WASHINGTON — There’s plenty of history of World Cup host teams getting easy groups. But the soccer gods definitely smiled on the U.S. men’s national team at Friday’s draw.
The Americans got Australia out of Pot 2, the second-toughest batch, instead of the stars and skills of Croatia, Morocco, or Colombia. In Pot 3, they got Paraguay, instead of Norway’s all-world striker Erling Haaland and playmaker Martin Ødegaard.
At that point in the glitzy stage show, with President Donald Trump leading the guest list at the Kennedy Center, the U.S. knew it would get a European playoff winner from Pot 4. But even then, they got lucky, landing the bracket of Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, and Kosovo, instead of the one led by Italy.
Then, as the dust settled and the watching world looked at the results, something else became clear. At least two of the three games will be rematches of recent U.S. games, and all three will be if Turkey wins that playoff.
“It means less work,” U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino said. “We can say we’ve already done the homework because it’s fresh when we played them … It’s still six months. We need to update everything — and we know them, but they know us.”
The Americans’ opening game will be against Paraguay on June 12, the second day of the tournament, in Inglewood, Calif. The teams met last month at Subaru Park in Chester, and the U.S. won, 2-1, with goals from Gio Reyna and Folarin Balogun.
“I know they’re a very difficult, very complex team, one that has found a way to build a solid foundation, a solid base,” Paraguay manager Gustavo Alfaro said. “And that helps us understand the things we need to improve.”
Seven days later, the U.S. will play Australia in Seattle, a game that should produce a thunderous atmosphere in one of America’s elite soccer cities. In October, the U.S. came from behind to beat a physical Socceroos squad, 2-1, with two goals from Haji Wright.
“We know what to expect — a top team, a top coach,” Australia manager Tony Popovic said. “It will be obviously different in a World Cup to a friendly, but that also excites us.”
Then it will be back to the LA area for the group stage finale, on June 25 against the playoff winner.
Turkey beat the U.S., 2-1 in June in East Hartford, Conn., but that U.S. squad was missing a lot of its stars — deliberately at that point, by Pochettino’s decision. Turkey’s squad was full-strength, including star playmakers Kenan Yıldız of Italy’s Juventus (where he’s teammates with Weston McKennie) and Arda Güler of Spain’s Real Madrid.
If Romania pulls off the upset in the playoff, memories will come back of the teams’ 1994 World Cup matchup at the Rose Bowl. Romania’s 1-0 win that day was the last of the teams’ four all-time meetings, with the first in 1991 the only U.S. win.
The U.S. has only played Slovakia once, a 1-0 Slovakia win in that country’s capital, Bratislava. The U.S. and Kosovo have never played.
The European playoffs are in March. Turkey hosts Romania, and Slovakia hosts Kosovo, and the latter game’s winner hosts the finale.
‘Good pressure,’ but realistic expectations
Pochettino wants his team to believe it can win the World Cup. His favorite slogan lately has been “Be realistic and do the impossible.”
It’s his job to present that message, even if “realistic” for everyone else is something else. That bears saying loudly because fans who only watch the U.S. men during World Cups might take Pochettino at his word.
For them, and for the team’s devotees too, Tyler Adams’ words are worth heeding.
“Everyone’s going to want us to say winning it is obviously the goal,” the veteran U.S. midfielder and locker room leader said. “Our idea is to win — that’s the goal. But I think setting the benchmark of the furthest the U.S. team has gone is also realistic. So we want to go and make a run, but again, it’s a game by game mentality.”
The farthest the U.S. men have gone at a World Cup was nearly a century ago at the first edition, in 1930, when they finished third in a 12-team field. They have advanced from their group in five of the eight World Cups they have gone to in their modern era, which started in 1990; and their only ever knockout game win was in 2002, against next-door-neighbor Mexico half a world away in South Korea.
Reaching the semifinals this time would require three knockout-round wins: in the round of 32 in the first 48-team World Cup, the round of 16, and the quarterfinals. The conventional wisdom outside the program is, and likely will remain, that success will be reaching the quarterfinals.
“We have to focus on ourselves — we have to worry about how we are and who we are and what we are and the connections and the aggressiveness and the intensity and the focus,” said centerback Tim Ream, Pochettino’s captain as the squad’s most experienced player. “At some point, you’re going to have to play the best some of the best teams. So do you play them in the group stage? Do you play with the knockouts? It doesn’t really matter, right?”
What’s certain is that no matter the opponents, the games matter more now, starting with March friendlies against Portugal and Belgium. Then the U.S. will play its send-off games amid training camp against Germany and a team to be announced.
As the nation starts to tune in, it will be up to Pochettino and his players to turn that pressure into a force that strengthens them, and potentially powers a history-making run on home soil.
“I think it’s good pressure,” Pochettino said. “The expectation is good, because it puts good stress in your body.”
It will only build up over the coming months.
U.S. men’s soccer team 2026 World Cup group schedule
June 12: vs. Paraguay in Inglewood, Calif.
June 19: vs. Australia in Seattle
June 25: vs. UEFA playoff winner in Inglewood, Calif.
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