Staff Israel has arrived in Düsseldorf, Germany, forward of the 2026 IFAF Flag Soccer World Championships, the place the Israeli males will look to make historical past whereas taking their first main step towards qualification for the 2028 Olympic Video games in Los Angeles.
The event, which runs from August 13-16, marks the primary official world Olympic qualifying occasion for flag soccer, which can make its Olympic debut at LA28. The highest two groups in each the boys’s and girls’s competitions, excluding the already-qualified United States as host nation, will earn direct Olympic berths.
Ranked ninth on this planet, Israel enters the competitors with an explosive, offense-first squad led by head coach Jonathan Tekac. The crew has proven its scoring skill all through its latest worldwide marketing campaign, frequently surpassing 50 factors per sport throughout its qualification run on the 2025 Euro Flag event in Paris.
Staff Israel prepares for Olympic qualification push
The squad has additionally undergone an intensive coaching program at Jerusalem’s Kraft Household Stadium, combining high-tempo execution with a demanding bodily conditioning routine.
“We’ve seen flag soccer go from a well-kept secret in Israel to an extremely common, premier sport,” mentioned Israel captain and star defensive again Daniel Eastman. “The coaching routine has been grueling, however our purpose is evident: We need to solidify our place among the many world elite and safe our spot for the 2028 Summer time Olympics.”
Israel faces defending champion US in Group A
Israel faces a direct take a look at in Group A, opening its marketing campaign Thursday in opposition to the USA, the world’s No. 1-ranked crew and defending world champion. Australia, the reigning Asia-Oceania continental champion, and American Samoa, which is making its IFAF World Championship debut, spherical out the group.
Israel and the USA will meet Thursday at 1 p.m. native time in Düsseldorf, 2 p.m. in Israel, in what would be the first group-stage assembly between the 2 nations at a World Championship since flag soccer’s speedy world enlargement.
The People arrive in Germany decided to take care of their dominance of the game, having gained the boys’s world titles in 2021 and 2024. Their marketing campaign can also be going down underneath the added highlight of the game’s Olympic debut.
“Everybody goes to go on the market and provides somewhat additional effort now that it’s within the Olympics and the opposite nations need to qualify,” US quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette mentioned. “However we’re additionally going to have our foot on the gasoline as properly.”
Doucette, who stands 5-foot-7, has been the quarterback for each of the USA’ latest world championship victories. The People additionally defeated two groups that includes NFL gamers on the inaugural Flag Soccer Traditional in March, difficult the idea that established NFL stars would essentially have a bonus over skilled flag soccer gamers forward of the 2028 Olympics.
The speedy progress of flag soccer in the USA has been notably notable within the ladies’s sport because the sport was added to the Olympic program in 2023. Based on the Nationwide Federation of State Excessive College Associations, women flag soccer had been sanctioned as a faculty sport in 12 states in June 2025. That quantity has since risen to 23.
American backing helps develop Israeli flag soccer
For Israel, the event represents one other milestone in a sport that has developed considerably lately with sturdy help from the native soccer neighborhood and outstanding American backing.
The nationwide program relies at Kraft Household Stadium in Jerusalem, a state-of-the-art facility sponsored by New England Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft. The Kraft household has supported the event of American soccer in Israel since 1999. The Minnesota Vikings group and proprietor Mark Wilf have additionally invested within the progress of Israel’s flag soccer program, serving to present a pathway for the subsequent technology of gamers with Olympic ambitions.
Israel’s World Championship schedule
Israel will play three Group A video games over the opening two days of the event. Following Thursday’s showdown with the USA, the crew faces American Samoa Friday at 3:30 p.m. in Düsseldorf, 4:30 p.m. in Israel, earlier than concluding group play in opposition to Australia at 8 a.m. native time Friday, 9 a.m. in Israel.
The US, in the meantime, will start its title protection in opposition to Israel earlier than turning its consideration to Australia and a possible assembly with longtime rival Mexico within the ladies’s competitors.
With the Olympic qualification race now formally underway, the Düsseldorf event offers Israel a possibility to measure itself in opposition to the world’s finest whereas pursuing a spot on the most important stage in worldwide sport.
Each Staff Israel sport shall be streamed stay worldwide on the official IFAF YouTube channel, whereas choose playoff video games, together with the semifinals and medal matches, shall be broadcast internationally on DAZN.
Reuters contributed to this report.
