Fri, Jun 12
9:00 PM ET
SoFi Stadium · Los Angeles
World Cup 2026
United States · Paraguay · Australia · Turkiye
The USA play at home. Türkiye's golden generation arrives. Paraguay and Australia complete an open group.
Table
| Team | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1🇺🇸United States | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2🇦🇺Australia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3🇹🇷Turkiye | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4🇵🇾Paraguay | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Profiles
FIFA ranking #16
Manager
Mauricio Pochettino
Key Player
Christian Pulisic
AC Milan
World Cup Pedigree
12 appearances · best: Third place (1930)
FIFA ranking #42
Manager
Gustavo Alfaro
Key Player
Julio Enciso
Strasbourg
World Cup Pedigree
9 appearances · best: Quarter-finals (2010)
FIFA ranking #25
Manager
Tony Popovic
Key Player
Jackson Irvine
FC St. Pauli
World Cup Pedigree
7 appearances · best: Round of 16 (2006, 2022)
FIFA ranking #26
Manager
Vincenzo Montella
Key Player
Hakan Çalhanoğlu
Inter Milan
World Cup Pedigree
3 appearances · best: Third place (2002)
Schedule
Editorial
The United States carry the weight and opportunity of a home World Cup. Their route is manageable, but none of the three opponents give them an obvious free match.
Türkiye may be the group’s most volatile team: technical, fearless, and capable of turning games into open exchanges. Paraguay and Australia both know how to survive uncomfortable tournament rhythms.
This group could be decided by who handles pressure best. The USA have the crowd, Türkiye have the ceiling, and the outsiders have enough edge to punish hesitation.
From The Journal
2026-07-19
It was the game nobody wanted to play, the fixture the schedule apologizes for. With nothing left to win, the only thing on the field was character — and ten goals later, in a match that counted for nothing, you could see exactly who these players were.
9 min read
2026-07-13
To reach the top as a striker you need at least one extreme quality. Erling Braut Haaland is a stack of them — pace, power, and a finishing certainty that borders on the inhuman. At his first World Cup, the purest number nine of his era turned the lot of them loose on Brazil.
5 min read
2026-07-13
Ronaldo Nazário — O Fenômeno — was the most complete striker football had produced, and the standard the position has been measured against ever since. Kylian Mbappé is the closest thing to him the game has seen. The Phenomenon himself says so.
7 min read