USA's 2026 World Cup opponents: A deep dive on Group D rivals

Martin Macdonald

Updated: 5 Dec 2025 19:54 GMT
5 min read

The draw for the 2026 World Cup draw has taken place and the United States know who they'll face in the group stage next summer.

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The draw took place on Friday, 5 December at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, at 17:00 GMT.

It was presented by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and, eventually, Rio Ferdinand broadcaster Samantha Johnson.

The teams were picked from the pots by Shaquille O'Neal, Wayne Gretzky, Aaron Judge and Tom Brady.

The United States, coached by Mauricio Pochettino, were drawn into Group D alongside Paraguay, Australia and one of Turkiye Romania, Slovakia or Kosovo.

Those last four teams will take part in the UEFA World Cup playoff round in March to receive the last position in the group.

USA's World Cup group

FIFA WORLD CUP 2026: GROUP D

Paraguay

Australia

Turkiye/Romania/Slovakia/Kosovo

Let's take a closer look at the USMNT's opponents

Paraguay

All 10 national teams from the CONMEBOL federation entered qualification and took part in a league table system of qualification.

Paraguay weren't totally convincing in qualifying as they actually finished in the bottom half of the table, but luckily for them, the top six earned automatic qualification to the World Cup. They earned it with relative comfort, though, as they finished six points clear of seventh-placed Bolivia, who only qualified for the World Cup playoffs.

From their 18 matches home and away, they won seven, drew seven and lost four. They scored less than a goal a game (14) but conceded just 10.

Their losses came against Venezuela away, Argentina away, Colombia at home and Brazil away.

Impressively, they defeated Argentina and Brazil at home, winning 2-1 and 1-0 respectively.

Diego Gomez scored the only goal of the game against Brazil and Antonio Sanabria and Omar Alderete were on the scoresheet in the 2-1 victory versus Argentina.

Sanabria was Paraguay's top scorer in qualifying, with four.

Paraguay's best performance at the World Cup came the last time they qualified in 2010 when they reached the quarter-final stage. They have missed the last three tournaments in Brazil, Russia and Qatar.

They are coached by Gustavo Alfaro.

Australia

Australia are now regulars at the World Cup as they have qualified for the last six tournaments in a row. Prior to 2006, they had only qualified once in 1974.

The Socceroos were excellent in qualifying as they won every single match in the second round and finished just behind Japan in the third round to earn automatic qualification.

They scored 38 goals in qualifying but only Kusini Yengi scored six or more times so they are all about the collective.

In the 2022 World Cup they made it to the Round of 16 but were eliminated by eventual champions, Argentina. They have reached that stage on only two occasions, with the other coming in 2006 in Germany.

They are coached by Tony Popovic.

Turkiye

Turkiye finished second in Group E of UEFA Qualifying, three points behind table leaders, Spain. Conceding goals were a problem for them as although they scored 17, they conceded 14 in the group, while La Roja only conceded two. That proved the difference.

Romania

Romania actually finished third in their group alongside Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and San Marino but as they were part of a five-nation group, that was enough to earn a playoff spot via their finish in the UEFA Nations League.

Slovakia

Slovakia finished second in Group A of UEFA Qualifying, winning four and drawing two of their six matches. They were three points behind leaders Germany at the conclusion of qualification and made the playoffs despite having a negative goal difference.

Kosovo

Kosovo managed to reach the playoffs despite just scoring six goals in six games, winning three, drawing two and losing just one. They were behind Switzerland and ahead of Slovenia and Sweden.