Post-match: 2026 FIFA World Cup Draw; December 5th - 12pm

Perfectly uninteresting group we look like we already have numbers on. Won’t take them lightly but should walk that group regardless of playoff team. Will be rooting against Turkey I think

 

Definitely feels like Argentina, and Belgium got the groups of life.

Toughest Groups for me are Group E (Germany, Ivory Coast and Ecuador are good to very good) and Group F (France, Senegal, and Norway are very good, fourth team is likely to be a punching bag (poor Iraq if they get through, quite a tough reward).

 

It’s not a difficult group but it’s far from a gimme either. We have a good chance to finish 1st but I could also see us crashing out. No great teams but also no easy games.

 

In the original thread people have talked about the R32 and R16 matches, and they’re saying it’s likely easier if we come in 2nd. (Of course it’s speculation because upsets are gonna happen.). But my point is, maybe Türkiye isn’t so bad, because maybe it’ll be a good thing to come in 2nd.

 

USA v Paraguay - June 12 in Los Angeles
USA v Australia - June 19 in Seattle
USA v Turkey/Romania/Slovakia/Kosovo - June 25 in Los Angeles

I had a mild concern about drawing Scotland for that opening match and then suddenly seeing the team walk into a stadium with 30,000 Scottish fans who snatched up the wildly overpriced tickets for their first World Cup match in nearly 30 years. Thankfully, Paraguay shouldn't be like that.

 

Turkey's legit good, Kosovo beat Sweden home and away, tied Switzerland home and got smashed away, and grabbed 4 points in the h2h with Slovenia, Slovakia's got the one bizarre result (beating Germany), but otherwise lost on the road 6-0 to Germany and 2-0 to Northern Ireland, so they don't scare me at all.

Romania is hot garbage and got there via NL, which is ridiculous (considering UEFA sides clearly dgaf about NL for the most part).

So Romania is probably worst of the four, then it's probably Slovakia, then Kosovo, then Turkey. Turkey or Kosovo should win this. Hopefully Slovakia or Romania do.

 

USMNT will be better off getting 2nd in their group. 2nd place will play vs the 2nd place of group G which more than likely be Egypt, Iran or New Zealand.

 

Assuming Turkey gets the last spot this looks like a fairly balanced group. All four teams and groups of supporters will like their chances.

 

Doable group but not an easy group. This makes it a bit of a trap group so the guys will have to be dialed in.

 

A little wild that we could end up with a group made up entirely of teams we've played in the past 6 months.

 

I'll reiterate:
The Draw itself was fine, we got somewhat punished by Pot 3 and Pot 4, but having avoided the nightmare top 10 and top 15 sides from Pot 2 and 3, I don't really care. Our Draw from Pot 3 ended up being a top 25-30 side in Paraguay which I'm fine with, even if they're one of the best teams in Pot 3. Pot 4 is rough as Turkey is a top 20 team in the world, but again, we drew one of the four or weakest sides from Pot 2 (ELO has them 11th of 12th).

So technically, in terms of power rankings we got:
Pot 2: 11th/12
Pot 3: 2nd/12
Pot 4: 2nd/12

What's bothering me is the knockout matchup in the R32's is tougher for the group winner (75% chance of tougher) than it is if we're runner up.

Otoh, and this is big:
Runner Up R16 match up is murderous (odds would say we'd get Argentina or Uruguay), whereas if we win our group, we'll probably get Belgium.

So I think Group Winner it is, and hope we're mentally tough enough to deal with a potentially tough as hell 3rd place finisher from one of the two groups of death, or one of the solid groups.

 

Our starting XIs in out victories over Australia and Paraguay in the last two months:

Australia: Freese; Richards, M. Robinson, McKenzie; Freeman, Roldan, Sands, Weah; Pulisic (injured early and replaced by Luna), McKennie; Wright

Paraguay: Freese; Scally, M. Robinson, Ream; Dest, Roldan, Tessmann, Arfsten; Aaronson, Reyna; Balogun

 

I wanted a tougher group.

 

That’s a cakewalk group

 

If we take care of business and win the Group, we have a pretty decent shot at making the QF, with Belgium (the weakest possible Pot 1 team we could have drawn) being our likely R16 opponent.

 

Yes but if you win that your next opponent is likely Argentina. I'll take a 3rd place team + a past the golden generation Belgium for a chance at getting over that round of 16 hump

 

If we win the group the path to the semifinal is probably 3rd place team-Belgium-Spain

If we finished second it’s likely Iran or Egypt-Argentina-Portugal or Colombia.

Third means a round of 32 game against likely Switzerland, Italy, or France, round of 16 against Portugal, Colombia, or Germany, and quarterfinal against Netherlands or Argentina.

That is of course if everything goes completely chalk which it never does.

 

Yes but a more difficult round of 16 against Argentina instead of Belgium.

 

Yeah ok.

Turkey is on par with us.
Paraguay is a very tough defensive team.
Australia is certainly below us.

Yes we are at home but to call this a cakewalk group is just silly.

 

Won't be a problem under Poch.

 

Would've been nice to draw a team we could run up a score on for the soccer naive, but these should be all favored yet entertainingly competitive matches with a chance to top the group. Can't complain.

 

Which match will be in Seattle?

 

Australia