USMNT draws favorable World Cup group including Paraguay and Australia
Seth Bartelny breaks down the USMNT’s favorable World Cup group and what it means for their tournament hopes.
sports pulse
WASHINGTON — The biggest World Cup draw in history was perhaps the most disastrous.
“This will be the best FIFA World Cup in history,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino rightly exaggerates. “The greatest event ever experienced by mankind.”
How wonderful!
“I’ll put it in terms that American audiences will understand: The World Cup is like 104 Super Bowls in one month,” Infantino added, echoing a phrase he said earlier this year.
The star-studded event didn’t result in an actual drawing for about 80 minutes, but ultimately led to groupings for a 48-team tournament to be held across North America next summer.
The United States got favorable draws against Paraguay and Australia, avoiding a group stage matchup with the world’s top teams. 2026 co-hosts Mexico and Canada also breathed a sigh of relief on Friday, although neither country was unlucky to end up in the same group as their top-tier opponents.
From the USMNT’s dream pairing to the tough group of France and England, take a look at the winners and losers of the 2026 World Cup draw.
world cup draw winner
USMNT
A draw could have gone the way they wanted for the USMNT, who were placed in Group D with Paraguay, Australia, and a yet-to-be-determined European team.
As one of the co-hosts of the World Cup, the United States was awarded the top pot of the draw to play Australia, the bottom-place team in Pot B. That slot in the USMNT group could be filled by a world soccer powerhouse like Croatia, Morocco, Colombia or Uruguay.
“The message to our players is that Paraguay, Australia and other teams are going to be difficult,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “You have to prepare for every game as if it were a World Cup final. It’s the wrong mindset to think you have to win before you play.”
The USMNT has winning records against both Paraguay and Australia, with 2-1 wins over both teams this fall.
The US president had a big day at the Kennedy Center, where he officially received the first FIFA Peace Prize, a brand new honor that soccer’s governing body appears to have invented to show off President Trump.
The entire world had to watch President Trump’s infomercial that accompanied the medal and trophy ceremony, but the president cut his acceptance speech short and humorously joked that the United States should adopt the term “football” instead of “soccer” because American football “doesn’t really make sense when you think about it.”
To conclude the event, Village People performed President Trump’s unofficial national anthem, “YMCA.”
Lionel Messi and the defending world champions have been placed in Group J alongside Algeria, Austria and Jordan, giving them a new clear path to the finals.
“We will give our all and try to do what we did in the last World Cup, which is to not give up any ball and give it our all,” said Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni.
Barring injury, Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo will set a record by playing in a record sixth World Cup next summer.
world cup lottery loser
France
The world No. 3 team had a difficult draw, putting them in the same group as Senegal (Africa’s No. 2 team) and a Norwegian team featuring Manchester City’s record-setting striker Erling Haaland.
France famously faltered at the start of its title defense against Senegal at the 2002 World Cup, but this was perhaps the best result in the country’s history.
“It’s always fun to play against France. France is a country we know well. It’s a second home for me,” said Pape Tiao, Senegal’s 2002 national team coach. “24 years later we will play them again. It worked well for us in 2002. This will not be an easy game. We will be well prepared.”
england
The Three Lions, who are ranked fourth in the world, had the misfortune of having Croatia assigned to Group L. After defeating England in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, the Croats lost to France in the final and finished third in the Qatar 2022 tournament.
Things could certainly have gone worse for England as the other two countries in the group were Panama and Ghana, but opening the tournament against one of the best teams in the world is not ideal. Coach Thomas Tuchel spoke candidly about the challenges of playing in the summer heat and time zones across North America, and reaffirmed his team’s tenacity after the draw.
“We have to find a way to dig in,” Tuchel told reporters. “We have to accept that and build a high tolerance for these obstacles.”
The fans
There wasn’t much football talk during the first half of the two-hour raffle, hosted by Heidi Klum and Kevin Hart. Infantino congratulated President Donald Trump on winning the first FIFA Peace Prize.
Viewers were also treated to a FIFA Trump highlight reel and a low-key musical performance by Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger live from the Kennedy Center.
As much as it was fun to see Shaquille O’Neal and Tom Brady struggle on the first pitch or Wayne Gretzky butchering the pronunciations of multiple countries, did anyone else enjoy this?
