The U.S. men’s national team will face some familiar opponents at the 2026 World Cup.
The Americans will face Paraguay, Australia, and the European playoff spot still to be determined between Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, or Kosovo in Group D of next summer’s tournament. Mauricio Pochettino’s squad received one of the more favorable draws on Friday, including two teams they defeated over the last two international windows.
“It’s a signal we are ready to arrive in six months,” Pochettino said in a TV interview with Fox. “We already have faced Paraguay and Australia, everything we know is very fresh. We will also face a very good team in Europe, we need to be optimistic, continue improving, and respect everyone in this group.”
The USMNT will open their group stage schedule against Paraguay on June 12 in Los Angeles, a team they defeated 2-1 in friendly action last month. Gio Reyna and Folarin Balogun both scored in that match at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Second will be a USMNT-Australia showdown on June 19 in Seattle, a rematch of a 2-1 home win for the U.S. in Commerce City, Colorado last October. Haji Wright scored twice in the result while star forward Christian Pulisic left the match through injury.
Slovakia and Kosovo will square off in Bratislava on March 26 while Turkey and Romania will also meet in a playoff match on the same day. The winners of those two matches will then meet in a final playoff showdown on March 31, with the final winner completing the USMNT’s group.
The USMNT will meet that European nation on June 25 in Los Angeles to conclude both teams’ group stage schedule.
CONCACAF teams had some mixed results in the draw, with Mexico earning a favorable Group A with South Korea, South Africa and a UEFA Playoff winner of either Denmark, North Macedonia, Czechia, or the Republic of Ireland.
Canada received a tougher draw in Group B with Switzerland, Qatar, and a UEFA Playoff winner of either Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales, or Bosnia & Herzegovina.
There will be several mouthwatering group stage matchups next summer with Brazil-Morocco, Portugal-Colombia, England-Croatia, and Spain-Uruguay all slated to take place.
The 2026 World Cup begins on June 11, with the USMNT opener among the first slate of matches. A full breakdown of the tournament schedule will be revealed in Washington, D.C. on Saturday.
Here are the full World Cup groups:
FIFA World Cup Groups
A – Mexico, South Korea, South Africa, (Denmark, North Macedonia, Czechia, or Republic of Ireland).
B – Canada, Switzerland, Qatar, UEFA Playoff winner (Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales, or Bosnia & Herzegovina).
C – Brazil, Morocco, Scotland, Haiti.
D – USA, Paraguay, Australia, UEFA Playoff winner (Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, or Kosovo).
E – Germany, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Curacao.
F – Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia, UEFA Playoff winner (Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, or Albania).
G – Belgium, Iran, Egypt, New Zealand.
H – Spain, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde.
I – France, Senegal, Norway, FIFA Playoff winner (Iraq, Suriname or Bolivia)
J – Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan.
K – Portugal, Colombia, Uzbekistan, FIFA Playoff winner (Jamaica, New Caledonia, or DR Congo).
L – England, Croatia, Panama, Ghana.
What do you think of the draw? See the USMNT advancing to the knockout rounds? Think the Americans can win the group?
next will be favorable officiating for the first time ever. who wants to bet??
If that happens just enjoy the ride.
On another positive note Kevin Paredes has been back in training with Wolfsburg.
Maybe this is naive, but it looks to me like a pretty good opportunity for the US to feature squad players and practice teamwork in the group stage, and rest some top players, aka injury risks, until later.
But indeed, a bit ominous for Canada. You would almost think the draw had been, er, staged by “Mr. 51st state.”
I used to like Canada a lot too — several good guys, and Jesse Marsch is such a fighter. But they’re really going to need their bigger names to be healthy and sharp from the start, unlike teams that can use the group stage to practice. As far as I can tell, Alphonso Davies is still coming off an ACL tear, Jonathan David could use some minutes at Juve, and Cyle Larin is in … Turkey?
Still, they often seem to find another gear when they get together as a group. Bonne chance à nos voisins.
If Kosovo beats Slovakia they will host either Turkey or Romania. Dont count out Kosovo being the European team we face.
Same with Slovakia. Turkey will have to play at either Kosovo or Slovakia in the final. Romania will have to play away in both games.
A lot of “trap” games.
No great teams and very few if any legit “minnows”.
More than ever, parity has come to the World Cup.
The USMNT can beat anyone here and can lose to anyone here.
That’s the nature of the beast in these kind of tournaments. The fact that we’ve beaten Paraguay and Argentina and lost to Turkie just means they know us better and will be more ready.
No easy games for the USMNT here.
Yeah I think the draw is tougher than it seems. For sure getting australia from pot 2 was very fortunate, but the pot 3 and 4 draws, assuming turkey, make it a tough group. Like you say, no easy games. And yet, we are probably slight favorites in all of them. It’s definitely a better draw than germany, portugal, ghana
Favorites?.
That’s for betting purposes.
I hope I’m right about this but I don’t think the players and Pochettino really care who they play. If they have shown anything, this USMNT has shown that they thrive when under pressure and they are the underdogs.
Remember, in reaity this is a brand new team. And Pochettino really seems to have these players focused on finding out just how good they can be. He seems to actually have the attention of ALL the players.
I don’t think you can say that about any previous USMNT manager.
Many of you think MLS players are useless and a lot of you wanted Poch fired not that long ago.
Pochettino has figured out that this scorn is useful in building this team’s super power: underdog intensity built on their desire to find out just how good they really are.
From that standpoint, I don’t think it really matters who they play.
Vac, I hope the players and coaches care who they play. Tactics should always consider your opponents strengths and weaknesses. Group games in this WC are going to look very different than any previous WC with all 3 teams likely bunkering and countering. Knockout rounds, if they get there, are likely to be against teams playing with totally different tactics.
Vac, oops, I think I understand what you are getting at. Don’t care who you play but still prepare for your opponent. If you think you are going to win, you shouldn’t care who you play. If you don’t think you are going to win, you probably care a little about who you play.
Tele57,
Gregg’s teams , after six years, showed themselves to be soft and entitled. Wussies. Our euros loved playing for Gregg because they couldn’t get a game with their clubs but you could always count on getting playing time from Gregg.
Is it any wonder they loved “Club USMNT” ?
Pochettino came in and was lucky in that it seems our Cupcake domestics were up to the challenge of being good enough to displace our euros. I also think he actually evaluated our viable options without the anti-MLS bigotry and prejudice we see so much of on SBI and the fan base and media in general .
It turns out that while a “can’t play left back”’ Max may not be good enough to replace Jedi at Fulham, he may be able to fake being a decent Jedi replacement for a couple of games with the USMNT.
And that is all we need from Arfens.
Or any of them.
Freeman might sit on the bench and be a long term bust for some EPL team. But that doesn’t mean he can’t give the USMNT a handful of great performances.
Look no further than Gio whose USMNT performance is significantly so much better than his Dortmund record.
Or take LD. His main team was the USMNT. He used MLS just to stay in shape for the USMNT. LD was great during his Everton loans but only for about 8-10 games at a pop. I question how his performance would look had he transferred permanently to Everton. Liverpool or San Diego? Where do you want to spend your off time?
Yet the man is who he is.
Given all that , what really matters is that a player is just dying to play for the USMNT and that is mostly what Pochettino has spent his time on; making sure that all of his players feel that way. And in his case, he seems to really mean what he says.
This a brand-new team. Pochettino really can’t worry that much about who they are playing. He’s got to focus on his guys. I think he understands that they can beat just about anyone in this tournament and that they can be beaten by just about anyone in this tournament. Unlike a lot of people on SBI, I’m confident Pochettino understands the difference between a back three, a back four and a back five.
The “right” tactics can help but tactics are only as good as the people executing them.
Pochettino came here to build a team capable of competing in a World Cup tournament not the Champions League or the EPL.
Pochettino’s team is purpose built for the short term. People on SBI talk about developing players for the future of the USMNT. There is no future.
The future is now or rather a few months from now.
Vac, your putting a lot of stock in freindlies. Poch will be judged on how the team does at the WC, and if they get grouped like you say you are expecting, he will join the ranks of Steve Sampson in US soccer lore. I don’t expect that because I think he is a good coach and certainly the best option they had, but the idea that the players weren’t trying before and now they are is bull. Beating teams when your players are collectively better should be the expectation. You can only play the team you line up against, but beating a Paraguay team in a freindly where they more concerned about rolling around on the ground pretending to be injured than playing soccer is not that great of an achievement. It is more fun to watch them win as a fan but it doesn’t mean much. Maybe Paraguay thinks influencing refereeing is going to be important for them in the WC and that is what their coach wanted them practicing. Right now, they’ve achieved nothing under Poch except losing in the Nations League semi finals, a tournament they had won the last three times. Also, I’ll bet you a virtual 6 pack that barring injury McKennie will start at least two of the group matches. I want Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest. I’m very confident I am going to win that bet.
Tele57,
“Vac, your putting a lot of stock in freindlies. ”
I put no stock in those friendlies.
I wasn’t talking about the friendlies. I was talking about WC games. Those friendlies, I expect, will be treated as part of the prep to take apart Paraguay, Australia and whoever else comes through the playoffs. My thing with those friendlies is that the USMNT learn whatever they will be practicing and that they avoid injuries.
“Poch will be judged on how the team does at the WC, and if they get grouped like you say you are expecting, he will join the ranks of Steve Sampson in US soccer lore.”
Let me be very clear. I expect them to advance but I would not be surprised if they got grouped. That is the sort of parity we are seeing in this World Cup. And, after all, the USMNT is a brand new team.
“I don’t expect that because I think he is a good coach and certainly the best option they had, but the idea that the players weren’t trying before and now they are is bull. ”
I think Gregg’s teams did they best they could but they never really believed in themselves or the team. In English, Gregg did not get the best out of them or they did not get the best out of themselves if you prefer.
Take the best game the USMNT ever played under Gregg and compare that to the best game the USMNT ever played under Pochettino. I think you’ll see what I mean.
“Beating teams when your players are collectively better should be the expectation. You can only play the team you line up against, but beating a Paraguay team in a freindly where they more concerned about rolling around on the ground pretending to be injured than playing soccer is not that great of an achievement. It is more fun to watch them win as a fan but it doesn’t mean much. Maybe Paraguay thinks influencing refereeing is going to be important for them in the WC and that is what their coach wanted them practicing.”
It’s not clear that the USMNT is collectively better than Paraguay. On SBI people here like to go down the roster and add up whatever value they assign to each player and then declare that Team A has a higher score than Team B and is therefore “better.
That’s not how it works.
“Right now, they’ve achieved nothing under Poch except losing in the Nations League semi finals, a tournament they had won the last three times.”
Would you prefer it if the USSF had rewarded Gregg for his accomplishments in winning those trophies by keeping him around?
Would you have been happier if the USSF had fired Pochettino for losing to Switzerland and Turkey and not winning the Gold Cup or the Nations League?
The USMNT have been winning those JV tourneys for years. Care to tell how that helped them in the World Cup?
“Also, I’ll bet you a virtual 6 pack that barring injury McKennie will start at least two of the group matches. I want Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest. I’m very confident I am going to win that bet.”
Weston often has been shit for the USMNT. Since Pochettino left him out I notice he’s doing real well for Juve. If he keeps it up and brings that form into March then no problem. But if he’s not at his best I don’t think they will hesitate to drop him. I think Weston, Tyler, Weah, Scally, Dest and BA are all riding on their reputations at this point. And Jonny and Jedi have to show their fitness. I’d love for all of them ( including Musah) to prove me wrong and show up red hot, fit and ready to go at selection time.
It is a long time from now so we will see.
The easiest group draw we have had in quite some time. In fact I can’t remember one as easy while we often get some of the toughest draws. We should get at least 6 points and, I hope, at least 7 points. I think our greatest problem might be complacency, but I doubt Pochettino will allow that to happen.
Gary, I don’t think it will be complacency; it is hard to score against teams that bunker. Even the best teams have trouble but the US has shown over the past 8 years that they really struggle creating goal scoring chances against bunkers. Statistically, I would think it is very unlikely to lose 3 games against teams bunkering but getting one win one draw, and one loss doesn’t seem that far fetched. I think with only 4 of 16 third place teams not advancing it is pretty likely that some teams with only three points will advance and 3rd place with 4 points is probably a lock to advance. I have no data to back any of these “statistics” up, just what I think I would come up with if I did do some type of statistical analysis.
I remember all the talk of 9 point windows during 2022 qualifying maybe even have 18 pts through the first half of qualifying. I don’t think we ever had more than 6 in a window.
Sadly, I still remember too. Eventually, I will forget and will only remember that they got automatic qualification, but not yet.
Shit I remember the 2006 hype and the amount of liquor consumed to pretend it didn’t happen
A favorable draw for the US, but there are still some questions about our squad. The March window is going to be the final litmus test where we’ll hopefully get answers to some lingering questions:
1) Can we get & keep everyone healthy?
2) Who are the CBs going to be?
3) What’s our starting XI going to be?
It’s been a long time since we’ve had everyone healthy and available for selection. This has created more competition and allowed some to raise their level/profile withing the player pool. But we’ve yet to see what the best XI is.
Lost, I don’t think there will be a set 10. I think it will depend on the situation and the opponent. Group games are likely to see teams bunker and counter and if they advance to knockout rounds likely to see teams attacking and trying to maintain possession. I think there are certain players that will start knockout games but the 10 and the positions the players line up could be different. For example, any knockout game, I see Balogan, Pulisic, Gio, McKennie, Adams, Richards starting but the last 4 would probably be opponent dependent.If Malik continues to develop he may push himself into that group of 6 I see starting k lockout games. This assumes no injuries which is probably a bad assumption.
All three group games will be against teams bunkering and countering. Not something the US has been great at over the past 8 years but definately seem to have improved at this under Poch (not like there was much room to get any worse). Group games are going to look a lot different than in any other prior WC. I would think this group almost cements Berhalter’s spot due to his delivery on dead balls.
Do you think it improves Gios shot at making the starting 11?
I gotta think this benefits a Gio or Tillman start opposite Pulisic
Bac, I do. I think the two people that have separated themselves on taking dead balls are Gio and Seb so I almost expect Poch to start at least one of them in each group match considering the opponents and the likely bunkering tactics. Poch really should have flexibility to rotate players much more so than any other coach simply because this pool has much more depth. There are going to be injuries though that always presents a wild card. Poch’s fortunes changed when he went to 3 in the back and I expect him to stick with that. I think CB and goalie are the weakest spot and 3 CBs with two 6s helps mask that (as much as you can). With a 3-4-2-1 he prob has Pulisic, Gio, Malik, McKennie, Luna availa ke for 10s so 5 deep. At 6 prob Adams, Tessman, Roldan, Seb, Cordosa, Musah. Outside halfbacks, McKennie, Weah, Dest, Arob, Luna, Afsten, Seb Tim Tillman. All of these guys won’t make the team most likely and Musah and Cordosa would probably have to get called to the March camps and have great camps to even be in the running, but he does have a lot of potential depth compared to previous WC rosters now.
I agree. Another thing I’m waiting to see, when he’s got everyone available, is who are his 2 starting CMs..
The recent success would say some combo of Adams, Tessman, or Roldan.
But we haven’t had everyone available obviously, especially since he went to a 3 man backline.
So I’m wondering if there’s a possibility where either Weston or Tillman partners with Adams. Especially against teams that bunker… if you’re trying to get your best 11 on the field at the same time. I don’t see him trying Reyna there,
With so many realistic possible starters opposite of Pulisic, there’s gonna be talent on the bench.
The flipside is the 3 man backline, while exciting, still is an unknown quantity
Bac, I don’t want to see McKennie at the 6 (i have long stated I am not a fan of him there). To me, the things that make McKennie a great player in the US pool are lost when he is at the 6 and his weaknesses are magnified. I know Reyna can play the 6 and I suspect Malik can too but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play there. If either of them play the 6, it is probably more likely because he doesn’t trust anyone else next to Adams, or whomever if Adams is injured, for the particular opponent, but I like to see both of them in attacking roles. First game I think you will see Malik and Weston outsides in the 4 and Pulisic and Reyna at the 10s.
Yea I hear you on Weston, I’m just thinking there has to be a scenario that gets a more offensive minded partner there with adams in this 3421, a way that helps break down bunkering teams and doesn’t leave so much talent on the bench.
I can just picture Malik in front of Tyler with Pulisic and Gio at the 10s , and Dest/Weah/Weston on 1 side + ARob/Weah/Dest/Max on the other…
He could always switch back to a 4 man backline but I think he’s married to the 3421
You would expect Turkey to be the favorite to go through the playoffs. They beat us 2-1 back in June before the Gold Cup, though we were playing a very mixed squad with guys like Agyemang, de la Torre, Cardoso, and McGlynn starting and it was clear Poch’s system hadn’t really “taken” yet. We’ve beaten Paraguay and Australia, obviously, in the last couple months, both 2-1 results as well.
On paper we’ll be the best team in the group, and by quite a bit. If we don’t win the group, there will be grumbling. If we don’t at least get out of Group, there’s going to be a meltdown…and there should be.
If Turkey should NOT make it, the draw gets that much easier. Romania? Slovakia? Kosovo? Turkey is #25 in the world, Slovakia #45, Romania #49…and Kosovo is clear down at #80. Australia and Paraguay are #26 and #39, respectively.
The path is there for us, if we take it.
Avoided Morocco and Norway: phew!
Australia and Paraguay are winnable games: this is a very favorable draw, even if we get Turkey. No excuses not to advance.
The soccer Gods worked in our favor for this draw. Australia was likely the easiest of the teams in Pot 2, and a team we beat in a friendly recently. Drawing Paraguay from Pot 3 means playing a team we’ve know pretty well, and have a recent favorable result. As for Pot 4, we avoided the possibility of an Italy or other strong opponent. As the the 4 teams on the playoff, Turkiye beat the USA in a friendly in June, but that was not the USA’s ‘A’ roster that played in that game. This really is a very manageable group for the US men.
Turkey thumped the US in June.
Go back and look at the roster from that friendly against Türkiye in June. Poch was still tinkering with player selection, and was still trying to instill his system. That was close to Türkiye’s ‘A’ team that day. If things fall our way, we may already have 6 points before that match.
The score was 2–1—hardly a thumping. The U.S. fielded mostly third-string players in this game and had several chances to equalize.