IFAF World Flag 2026 Women’s Group D: Canada, Japan, Panama, Brazil
The route to glory will not be an easy one for anyone in group D, which features three teams from the Americas.
Japan won bronze at the last IFAF world championships, Canada was unlucky to take home only the silver medal from the 2025 IFAF Americas, a tournament where Panama finished in third place. Brazil is determined to take a step up from being the fifth-ranked team from the continent to challenge the favorites.
Canada will face Japan in a repeat of the quarterfinals of The World Games, which Canada won by five points. Panama presents a familiar foe and fell to Canada in the Americas semifinals last year. Brazil is in opposition for the first time since the 2023 Americas when Canada triumphed 21-0.
“Playing those teams before helps us identify what we need to work on,” says Canada head coach Rachel Lessard. “For example, Japan uses a side snap, multiple QB plays. We need to address that. Their quarterback is so powerful, her drop step and we have to be very efficient in the deep zone. Also on defense, their man-to-man coverage is very tight, very good.
“Panama, they play physical just right at the line of scrimmage in the receiver space. So we’ve had to practice against that in order to be ready because in Panama last year we had a struggle at the beginning of the game playing those kinds of defense.”
Panama traditionally has the upper hand over Brazil having won the most recent meetings between the nations in the 2023 and 2025 IFAF Americas. The last time Japan was in opposition, Panama won 32-25 to take fifth place at the 2021 IFAF World Championships.
“We’re changing our culture with different ways of playing with much more aggression on defense,” says Brazil receiver Gabi Bankhardt. “There is a lot of pressure now for us to get results because flag football will be at the Olympics. We’re not happy to be in fifth place (at the Americas) because we wanted more, but we are happy to be going to Germany.”
The Basics:
Canada won the IFAF world championship on home soil in 2010 with a 31-18 victory over the United States and reclaimed the crown four years later with a 32-21 win over USA in Italy. Silver was won in 2008 and bronze in 2018 making them the third most successful nation on the world stage. In 2024 a fifth-place finish was achieved following a quarterfinals loss to Mexico. Canada took silver at the 2025 IFAF Americas and bronze at The World Games last year.
Two years ago, Japan won a dramatic IFAF world championships bronze medal with a one-point victory over Austria in a high-scoring 41-40 win that went down to the wire. Japan was the beaten finalist at the third IFAF world championships in Korea in 2006 when they lost to France.
Brazil has played for an IFAF world championship medal once, losing the battle for third place in 2021 to Austria, but still qualified for flag football’s first appearance at The World Games. Two years ago, they finished 13th overall.
Photo: Xinhua/Chen Bin
