World Cup 2026 Mazes: Solve the Dark Horse Nations

The World Cup, but make it a maze

The 2026 World Cup knockout rounds are in full swing across the USA, Canada and Mexico — and while the players fight through defenses, you can fight through hedges. We turned the tournament's most talked-about nations into real, solvable maze maps: each one is the country's exact silhouette, filled with a perfect maze and illustrated with its most famous landmarks at their true geographic positions.

Every maze below is algorithm-generated and verified solvable — print one out for halftime, or challenge the kids to "reach the goal" before the second half kicks off. Solutions are included at the bottom of each section (no VAR needed).

Each nation also has its own dedicated page with the full landmark tour and difficulty notes: Cape Verde · Morocco · Mexico · Norway · Colombia · USA · England · Argentina · Brazil · Switzerland

Cape Verde — the greatest underdog story ever?

Ten volcanic islands, barely 500,000 people — and the smallest nation ever to reach a World Cup knockout stage. The Blue Sharks held Spain to 0-0, traded blows with Uruguay in a 2-2 thriller, and marched into a date with Argentina in Miami. Their archipelago is our trickiest maze yet: one continuous puzzle bridged across all ten islands, from the salt flats of Sal to the volcano of Fogo.

Morocco — the giant killers

Morocco is the story of the tournament so far: a draw against Brazil in the group stage, then a penalty-shootout win that sent the Netherlands home. If the Atlas Lions can do it on grass, you can do it on paper — navigate from the Atlantic coast past the Koutoubia Mosque, the blue streets of Chefchaouen, and a very patient Sahara camel.

Mexico — host nation on a mission

First team to punch a knockout ticket, roared on by home crowds from Guadalajara to Mexico City. The maze runs from Baja California all the way to Chichén Itzá — with Popocatépetl smoking quietly in the middle.

Norway — goals, goals, goals

Thirty-seven goals in eight qualifying matches. If Norway's attack is a straight line to goal, their country is anything but — the fjord-shredded coastline makes this one of the trickiest maze shapes we have ever generated. Bonus: northern lights over the Arctic section.

Colombia — dangerous from anywhere

Pundits keep calling Colombia the team nobody wants to draw. Their maze is just as tricky: from Cartagena's colorful walls, through the coffee axis and the wax palms of Cocora, down to the Amazon.

USA — home advantage

The co-hosts took care of business in the group stage and the country turned into one giant fan zone. This is our biggest maze of the set — coast to coast, Statue of Liberty to Golden Gate, with Mount Rushmore watching you take every wrong turn.

How these mazes are made

Same engine as our country maze map series: the country outline becomes the maze boundary, a seeded depth-first-search algorithm carves a perfect maze around the landmark artwork, and a breadth-first search verifies there is exactly one path from start to finish before anything ships.

Print them, sell them, teach with them

• Watch parties: print the maze of tonight's underdog and race a friend to the exit before kickoff.
• Classrooms: a World Cup geography lesson kids will actually fight over.
• Publishers: a topical, evergreen-after-the-final activity book theme — available watermark-free and print-ready under the Commercial Publishing License.

Want a nation we haven't covered — or the full 48-team set? Tell us. And you can always turn any shape into a solvable maze yourself with the MazeDIY generator.