1 day to the World Cup: How host nations have fared in the quadrennial tournament

The countdown to the 2026 World Cup is on! Each day ahead of the tournament's return to North America, Yahoo Sports will highlight an insight or moment that showcases just how grand the world's biggest sporting spectacle has become — even beyond the expanded field of this year's global event.

The 2026 World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. All three countries qualified for Qatar 2022 and were automatically placed in the 48-team field this time. They now face the added pressure of producing a good showing on home soil.

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Historically, host nations have done well at World Cups; though, the last four tournaments have seen mixed results. Six countries have won on home soil, with France being the last in 1998.

Will the U.S., Canada and Mexico use home field to their advantage in the biggest World Cup ever?

Let's take a look back to see how previous World Cup hosts have done.

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1930, Uruguay (champions)
Uruguay won the inaugural World Cup after going 2-0 in the group stage and winning both knockout round matches. The tournament culminated in a final between Uruguay and Argentina, which had both crushed their opponents 6-1 in the semifinals. Argentina took a 2-1 lead in the first half, but three second-half goals elevated Uruguay to a 4-2 win.

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1934, Italy (champions)
Even though they hosted, Italy was required to go through the qualification process, the last time that has ever happened. The 1934 tournament also scuppered the group stage format in favor of a 16-team knockout competition. Italy beat the United States, Spain, Austria and Czechoslovakia en route to the title.

1938, France (quarterfinals)
FIFA kept the knockout bracket format and France played only two matches, beating Belgium before being knocked out by eventual champions Italy in the quarterfinals. The World Cup would not be held for another 12 years due to World War II.

1950, Brazil (runners up)
The group stage format returned and the hosts enjoyed an undefeated start recording two wins and a draw to advance to the final round, which was a second group stage. Brazil won its two opening matches, setting up what would be a championship final game against Uruguay. Two second-half goals would sink the hosts, however, as Uruguay won the World Cup for the second time.

1954, Switzerland (quarterfinals)
Another World Cup, another format change. The four groups featured two seeded and two unseeded teams with each team playing two group stage matches, which pit a seeded team against an unseeded team. The Swiss beat Italy, lost to England and beat Italy again in a tie-breaking playoff to advance to the knockout stage. It was there the hosts would take part in the highest-scoring men's World Cup match ever when they fell 7-5 to Austria.

1958, Sweden (runners up)
The traditional group stage format returned and Sweden won its group with two wins and a draw. The run would continue in the knockout round with wins over the Soviet Union and West Germany to set up a final against Brazil, which would feature a 17-year-old Pelé scoring twice as the Seleção won its first title.

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1962, Chile (third place)
La Roja's strong start with two wins helped put them into the knockout round despite losing to West Germany in their final group stage match. Chile would then top the Soviet Union before Brazil continued their run towards defending their title by beating the hosts in the semifinal. Eladio Rojas' 90th-minute goal against Yugoslavia would secure a third-place finish.

1966, England (champion)
The Three Lions drew their opening match with Uruguay, but did not suffer any other blemishes on the road to their first World Cup title. They would beat Argentina and Portugal in the knockout stage to set up the final at Wembley Stadium against West Germany. With the score tied 2-2, extra time was needed. That's when Geoff Hurst scored twice to give the home side the 4-2 victory and its first world title.

1970, Mexico (quarterfinals)
The hosts would advance out of their group with two wins and a draw, but Italy ended their hopes of a memorable run with a 4-1 win in the quarterfinals. The Italians would make it through to the final, only to fall as Brazil claimed its third World Cup title.

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1974, West Germany (champion)
This competition featured the debut of the FIFA World Cup Trophy, which replaced the Jules Rimet Trophy, which had been claimed by Brazil after their third World Cup title in 1970. The new trophy would stay in West Germany after the hosts beat the Netherlands 2-1 in the final.

1978, Argentina (champion)
The Netherlands would make it to a second straight final, but would again fall short of claiming the trophy. Argentina would lose just once on the way to the final, which saw goals from Mario Kempes and Daniel Bertoni help them to a 3-1 win after extra time.

1982, Spain (second group stage)
Spain narrowly made it out of the first group stage, owning a head-to-head tiebreaker over Yugoslavia. They weren't as fortunate in the second group stage as defeat to West Germany and a draw to England sunk their chances of reaching the semifinals. Italy would defeat West Germany in the final for its third world title.

1986, Mexico (quarterfinals)
In its second time as hosts, Mexico won its group over Paraguay, Belgium and Iraq and advanced to the quarterfinals after beating Bulgaria in the round of 16. In the quarterfinals, they took West Germany, who were runners-up in 1982, to penalties, but Die Mannschaft would move on after penalties before losing to Diego Maradona and Argentina in the final.

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1990, Italy (3rd place)
Italy breezed through Group A with three wins and zero goals allowed. The clean sheets continued with wins over Uruguay and Ireland to reach the semifinals. It was there that goalkeeper Walter Zenga would finally be beaten by Argentina's Claudio Caniggia in normal time. A winner would be decided via penalty kicks, which went the way of La Selección. West Germany would wins its third World Cup title, however, beating Argentina 1-0 in the final.

1994, United States (round of 16)
There was pressure for the U.S. to have an impactful World Cup as first-time hosts. Their opening match at the Pontiac Silverdome saw 73,425 fans in attendance. That would be about 20,000 fewer than what would greet them in each of their next three matches at the Rose Bowl. After beating Colombia 2-1, they managed to get through to the knockout round with Brazil waiting for them for a July 4 round of 16 matchup. The U.S. would battle the eventual champions, but Bebeto's 72nd-minute goal would be the difference in ending the Americans' tournament.

1998, France (champion)
France became the seventh different country to win the World Cup when they defeated Brazil 3-0 in the 1998 final. They were also the sixth and last host country to lift the trophy. Les Bleus did not lose a single match and only allowed two goals over their seven matches.

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2002, South Korea/Japan (4th place/round of 16)
The first World Cup to be co-hosted saw both nations make the knockout round. Japan's time would end in the round of the 16 with defeat to Türkiye, who would make a surprise run to the semifinals along with South Korea. The Taegeuk Warriors would knock out Italy on a golden goal in the round of 16 and then eliminate Spain after penalty kicks in the quarterfinals. Germany would beat them in the semifinals, but South Korea would play an entertaining third-place match against Türkiye, losing 3-2.

2006, Germany (3rd place)
The Germans went through the group stage 3-0 and beat Sweden and Argentina to complete an all-European semifinal. They would lose to Italy with the Italians scoring twice in extra time, while Zinedine Zidane's 33rd-minute penalty was enough for France to top Portugal. Italy would end up on top, beating France after penalties in the final. Germany would settle for third place after scoring three times in a 20-minute span to defeat Portugal 3-1.

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2010, South Africa (group stage)
The first World Cup to be held in Africa didn't provide Bafana Bafana any home-field advantage. South Africa became the first host nation to fail to advance out of the group stage after drawing Mexico, losing to Uruguay and closing out with a memorable win over France. They ended up level on points with Mexico, but missed out on the knockout stages due to a worse goal differential.

2014, Brazil (4th place)
A talented roster and high expectations ended in shock for Brazil. After reaching the semifinals, their hopes of another World Cup title went up in a smoke during an embarrassing 7-1 defeat to Germany. Still hurting from the biggest loss in national team history and the end of their 62-game unbeaten streak on home soil, the Seleção were shut out in the third-place match 3-0 to the Netherlands.

2018, Russia (quarterfinals)
Russia won its first two matches to ensure advancement to the knockout portion of the tournament. Their next two matches would require penalty kicks, which resulted in an upset of Spain in the round of 16 and then defeat at the hands of eventual runners-up Croatia in the quarterfinals.

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2022, Qatar (group stage)
This was the first World Cup in the Middle East and first to begin in November. Qatar did not win a match and scored just once in its debut in the competition. The rest of the memories were made by Morocco and their run to the semifinal, as well as Lionel Messi and Argentina winning the tournament in an epic final over France.