Cabo Verde joins USA and Australia as USL base-camp teams advance

Cabo Verde’s 3-0 win over Eswatini delivered its first-ever World Cup qualification and a sharp validation for the Tampa Bay Rowdies’ Waters Sportsplex, where the island nation will base itself for the tournament. FIFA said Cabo Verde became the second-least populous country ever to reach the World Cup, with just over 500,000 people, and the milestone put all three nations tied to USL Championship base camps, the United States, Australia and Cabo Verde, through to the tournament.

The Rowdies confirmed on June 8 that Cabo Verde had selected Waters Sportsplex in Tampa as its home base camp, calling it an “absolute privilege” to host the team in its World Cup debut. That choice matters beyond a training schedule. It sends a recruiting message that a national team making its first trip to the World Cup saw value in the same kind of facility package USL clubs use every day: two natural grass fields and one FIFA-approved artificial turf field at a site built for full-time use.

USL’s own May 28 feature said three clubs were officially unveiled as FIFA base camps, while FIFA finalized all 2026 World Cup team base camps on May 25 and set the map for a tournament split across North America, with 39 teams based in the United States, seven in Mexico and two in Canada. For Tampa, that brings media exposure, visiting personnel and the kind of short-term economic activity that comes with a national team training and staying in town, while also placing the Rowdies’ facility on a bigger international stage.

The timing also intersects with the league calendar. USL Championship’s 2026 season opened on March 7 and runs through Oct. 24, so the World Cup base-camp traffic is unfolding in the middle of the domestic schedule. Cabo Verde’s group-stage slate took it to Miami for Uruguay on June 21 and to Houston for Saudi Arabia on June 26, giving Tampa a direct link to the tournament’s U.S. footprint even before kickoff at the club level cools down.

USL has said four current players will also appear at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, another first for the competition and the league’s growing player pipeline. Cabo Verde’s run, built on that 3-0 finish over Eswatini, now leaves a USL venue as part of the World Cup story, not just a backdrop to it.