The United States found out its competition on Friday night at the FIFA World Cup Draw in Washington, D.C., with Australia, Paraguay, and a UEFA playoff C winner to battle it out in Group D.
The Americans are scheduled to play the first game against Paraguay on June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. It will then take on Australia in Seattle, Washington, on June 19, before heading back to SoFi Stadium to face either Turkiye, Romania, Slovakia, or Kosovo on June 25.
The draw turned out to be favorable for the U.S., as it avoided the likes of Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, along with co-hosts Canada and Mexico in Pot 1.
Now that the United States is placed in Group D, there are different scenarios in which they could make their passage to the next stage of the tournament:
1) Win the group, and it will face a third-place team from either Group B, Group F, Group I, or Group J.
2) Finish second, and play against the second-place team from Group G.
3) Finish third, be among the top eight third-place finishers, and they would face the winner from either Group E, Group I, or Group K.
Following the draw, U.S. head coach Mauricio Pochettino expressed cautious optimism as he looks ahead to the upcoming six months to prepare for the tournament.
“We need to be optimistic,” he said in his immediate reaction. [We] need to keep pushing and evolving. I think we need to respect all the opponents…it’s all going to be difficult. Full respect while also believing that we can go through.”
Pochettino will look to fine-tune his team in 2026, as they are set to play some important pre-World Cup games against Portugal, Belgium, and Germany ahead of the start of the show in June.
