The US will open its World Cup against Paraguay in Los Angeles. Australia is also in their group

The United States will face Paraguay, Australia and the winner of a UEFA playoff featuring Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo after a relatively favorable group stage draw for the co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup.

That was the result Friday after soccer’s biggest competition took a major step closer to reality with an its draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The opening game for the U.S. men’s national team in Group D will be against Paraguay on June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

Mexico will kick off the tournament a day earlier in Mexico City against South Africa — a repeat of the opening game when South Africa hosted the World Cup in 2010. Group A also includes South Korea and the winner of playoff games among the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark and North Macedonia.

The United States’ other group games will take place in Seattle against Australia on June 19 and against the UEFA playoff winner back at Sofi Stadium on June 25. The US have positive recent experience against Paraguay and Australia, having beaten both by the same 2-1 score in recent friendlies.

“We played recently against Paraguay and Australia, so what we know is very fresh and the fourth it will be against a very good team in Europe,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino told Fox. “I think we need to be optimistic, but as we know the teams, we will see what is going on in few months.

“We need to show respect to our opponent, but we cannot win before we play. That is going to be our message to players. We need to compete better than Paraguay; going to be difficult. We need to be strong in our beliefs, thinking big, but we need to be motivated to play with these guys [in the group stage] that will be really tough.”

As co-hosts, the US were seeded in Pot 1 and avoided other top seeds Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, as well as fellow host nations Canada and Mexico.

The top four teams in the FIFA ranking — Spain, Argentina, France and England — were drawn in such a way that, should they win their groups, they will not face each other before the semifinals.

Because of the expanded format of the tournament, the knockout stages will start at the round of 32, rather than the round of 16. Should the US win their group, they will play a 3rd place team at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara in the round of 32.

From there, the US could potentially play Belgium in the round of 16, should Belgium also win their group and their round of 32 match. After that, Spain would be most likely in the quarterfinals, assuming the defending European champions win their group and their round of 32 and round of 16 matches. Getting past Spain would represent a monumental task.

But that is getting ahead of ourselves. For now, the US must focus on Paraguay, Australia, and one of Turkey/Romania/Slovakia/Kosovo. This is definitely a manageable group for the US, but they cannot get complacent.