With Brazil having won more World Cups than any other nation, with five, and Germany, Argentina and Italy not far behind, you'd be forgiven for thinking those four countries would rank highly among the teams to have spent the most matches as champions in this unorthodox format.

But you'd ultimately be wrong to assume that. It seems actual World Cup winners have a tendency to ease off the throttle after their finest hours, with Brazil's seventh-place ranking serving as evidence of that. Instead, the team that has held the title for the longest is Scotland. Despite not having been champions since 2007, they have played 149 matches while holding the title - three more than England and 33 more than Argentina. See the top 22 below:

Other interesting findings include the fact North Korea have beaten the champions, before then holding the title for 16 matches. Lower down in the list, below the 22 mark, other surprising names feature, such as Angola, Northern Ireland, Liberia, and Curacao - the latter having made hsitory this summer by becoming the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup finals.