The World Cup travel grind is real. We mapped longest distances for teams in knockouts

Jared Beilby and Carlie Procell, USA TODAYSun, June 28, 2026 at 6:09 PM UTC

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At the 2026 World Cup, teams racked up plenty of miles in the group stage.

That will continue in the knockout rounds.

USA TODAY analyzed the routes teams will take if they advance − the journeys players and fans will have to make between venues. All distances were calculated via great-circle miles, or the shortest path between two places.

The longest travel distance overall is for the winner of game 90 in the round of 16. That winner will have to travel 1,592 miles from Houston to Boston. The team making that journey could be Canada, Morocco, the Netherlands or South Africa.

Here’s a look at travel distances by round:

After the first set of games in the round of 32, 13 winners will have to travel to their next venue. Three teams will stay put: a winner in Mexico City, one in Seattle and one in Vancouver.

The longest trip will be for the winner of Colombia versus Ghana in Kansas City. That winner will then venture 1,572 miles to Vancouver for their round of 16 game, where they will face either Switzerland or Algeria.

Another set of long distances will be for a pair of teams that will meet up in New York for the round of 16: Brazil or Japan will travel 1,423 miles from Houston, while the winner of Ivory Coast and Norway will travel 1,385 miles from Dallas.

For teams heading from the round of 16 to the quarterfinals, none will travel further than the already-mentioned Houston-to-Boston winner.

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Teams also will travel from Vancouver to Kansas City, which is 20 miles shorter than the Houston-to-Boston trip. Potential teams making that trip are Switzerland, Algeria, Colombia or Ghana.

Things don’t get any shorter in the semifinals. The winner of the Boston quarterfinal will venture 1,549 miles to Dallas, where they’ll meet a team traveling 1,224 miles from Los Angeles.

The favorites on the side of the bracket that could meet up in Dallas include Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. If the United States makes the semifinals, the team will travel from Los Angeles to Dallas.

The other semifinal in Atlanta will feature teams traveling a shorter distance. One team will come from Kansas City, a trip of 669 miles, and the other will come from Miami, a trip of 594 miles.

Favorites on that side of the bracket include Argentina and Brazil.

Just like the earlier rounds, the final and the third-place match will feature journeys longer than 1,000 miles.

The winner of the Dallas semifinal will need to travel 1,385 miles to the final in New York, a longer distance than the 747 miles the Atlanta semifinal winner will travel.

The Dallas semifinal loser will also have a bit of a trip − 1,116 miles to Miami, roughly double the distance the Atlanta semifinal loser will travel.

Methodology note: Schedule data from the official FIFA schedule. Distances calculated using great-circle miles. For distances, venue locations were used.

This is a developing story that may be .

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mapping how far teams will travel in the 2026 World Cup knockout rounds

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Source: “AOL Sports”