The United States men’s national team will oppose Australia and Paraguay in Group D action at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The fourth team in Group D will be the winner of an upcoming European playoff between Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo.
Friday’s World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., determined the composition of the 12 groups for next summer’s 48-team extravaganza in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The Americans are the No. 14 squad in the current FIFA world rankings. They open the World Cup against No. 39 Paraguay on June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., just outside Los Angeles.
The second set of round-robin matches pits the USMNT against No. 26 Australia on June 19 in Seattle.
The U.S. returns to Inglewood on June 25 to face their European opponent, which will be known at the end of March.
Turkey hosts Romania and Slovakia welcomes Kosovo on March 26 in the semifinal round of their European playoff group. The victors contest a winner-take-all match on March 31.
Turkey is ranked No. 25 in the world, Slovakia is No. 45, Romania is No. 47 and Kosovo is No. 80.
“My message to the players is: We need to compete better than Paraguay. That is going to be difficult. Australia is going to be difficult. The team that is going to join us is going to be difficult,” USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino said on Fox Sports following the draw.
“We need to build our journey step by step, and we need to prepare, like, when we start to play the 12th of June, it’s going to be like it’s the last game, the last opportunity. It’s like the final of the World Cup. That needs to be our mindset.”
The World Cup begins June 11 in Mexico City. Locations and kickoff times for all matches will be announced Saturday.
Each group’s top two finishers and the eight best third-place clubs advance to the 32-team knockout stage. The July 19 final will be played at East Rutherford, N.J.
Australia and Paraguay are familiar foes for the USMNT, which downed both countries by 2-1 scores in international friendlies over the past two months.
The Americans are scheduled to host Belgium and Portugal for friendlies in Atlanta at the end of March that run parallel to the European qualifiers.
The United States’ last World Cup tuneups come May 31 in Charlotte, N.C., against an undetermined opponent and June 6 in Chicago against Germany.
“We need to be strong in our belief, keep improving, thinking big, of course, to go on to win the World Cup,” Pochettino said on Fox Sports. “But I said this before: We need to play and be motivated to play with these guys that are going to be really tough.”
The United States’ fellow host nations headline Groups A and B.
Mexico’s confirmed opponents in Group A are South Africa and South Korea. They also will face the winner of the European playoff between Denmark, North Macedonia, Czechia and Ireland.
Switzerland and Qatar — the host of the 2022 tournament — were drawn with Canada in Group B. Battling to join them are Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
–Field Level Media
