Arya News - The top seed in Group D, the Americans welcomed Australia and Paraguay — manageable foes that they defeated in home friendlies this fall — and the winner of a March playoff between Türkiye, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo.
WASHINGTON — As a World Cup co-host, the U.S. men"s national soccer team has long known it was going to play in the tournament — no qualifying necessary. It also knew the venues and dates for its group-stage matches. What remained unresolved were the opponents.
On Friday, they came to light during the draw at Kennedy Center — and the results were highly favorable to Mauricio Pochettino’s squad.
The top seed in Group D, the Americans welcomed Australia and Paraguay — manageable foes that they defeated in home friendlies this fall — and the winner of a March playoff between Türkiye, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo.
The United States will open June 12 against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, then face Australia on June 19 at Lumen Field in Seattle. The group finale is June 25 against the playoff winner back in Inglewood.
It could have been a whole lot worse. Australia was the lowest-ranked team in Pot 2 and Paraguay came from the middle of Pot 3. And while a European playoff winner was not the easiest matchup from Pot 4, it wasn’t from a playoff that involved Italy, either.
Pochettino surely will be happy with this outcome.
FIFA will announce the full schedule and venue designations Saturday.
After Washington’s first snow of the season dusted arriving VIPs and media from around the world, the festivities began with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli performing “Nessun Dorma.”
Co-hosts Kevin Hart and Heidi Klum introduced FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who laid it on thick.
“FIFA is the official happiness provider for humanity since over 100 years, right?” he said. The World Cup is “much more than just a sporting event; it’s the greatest event mankind has ever seen and will ever see.”
Infantino, who is preparing to oversee his third men’s World Cup, introduced President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, followed by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Infantino then led the audience in chants of “USA!”, “Canada! and “Mexico!”
As part of his continued embrace of Trump, Infantino awarded the president with the FIFA peace prize, which, upon its creation last month, was clearly earmarked for Trump.
“You can always, Mr. President, count on my support,” Infantino said.
“Gianni, a tremendous honor,” Trump said.
To begin the draw, Carney, Sheinbaum and Trump ceremoniously plucked balls from bowls that just happened to have slips of paper showing their respective countries. After Carney and Sheinbaum completed their “selections,” Trump reached into the bowl and, before flashing the result to the crowd, drew laughter by declaring, “This is shocking.”