The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins on Thursday, June 11, and for many of the teams participating in the largest soccer tournament on the planet, there are new countries and cities in North America to call home. The Uzbekistan National Team, in the World Cup for the first time, is calling Metro Atlanta home and has set up their base camp at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground, the home turf of Atlanta United, at least for the group stage of the World Cup.
On Wednesday, June 10, the Uzbekistan team participated in a community training session with youth players from across the Marietta area. The kids got a chance to play with professional players, and that’s what the World Cup is all about, says Atlanta United Senior VP of Strategy Dimitrios Efstathiou.
“The kid in me who grew up watching the World Cup on satellite TV is helping host a team at its first World Cup,” Efstathiou said. “There’s something really special about what we’re doing here.”
The Atlanta United training grounds are designed to host multiple teams. The facility is a venue-specific site, which means there’s enough room to host a national team and still have space for Atlanta United players who might return from the MLS World Cup break, with a place to work out or get treatment.
“This is an elite championship-level training ground,” Efstathiou.
Former Italian National Team center-back and 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year Fabio Cannavaro is the Uzbekistan manager and briefly introduced himself to the media at training on Wednesday. Cannavaro, 52, still looks like he could put in a shift at center-back. For those unfamiliar with Cannavaro’s resume, he was the captain of the Italian National Team that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The man standing before a throng of reporters from national and local publications, websites, radio stations, and television stations, including Chinese CCTV, Telemundo, and Reuters, said he, his fellow coaches, and the team were excited to be in Marietta.
“We are happy to be here,” Cannavaro said, who was presented with a framed jersey signed by the entire Atlanta United squad.
Uzbekistan will play its first two matches against Colombia and Portugal away from Georgia, but will return to Atlanta for its final group-stage match against the Democratic Republic of Congo at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday, June 27.
22-year-old Abbosbek Fayzullaev, who plies his trade in Istanbul’s Super Lig, was on the pitch in Marietta with his teammates this week. The midfielder said of the heat in Georgia, “It is Ok for us because it is like this in Uzbekistan right now.”
He was correct. In Uzbekistan, at the same time as that interaction, the temperature was nearing 90 degrees, just like it was in Georgia. Uzbekistan had made Metro Atlanta home. “The weather is not a problem,” Fayzullaev said with a smile. “Next month, maybe.”
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