USMNT draws Paraguay, Australia at World Cup

The United States will face Paraguay, Australia and the winner of a UEFA playoff featuring Türkiye, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo after a relatively favorable group stage draw for the co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup.

That was the result Friday after soccer’s biggest competition took a major step closer to reality with a star-studded draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

The opening game for the U.S. men’s national team in Group D will be against Paraguay on June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Mexico will kick off the tournament a day earlier in Mexico City against South Africa — a repeat of the opening game when South Africa hosted the World Cup in 2010.

Group A also includes South Korea and the winner of playoff games among the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark and North Macedonia.

The other co-host, Canada, will begin in Toronto on June 12, with a potential blockbuster clash against Italy, if the Italians make it through a UEFA playoff route that also features Northern Ireland, Wales and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The United States’ other group games will take place in Seattle against Australia on June 19 and against the UEFA playoff winner back at Sofi Stadium on June 25. The U.S. have positive recent experience against Paraguay and Australia, having beaten both by the same 2-1 score in recent friendlies.

“We played recently against Paraguay and Australia, so what we know is very fresh and the fourth it will be against a very good team in Europe,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino told Fox.

“I think we need to be optimistic, but as we know the teams, we will see what is going on in few months.

“We need to show respect to our opponent, but we cannot win before we play. That is going to be our message to players. We need to compete better than Paraguay; going to be difficult. We need to be strong in our beliefs, thinking big, but we need to be motivated to play with these guys [in the group stage] that will be really tough.”

The U.S. reached the semifinals at the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and have gotten as far as the quarterfinals only one other time, in 2002.

As co-hosts, the U.S. were seeded in Pot 1 and avoided other top seeds Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, as well as fellow host nations Canada and Mexico.

A record 64 nations participated in the draw to determine which 48 teams will take the tournament field this summer. Italy are among 22 nations competing in playoffs for the final six berths to be decided March 31.

With 48 teams in the tournament, the top two in each group — plus eight of the 12 third-place finishers — will advance to the 32-team, single-elimination knockout round.

The top four teams in the FIFA ranking — Spain, Argentina, France and England — were drawn in such a way that, should they win their groups, they will not face each other before the semifinals.

Defending champion Argentina, likely led by Lionel Messi in a sixth World Cup appearance, were handed a kind draw — opening against Algeria, before facing off with Austria and Jordan.

England were handed the toughest opening assignment of the top seeds, with a rematch of the 2018 semifinal against Croatia. Ghana and Panama make up the rest of Group L.

France will open their World Cup against Senegal — just as they did as defending champion in 2002 when the African team pulled off a stunning 1-0 win against the defending champions.

The French and longtime rivals Germany — who played a famous semifinal in 1982 — could meet as early as the round of 16 this time should each win their group.

France were drawn into Group I and will also face Norway, meaning a potential showdown between two of the world’s great strikers — Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland. Germany were placed in Group E with Curaçao, Ivory Coast and Ecuador.

Brazil, Morocco and Scotland will be in a group together — just as they were in 1998. That was the last time Scotland qualified for a World Cup. The Tartan Army finished last in the group that time. Haiti complete the group this time around.

Top-ranked Spain, the 2010 champion, face Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay in Group H.

Retired stars Tom Brady of the NFL, Shaquille O’Neal of the NBA and Wayne Gretzky of the NHL, along with three-time AL MVP Aaron Judge, assisted in the draw run by former England captain Rio Ferdinand and broadcaster Samantha Johnson.

For the first time, the match schedule is not being released on the same day as the draw. Instead FIFA will announce the full schedule at another live event Saturday in order to take into account both the differing weather conditions and time zones for all teams and fans.

All games from the quarterfinals on will be in the U.S., which is using 11 NFL stadiums.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.