Skip to content
You can now search across every topic, entity and event.What's new
2026 FIFA World Cup
18JUN

Uzbekistan score on debut, lose 3-1

2 min read
10:41UTC

Abbosbek Fayzullaev scored Uzbekistan's first World Cup goal on their tournament debut, but Colombia won 3-1 in Toronto on 17 June.

← Back to Firsts and lasts: a record-day collisionJump to analysis ↓
SportDeveloping
Key takeaway

Uzbekistan scored their first World Cup goal through Fayzullaev but lost 3-1 to Colombia on debut.

Abbosbek Fayzullaev scored Uzbekistan's first World Cup goal as the debutants lost 3-1 to Colombia in Toronto on 17 June 1. Uzbekistan qualified for the first time in 2026, one of several Asian sides taking up the extra places the 48-team format opened . Luis Diaz, the Liverpool and Colombia winger, scored his own first World Cup goal in the win.

Fayzullaev's strike landed within hours of DR Congo's first World Cup goal in 52 years, making 17 June a day when two nations reached the same milestone from opposite directions: one on debut, one half a century after theirs. Both did it without winning, the recurring shape of the round's firsts.

For Uzbekistan the result still leaves qualification difficult, with a heavier defeat avoided only late. Fayzullaev's finish is the line their federation will frame and replay, the first concrete mark of a campaign that took decades to reach. Colombia, expected to advance, did the job without alarm.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Uzbekistan, a landlocked country in Central Asia, was playing in their first-ever World Cup match on 17 June in Toronto against Colombia. Midfielder Abbosbek Fayzullaev scored their first-ever World Cup goal, which was a historic moment for the country. However, Colombia proved too strong overall and won 3-1. Colombia's Luis Diaz also scored his first World Cup goal in the match. Two nations scored their first-ever World Cup goals on the same day: Uzbekistan in Toronto and DR Congo in Houston (where they drew with Portugal). This kind of milestone clustering is part of what the expanded 48-team format has produced.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Uzbekistan's qualification reflects a decade of investment by the Uzbekistan Football Federation in youth academies and, more recently, a deliberate shift toward players developing in European leagues rather than the domestic Super League. Fayzullaev, who scored the debut goal, plays his club football in Europe, fitting the same diaspora-development model evident in DR Congo and Jordan.

Central Asian nations have benefited from a specific AFC (Asian Football Confederation) allocation change under the 48-team format: Asia received eight and a half berths in 2026 compared to four and a half in 2022. Uzbekistan advanced through AFC's third round and a subsequent play-off, a route that did not exist at scale before 2026.

What could happen next?
  • Meaning

    Two nations recording first-ever World Cup goals on the same matchday, Uzbekistan and DR Congo, is a statistical artefact of the 48-team field adding nations whose World Cup absences span decades.

Sources:Yahoo Sports
Mentions:Abbosbek Fayzullaev →Uzbekistan →Colombia →Luis Diaz →World Cup →Houston →Argentina →Portugal →Cape Verde →Spain →Saudi Arabia →Toronto →DR Congo →
First Reported In

Update #22 · Firsts and lasts: a record-day collision

Yahoo Sports· 18 Jun 2026
Read original →
Different Perspectives
French Football Federation
French Football Federation
The FFF called an 11:00 CEST press conference for 28 July, at its Paris headquarters, following an extraordinary executive committee meeting, at which Zinedine Zidane is expected to be presented as head coach succeeding Didier Deschamps. As of this writing no communique confirms the appointment, contract length or start date.
Morocco
Morocco
Morocco is pushing for the 2030 final at its Grand Stade Hassan II in Casablanca, a planned 115,000-seat venue that would be the world's largest football stadium on completion. The venue is contested by a Spanish petition for the Santiago Bernabeu, and FIFA has fixed neither the venue nor the tournament's proposed 64-team format.
FIFA
FIFA
FIFA's first tournament report, published 27 July, itemises nearly 300,000 accredited personnel, 73,700 security staff and 300,000 square metres of custom-grown turf, with no revenue or cost figure attached. As a Swiss association answering to its own Congress rather than a treasury, FIFA has followed the same operational-before-financial sequence it used after Qatar 2022.
Javier Tebas / La Liga
Javier Tebas / La Liga
La Liga president Javier Tebas said on 21 July that FIFA's system is rotten from the root and that Gianni Infantino's time as president has, in his words, concluded. Tebas has no vote in FIFA's process, so days after the IOC declined jurisdiction over a separate ethics complaint, he used the only instrument he has.
Mexico City government
Mexico City government
Head of government Clara Brugada presented a closing report on 22 July crediting the tournament with 44 billion pesos of economic activity, 2,000-plus accelerated public works and 100,000 formal jobs in June alone. The city has not published the method behind that figure, and three other Mexican bodies count the same five weeks differently.
Town of Foxborough
Town of Foxborough
Foxborough answered Kraft Group's June lawsuit on 7 July with a 61-page counterclaim, calling the stadium's owners 'a collection of multibillion-dollar corporations' trying to shift its $7.8 million security bill onto taxpayers. The town says its licensing power and its billing power run through the same board, and it wants the court to award its own costs too.