Uzbekistan

The Story

Uzbekistan has been an independent country since 1991 and has been trying to qualify for a World Cup ever since. Thirty-four years, eight failed campaigns, a 2005 playoff loss to Bahrain that broke the country's heart, a 2013 playoff loss to Jordan that broke it again. Then, on June 5, 2025, in Abu Dhabi, a 0-0 draw against the UAE was enough — and O'zbekiston became the first Central Asian nation ever to reach a World Cup.

The coach who got them there was Timur Kapadze, a former Uzbek international who'd taken over after Srecko Katanec's exit. Five months later, Kapadze was replaced — by Fabio Cannavaro, the 2006 World Cup-winning Italian captain, in one of the stranger managerial appointments of the cycle. Cannavaro inherited a squad built around Manchester City defender Abdukodir Khusanov (a €40 million January signing), Venezia striker Eldor Shomurodov, and CSKA Moscow playmaker Abbosbek Fayzullaev — younger, faster, and more European-seasoned than any Uzbek team before them.

Group K pairs them with Portugal, DR Congo, and Colombia. Nobody expects Uzbekistan to advance. But expectation isn't really the point. Thirty-four years of watching the World Cup from the outside ends in June, and for every Uzbek family in DFW, Tashkent, or Samarkand watching on a phone or a shared laptop, the debut itself is the trophy. Anything after it is bonus.

3 Players to Know

Eldor Shomurodov

The captain and elder statesman — 30 years old, 13 seasons in Europe, stops at Genoa, Roma, Cagliari, and now Venezia. Scored 12 goals in Uzbekistan's qualifying campaign, the most of anyone in the squad, and has been the team's first-choice striker for most of the decade. Plays with his back to goal like a proper target man, holds the ball, brings others in. His club career never quite exploded the way early Roma interest suggested. His international career is now the headline.

Abdukodir Khusanov

The Manchester City center-back, signed in January 2025 for around €40 million from Lens, making him one of the most expensive African-or-Asian-born defenders in history. He's 22, raised in Tashkent, and came up through youth football in Belarus before Lens bought him out of the Russian second tier. Fast, aggressive, comfortable stepping into midfield — the kind of modern center-back Pep Guardiola actively seeks. He is the single most valuable player in the Uzbek squad and the reason a lot of neutrals are going to watch Group K.

Abbosbek Fayzullaev

The 22-year-old attacking midfielder at CSKA Moscow — the creative engine of this team, small, quick, left-footed, the player Cannavaro has reportedly built his attacking system around. Came up at Bunyodkor in Tashkent, joined CSKA in 2023, and has been tearing up the Russian Premier League ever since. Wears the No. 10 for the national team and plays like he knows what the number means.

The Food

Signature Dish

Plov is a national instruction manual. Lamb or beef seared in rendered fat, then long-grain rice layered over a bed of grated yellow carrots and whole garlic cloves, cumin and barberries throughout, steamed in a cast-iron kazan over open flame until the grains are individually coated and the meat falls apart. Served on a communal platter, eaten with the right hand or a shallow spoon, with a tea glass of hot green kok choy to cut the richness. Alongside: manti (fist-sized lamb-and-onion dumplings steamed in stacked trays), shashlik (lamb skewers grilled over embers), non (round flatbread stamped with a chekich tool and pulled fresh from a tandir oven), and salads of tomato, cucumber, and red onion with fresh dill.

Where to Eat in DFW

Bubala Cafe & Grill on Preston Road in Far North Dallas is the move — an Uzbek-Russian family operation with plov, manti, samsa, and a weekend scene that includes live music and belly dancing. The plov ($17.99, beef) arrives steaming on brown rice with shredded beef and sweet Uzbek carrots; the D Magazine review called it a revelation. For a more casual weekday visit, Rokhat Grill on North Central Expressway in Plano does plov, kebabs, and manti in a smaller family-run room with halal meats. Both are rare finds — Central Asian food barely exists in most American cities, and DFW has two genuine options inside ten miles.

Fan Culture

Uzbek football fandom in America is a tiny, tight-knit thing — DFW's Uzbek community numbers in the low thousands at best, mostly recent arrivals concentrated around the Preston-Frankford corridor and Plano. Watch parties are small, family-scale, and soundtracked by a samovar boiling on the counter and green tea being poured into handleless piyala cups. Expect traditional doppa skullcaps on a few older men, photos of the 1994 independence-era team floating around in conversation, and a genuine shock-of-the-new energy — nobody in this room has ever watched Uzbekistan play in a World Cup before, because until this summer, nobody ever could. When O'zbekiston scores, you will hear karnay horns via phone speakers being held up at the TV. It is, without question, the smallest and most joyful fandom in the tournament.