ATLANTA – The stage is set for the U.S. Men’s National Team’s journey at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The USMNT learned its group stage opponents during the World Cup Official Draw held in the nation’s capital on Friday, Dec. 5, and at least two, potentially a third, are countries that the U.S. has played in the last six months.
The U.S. was drawn into Group D with 26th-ranked Australia and 39th-ranked Paraguay. The fourth team to comprise Group D will be either Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia or Türkiye, which will be determined in March as one of four UEFA Playoff matches.
Australia and Paraguay are teams the U.S. played in the two most recent international windows in the USMNT’s competitive buildup to next summer’s tournament. The U.S. won both matchups 2-1, a pair of strong results to extend overall winning records over both and help the USMNT put together a current unbeaten run of five consecutive matches.
“It does set up nicely, but we have to focus on ourselves,” USMNT center back Tim Ream said. “We know the minimum of what it will take to beat these teams. You can't play a tournament by doing the minimum. You can't. You have to go above and beyond.”
“There’s no easy game in the World Cup,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. “In fact, some of our hardest games in the previous World Cup were two against lesser opponents. Moving forward, we need to continue to prepare in the right way, but it's fun knowing that we've played some of these opponents before.”
The USMNT faced Australia less than two months prior to the draw. On a cool night at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado, striker Haji Wright bagged a brace off two assists from midfielder Cristian Roldan to lead the U.S. to a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the Socceroos, which ended Australia’s 12-match unbeaten streak coming into the match.
Like Australia, the match against Paraguay on Nov. 15 was a battle between two teams ranked in the top 40. The U.S. scored two goals on the night, one on either side of halftime from midfielder Gio Reyna and striker Folarin Balogun, to power past the Paraguayans at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania.
When asked how playing against recent opponents affects his team’s World Cup hopes, head coach Mauricio Pochettino said it was a good starting point for the group’s preparation.
“It’s good because we felt how competitive Paraguay and Australia are,” he said. “They are two teams that are doing really, really well. We need to build our pattern, and we need to build our journey to arrive there and be sure that we are much better than we were in the past.”
Not only did today's draw paint a picture of the USMNT's group; the schedule also came into clearer focus. USA-Paraguay is the first match for the Americans and occurs June 12 at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood, California. It will be first World Cup match on American soil after Mexico-South Africa in Group A kicks off the tournament the day before in Mexico City.
“Getting three points right off the bat like that would be an amazing start for us and put us in a great position in the group,” forward Christian Pulisic said of the group stage opener. “We're definitely looking forward to that one.”
USA’s Group D Schedule at 2026 FIFA World Cup
One of the playoff contenders who could very well be the fourth in Group D is Türkiye, another team the U.S. played in 2025. The two sides met on June 7 in the final two international friendlies before the USMNT’s run to the Concacaf Gold Cup Final. Against Türkiye, Pochettino started a relatively inexperienced lineup. Four players made their debuts, and a young U.S. side fell to Türkiye 2-1 in East Hartford, Connecticut.
“You saw a lot of fresh faces, a lot of inexperience, but also a lot of hunger,” center back Chris Richards said. “We still went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in Europe...it gave us a lot of confidence going into the Gold Cup."
All three matches the U.S. played against Türkiye, Australia and Paraguay in the past six months will now serve as what Pochettino called “reference points” for the next as he and his staff prepare for the group stage.
When it comes to the third opponent yet to be determined, Pochettino's focus will not only be on Türkiye. The head coach confirmed that he and his team won’t wait until March to do their homework – they plan to scout Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia as well – increasing the workload of preparing for three teams to six.
“We can go into it with a good feeling,” Pulisic said. “We’ve played against these teams recently, which is not always the case. We know more or less what they’re going to look like.We know they're tough opponents as well. We’re not taking anyone lightly. They’re all going to be tough games, but it's great we have that experience.”
No matter who the third opponent ends up being, the U.S. has maintained its target of making it out of the group stage and beyond. The team is currently feeling a surge of confidence coming off the team’s most recent outing, a 5-1 thrashing over World Cup-bound Uruguay, and strives to keep the focus on themselves.
Goalkeeper Matt Freese said just that on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard soon after the World Cup Draw concluded:
“The goal, the dream, the ambition is to win the World Cup. If you win the World Cup, you have to beat all the teams no matter what.You’re going to be playing hard teams and the best teams at some point in the tournament if you accomplish what you want to accomplish.”
“There’s no easy route to get to a final,” Richards echoed. “You always have to play some tough teams. One thing that Poch has instilled in us is if we play to the best of our abilities, no team can beat us. We all firmly believe that.”