Nations gear up for World Cup challenge with promising draw

As a World Cup co-host, the United States was spared from the ever-thorny gauntlet of qualifying and handed a free ticket to the 2026 tournament. So when U.S. Soccer assembled the exhibitions that would prepare the men’s national team over the past year, the federation placed a premium on booking World Cup-calibre opposition and giving Mauricio Pochettino’s squad character-building, chemistry-refining matchups.

Sure enough, the U.S. team didn’t just get a feel for the kind of opponents it will face next summer - it got to test itself against those very same foes.

Friday’s World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center sent Australia, Paraguay and a European playoff winner to join the Americans in Group D. It wasn’t the best-case scenario, but it was close: Australia was the lowest-ranked team in the second pot, Paraguay landed in the middle of the third-pot pack, and the possible European foes - Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo - are devoid of heavyweights.

But imagining clashes on paper is one thing. On the field, the Americans beat Australia and Paraguay in friendlies this year. And Turkey, the favorite to secure that final slot, narrowly beat a shorthanded U.S. team in June.

“It is good, the reference, because we are going to feel that we can beat them,” Pochettino said. “But at the same time, when you beat someone or you hurt someone, they are ready for you. They will say, ‘Okay, but now we will see.’ When it’s going to be serious is going to be the World Cup.”

The U.S. squad will kick off its World Cup against Paraguay on June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. La Albirroja is no slouch: Paraguay went 7-4-7, with wins over Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, to finish sixth out of 10 teams in South America’s grueling qualifying competition. Still, a U.S. team playing without several stalwarts - Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Tim Weah, Chris Richards and more - notched a 2-1 win over Paraguay last month behind strikes from Gio Reyna and Folarin Balogun.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” Pulisic said. “First match of the World Cup, obviously playing in L.A., we’re going to be ready for that game.”

The U.S. team also triumphed, 2-1, over Australia when the Socceroos visited suburban Denver in October. That match snapped a 12-game unbeaten run for Australia, which qualified for the World Cup after suffering just one loss in 16 matches. Although that impressive run sent Australia flying up FIFA’s rankings, the Socceroos largely took care of business against inferior opposition. Even after the Americans lost Pulisic to a first-half hamstring injury in October’s friendly, a pair of Haji Wright tallies tilted the physical encounter in the home side’s favor.

“I think they’ve got strength all over the park,” Australia Coach Tony Popovic said of the U.S. squad, which will face his side June 19 at Seattle’s Lumen Field. “We learned a lot from that match. And it was a friendly, so I’m sure the World Cup match will be very different.”

Then there’s the possibility that the Americans will face Turkey, which must defeat Romania and the winner of Slovakia and Kosovo to secure its spot. Should March’s playoff go Turkey’s way, the U.S. team will conclude the group stage against a third familiar foe June 25 in Inglewood.

Turkey was unlucky to end up in a playoff: The Crescent Stars went 4-1-1 in qualifying and had the misfortune of finishing second in their group behind 2024 European champion Spain. But while that talented Turkey squad prevailed, 2-1, in June, the Americans held their own with an experimental squad while preparing for the Concacaf Gold Cup.

“You saw fresh faces, a lot of inexperience, but also a lot of hunger,” Richards said. “We still went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in Europe.”

As Pochettino said, it’s another useful “reference” - one the Americans could very well circle back to repeatedly in the months to come. Here are more takeaways from the World Cup draw and schedule announcement as we peer ahead to next summer.

England, France have it tough

With the World Cup draw comes the dread (or anticipation) of a so-called “Group of Death” - that imposing foursome packed with contenders, dark horses and do-or-die games galore. So which group seized that moniker Friday?

To be frank, none of them. With this bloated 48-team World Cup came watered-down groups. The shift from a 16-team knockout round to a 32-team bracket also sapped drama from the group stage; third place is now typically enough to advance. Yet some paths are more treacherous than others.

England could have a tough time in Group L after being drawn alongside Croatia - the 2018 runner-up and 2022 third-place finisher - plus a Ghana team that went 8-1-1 in qualifying and a Panama squad that finished its qualifying campaign undefeated. The same goes for France, which drew Erling Haaland’s Norway - a budding force that finished its 8-0-0 qualifying campaign with the most goals in Europe - alongside a Senegal team that didn’t drop a qualifier and the winner of an intercontinental playoff (Iraq, Bolivia or Suriname) in Group I.

A group stage exit for England and France, two of the tournament’s top contenders, would be a shock. Few would be surprised, however, if Croatia and Norway edged them for the first-place positions and threw the knockout round bracket into chaos. And who doesn’t like a little chaos?

Group G is the softest

Canada and Mexico automatically secured top seeds as the United States’ co-hosts, despite not having the ranking to justify such placement - potentially setting the stage for the tournament’s weakest groups. But March’s European playoffs could send Italy to Canada’s group and Denmark to Mexico’s, adding some winning pedigree and welcome balance to those foursomes.

With that in mind, Group G sticks out as the softest. Belgium is a question mark after crashing out in the 2022 World Cup group stage and the Euro 2024 round of 16, then phasing out its ballyhooed golden generation. Egypt and Iran breezed through qualifying but have a track record of falling flat on the global stage. And New Zealand, at 86th, is the lowest-ranked team in the current field.

It all bodes well for the U.S. squad, which is on a knockout round collision course with those squads. Should the Americans top their group, they would be on track to face the Group G winner in the round of 16. If they finish second, they would meet Group G’s runner-up in the round of 32. And a clash with Belgium - which knocked the U.S. team out of the 2014 World Cup - would be another recent rematch after the Americans host the Red Devils in a friendly March 28 in Atlanta.

Enticing matchups on tap

In a new wrinkle, FIFA extended the draw festivities to a second day: It waited until Saturday to reveal the full schedule, complete with venues and kickoff times. Brazil vs. Morocco on June 13 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will be the tournament’s first marquee matchup. England meets Croatia in a heavyweight bout four days later in Arlington, Texas. The highly anticipated France-Norway clash will unfold June 26 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The June 27 meeting between Portugal and Colombia in Miami Gardens, Florida, should be another must-watch contest.

The United States’ co-hosts also got some enticing matchups, including Germany vs. Ivory Coast on June 20 in Toronto and Spain vs. Uruguay on June 26 in Zapopan, Mexico. Looking ahead, France and Germany are poised to collide for a tantalizing round-of-16 matchup in Philadelphia on July 4 - the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Washington Post