If the United States men’s national team achieves something extraordinary in the group stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the principal element in their advancement might not be the work in June of such soccer stars as Christian Pulisic, Chris Richards and Tyler Adams.
The most important contribution might have come Friday, a few weeks short of winter, from a gentleman who is known more for free throws – go with me here – than free kicks.
Yeah, it was Shaq.
Shaquille O’Neal was assigned at the official draw for the World Cup to select the teams out of Pot 2, which included such established powers as Colombia and Croatia and the burgeoning force that stunned the 2022 tournament, Morocco. When it was time to open the ping-pong ball that would drop one of those teams or nine others into the United States’ group, he pulled out the tag with “Australia” printed across.
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Group D was completed a while later when Paraguay and the playoff winner among Turkiye, Romania, Slovenia and Kosovo were added to the Americans and Aussies. Friday’s activity could not have turned out much better for the USMNT.
“Not just a good group, but a great group,” was how Fox Sports analyst Alexi Lalas put it.
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The other three teams joining the U.S. Are ranked 26th in the world (Australia), 39th (Paraguay) and somewhere between 25th (Turkiye) and 80th (Kosovo).
Among the Pot 3 teams that could have been selected instead of Paraguay were Norway and superstar striker Erling Haaland and Egypt and legendary winger Mohamed Salah. Instead of the playoff-bound teams the Americans drew, they could have gotten possibly No. 12 Italy or No. 21 Denmark.
“I think we need to respect all the opponents, and all are going to be difficult,” USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino told the Fox audience.
“Full respect, but yes, believing that we can go through. But we need to perform. We need to perform and be better every time we are together.”
Australia is physically tough and can push that toward brutal, and they are ranked 26th in the world by FIFA. But they’ve never been beyond the round of 16 in a World Cup and only progressed out of group play twice in six prior appearances. The Australia that once produced such Premier League talents as Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka has only a single player, midfielder Jackson Irvine of St. Pauli in Germany’s Bundesliga, earning regular starts in a top-5 European league.
They do not feature any individual talent on the level of Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, Colombia’s Luis Diaz or South Korea’s Son Heung-min.
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The U.S. And Australia played an exhibition during the October FIFA window that took both teams to suburban Denver, with the U.S. Persevering through the Aussies’ rugged play and winning by a 2-1 margin. Forward Haji Wright scored both of the American goals.
The U.S. Also played Paraguay this autumn, winning by that same score on goals from Gio Reyna and Folarin Balogun. It took forever to break down Paraguay’s rigid defense – their 10 goals allowed over 18 games in CONMEBOL qualifying ranked tied for second among the 10 participants – but ultimately the Americans conjured the necessary moment of magic.
The USMNT should be able to command the ball against their two known opponents, something to which they are accustomed in most games against CONCACAF opposition, which will mean not having to make dramatic adjustments to their style of play.
And the draw provided some promising glimpses beyond the group stage. If the U.S. Can win Group D, they’ll advance to a Round of 32 matchup with a third-place team, any of which might present a challenge but none of which appears genuinely frightening.
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In the round of 16, where the USMNT could have faced, in a different draw, such titans as Spain, France, England, Brazil or defending champ Argentina, the group winner whom they might encounter is Belgium. Yeah, Belgium put on quite the show against the Americans at the same stage of the 2014 World Cup, firing 18 shots on goalkeeper Tim Howard, but the majority of that team either is retired from international soccer or retired, period.
This Belgium finished second in its group at Euro 2024 and fell in the round of 16, tied North Macedonia twice and Kazakhstan once in World Cup qualifying and was eliminated from the UEFA Nations League by Ukraine.
Yeah, that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
What other choice is there, with no actual World Cup game until June 12 in Los Angeles? It will be the USMNT vs. Paraguay on that occasion. Remember, when the 2010 World Cup draw was held, the U.S. Was placed in a group many in England viewed with arrogance. One of the London tabloids, the Sun, arranged those country names on the back page emphasizing the first letters of each and spelling out the word “EASY” – England, Algeria, Slovenia, Yanks.
In their opener, the USMNT drew the English on a fluky, deflected goal by Clint Dempsey. They won that group on the most memorable goal in American men's soccer history, Landon Donovan’s glorious finish against Algeria. Weird stuff can happen. Aside from attempting to buy tickets or make hotel reservations or figure out which soccer bar is the best venue to watch the opener, though, American fans can afford to relax until then.
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