Brazil and France headline the teams coming to Philadelphia for next year’s World Cup

Philadelphia will welcome two of the soccer world’s greatest powers, Brazil and France, for its slate of World Cup games next summer.

Brazil, whose five men’s World Cup titles are the most of any nation, will play Haiti on June 19. That will fill the city’s streets with a vibrant mix of the Seleçao’s famed yellow-and-green kits, and Haiti’s diaspora from across the northeast United States.

It will also mean an unofficial home game for Union midfielder Danley Jean Jacques, who helped Les Grenadiers reach their first men’s World Cup since 1974. He’ll get to play against superstars including Vinícius Júnior and Estêvão, who coincidentally played at the Linc last summer in the Club World Cup.

But that day will put Philadelphia in the middle of this World Cup’s political spotlight. Haiti is one of two teams in the field, along with Iran, whose citizens are currently banned from entering the United States because of political unrest in the tiny Caribbean nation. Anyone in an official delegation — players, coaches, team staff, etc. — will be fine, but whether fans will be able to travel here remains a huge question.

Haiti was unable to host its World Cup qualifiers on home soil, and manager Sébastien Migné has never set foot in the country. When asked about that at Friday’s group draw, he told reporters: “It depends on Mr. Trump.”

» READ MORE: Philly fans are ready for the ‘once in a lifetime experience’ of hosting a World Cup in their hometown

As President Donald Trump had just won the first edition of FIFA’s Peace Prize (with timing that perhaps wasn’t coincidental), Migné then offered a hope that “maybe he will continue with that [spirit], and he will open the possibility for the fans to come here.”

France will play here on June 22 against the winner of the March intercontinental playoff bracket, which includes Bolivia, Suriname, and Iraq. That will bring one of the world’s absolute superstars, Kylian Mbappé, who led Les Bleus to the 2018 title and the 2022 final.

France’s squad is among the most loaded in the tournament. Mbappé is joined by reigning world player of the year Ousmane Dembélé and a fleet of outstanding youngsters: Bradley Barcola, Rayan Cherki, Desiré Doué, Hugo Ekitike, Michael Olise, and Warren Zaïre-Emery.

Philadelphia’s slate begins on June 14 with Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador in Group E. Expect Ecuador to bring a huge crowd, all clad in the country’s yellow jerseys, — and star players in midfielders Moisés Caicedo (England’s Chelsea) and Kendry Paez (France’s Strasbourg, owned by Chelsea).

» READ MORE: The USMNT got as good of a World Cup group draw as it could have wanted

Ivory Coast’s squad, led by midfielder Franck Kessie (Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahli) and forward Amad Diallo (England’s Manchester United), will play two games in Philadelphia.

Les Elephants’ second game here will be their group stage finale, June 25 vs. Curaçao — a Caribbean island making its World Cup debut.

The Blue Wave’s history as a Dutch colony led the governing body to recruit dual nationals in recent years, and that paid off this year by topping Jamaica in their World Cup qualifying group.

This World Cup marked the first one where FIFA did not set games in venues at the moment of the draw. That caused a lot of consternation around the world.

On Friday at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall, where the draw took place, The Inquirer overheard a FIFA staffer admit the truth about why that’s the case.

Before the draw, stadiums were assigned games in groups, but not specific matches. That meant any given matchup could be in one of two stadiums. FIFA’s decision to not set the venue at the moment of the draw meant it could move a matchup with less-popular teams to the smaller of the two stadiums available for it, and not worry about unsold tickets.

Of course, there’s so much demand in the U.S. and worldwide that every game is expected to sell out. But a supposedly “lesser” game in a bigger stadium could give a chance to fans who don’t want to shell out thousands of dollars for tickets on FIFA’s in-house secondary market.

There’s a chance Philadelphia could benefit from that in Curaçao-Ivory Coast and the city’s last group game, Croatia vs. Ghana on June 27. Croatia has one of the world’s all-time midfield maestros in Luka Modrić, and Ghana will also draw from West Philly and well beyond. But the teams’ fan bases aren’t big enough to fill the Linc on their own, so the odds might improve for local fans to get tickets.

» READ MORE: International fans coming to next year's World Cup can get priority for a U.S. visa application. Here's how.

After that, the Linc will have a week to recover before the city’s last game in the tournament, a round of 16 contest on July 4. The round of 32 games that feed into that matchup include the winners of Group E and Group I, which means Philly could see France return to town to play Germany in one of Europe’s classics.

Beyond the matchups, fans will also have an eye on kickoff times amid the hot summer weather. The city’s first two games will have nighttime starts, including a late one for Brazil-Haiti. But the remaining four will all have late-afternoon kickoffs, including a 5 p.m. start time on July 4.

As for the U.S. team, fans will be staying up late for two of its three group games. The June 12 opener vs. Paraguay in suburban Los Angeles is a 9 p.m., ET kickoff on a Friday, and the June 25 group stage finale against a European playoff winner will be a brutal (at least for East Coast fans) 10 p.m. start on a Thursday.

The middle game, June 19 (also a Friday) against Australia, will be a 3 p.m. Eastern kickoff.

» READ MORE: zFIFA admitted that the heat had a significant impact on this past summer's Club World Cup

All games will be played at Lincoln Financial Field, which will be called Philadelphia Stadium during the tournament because FIFA bans the use of commercial sponsors’ names on stadiums during its senior World Cups.

June 14: E3. Ivory Coast vs. E4. Ecuador, 7 p.m.

June 19: C1. Brazil vs. C3. Haiti, 9 p.m.

June 22: I1. France vs. I3. Bolivia, Suriname, or Iraq (an intercontinental playoff), 5 p.m.

June 25: E2. Curaçao vs. E3. Ivory Coast, 4 p.m.

June 27: L2. Croatia vs. L3. Ghana, 5 p.m.

July 4: Round of 16 game, 5 p.m.

» READ MORE: FIFA won't put time limits on referees' video reviews for now