{"id":906885,"date":"2026-05-19T10:12:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/petar-musa-marco-pasalic-make-croatias-2026-world-cup-squad-mlssoccer-com\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:12:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:12:22","slug":"petar-musa-marco-pasalic-make-croatias-2026-world-cup-squad-mlssoccer-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/petar-musa-marco-pasalic-make-croatias-2026-world-cup-squad-mlssoccer-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Petar Musa &#038; Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107 make Croatia&#8217;s 2026 World Cup squad | MLSSoccer.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer <\/p>\n<article xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/fc-dallas\/\">FC Dallas<\/a> striker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/petar-musa\/\">Petar Musa<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/orlando-city-sc\/\">Orlando City<\/a> winger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/marco-pasalic\/\">Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107<\/a> have made Croatia&#8217;s final 26-man roster for the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/fifa-world-cup\/\">FIFA World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The Vatreni enter this summer&#8217;s tournament looking to build on their third-place finish in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Croatia were runners-up in the 2018 edition and also placed third at their first-ever World Cup in 1998.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<blockquote><p>\u2014 Major League Soccer (@MLS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLS\/status\/2056404486772428805?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 18, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><h3>Croatia schedule: Group L<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>June 17:<\/strong> Croatia vs. England, 4 pm ET | Dallas, Texas<\/li>\n<li><strong>June 23:<\/strong> Croatia vs. Panama, 7 pm ET | Toronto, Ontario<\/li>\n<li><strong>June 27:<\/strong> Croatia vs. Ghana, 5 pm ET | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p>The 2026 World Cup has expanded from the usual 32 nations to 48 total. The top two teams advance from each group, and the top eight third-place finishers also make the knockout phase (Round of 32).<\/p>\n<p>The tournament, which is co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, spans from June 11 to July 19.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>After a two-year absence, Musa burst back into the national team picture at the end of 2025, contributing 1g\/1a in Croatia&#8217;s final two games of their successful World Cup qualifying campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Musa also featured twice during the March international window, sealing his spot in head coach Zlatko Dali\u0107&#8217;s final roster.<\/p>\n<p>With 12g\/2a, the Designated Player striker has reached double-digit goals for the third consecutive season and is firmly in the 2026 MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi race.<\/p>\n<p>Musa joined Dallas ahead of the 2024 campaign on a club-record deal from Portuguese powerhouse Benfica, worth reportedly up to $13 million.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Pa\u0161ali\u0107 is World Cup-bound after featuring throughout the UEFA World Cup qualifying process, where he contributed two assists in six games.<\/p>\n<p>He added another assist in a 2-1 friendly win over Colombia in March, helping earn his place alongside superstar teammates Luka Modri\u0107, Mateo Kova\u010di\u0107, and others.<\/p>\n<p>Since joining Orlando as a DP from Croatian top-flight side HNK Rijeka ahead of the 2025 season, Pa\u0161ali\u0107 has 17g\/6a in 50 appearances across all competitions.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/news\/petar-musa-marco-pasalic-make-croatia-s-2026-world-cup-squad\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a>Alejandro Center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer FC Dallas striker Petar Musa and Orlando City winger Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107 have made Croatia&#8217;s final 26-man roster for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The Vatreni enter this summer&#8217;s tournament looking to build on their third-place finish in 2022. Croatia were runners-up in the 2018 edition and also placed third at their first-ever World Cup [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":906886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31086,92919,2005],"tags":[8758,132176],"class_list":{"0":"post-906885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marco","8":"category-petar","9":"category-soccer","10":"tag-marco","11":"tag-petar"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}