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

Thinking about a potential good friendly opponent who likes to play against the ball... maybe Tunisia?

 

Paraguay will be more sound defensively than Iran was. Tougher to break down.

It may prove vital for the U.S. to capitalize on set pieces in this group.

 

As an underdog, it would be good to play them.

 

He was a hockey prodigy, he's probably got about an 8th grade education.

That said...they knew exactly which countries he'd be drawing (just not the order), you'd think they would've had him rehearse and if he couldn't do it switch the order of presenters. To be fair he did kinda get screwed in that half of his pulls were 3-4 teams AND pot 4 got almost all the lesser known or harder to pronounce countries.

 

I haven't been to Toronto since I was a kid but I'd assume it's similar to Cleveland or Chicago...ie could always have an untimely heat wave but mostly pleasant.

 

I think he means reschedule the friendly because there's a good chance we'll see them in R32 or R16 with how the draw fell.

 

Aussies will travel well but won't take over a stadium like a Colombia might.

My concern with our games being in LA and Seattle is the tickets will get snapped up by Hollywood/tech types who might nominally be rooting for the US but won't provide any sort of atmosphere

 

That's why we should schedule them.

 

Its probably difficult to reschedule these things. There's a lot of X's and O's and contractual things that go on behind the scenes.

Plus, let's not worry about avoiding a power team that we MIGHT face in the Round of 16.

I don't think we need to schedule some opponent with our last open friendly slot to prepare for Paraguay, Australia, and Turkey (assuming its them). This group has literally played Paraguay, Australia, and Turkey. What we need to do is what the USMNT is exactly doing. What we haven't done in 2025 is play POWERS. Really challenge the group against the best. The types of opponents we might face in the round of 16 or beyond. We saw what the Swiss did to us in 2024 (albeit without Pulisic and some key guys).

I continue to contend that the Swiss, Canada's draw from Pot 2, are going to do some damage. I'm glad we didn't draw them. We obviously drew the lowest ranked team in Pot 2. Australia won't be easy; they're just not Norway or Japan or Switzerland.

 

Totally agree.

 

Actually that's kinda funny. The only 2 countries that call it soccer. Ok, ill support your post.

 

A lot of Australians online making a big deal about personalities in the United States being content with the draw and expressing expectations to win the group.

Ironically, shows how little regard they have for the US themselves, but they are not wrong to point out that there is a lot of parity in the group. All the talk from either side matters very little, however, since all that matters is what Poch and the players think of their opponents and how they prepare for them. Given the tough-fought friendly we just played against them, I have a suspicion that the USMNT will not be taking them lightly.

 

I feel like there shouldn't be too much drama with the TV and stadium scheduling announcements today for the US, especially since we already know our stadiums:

Friday, June 12 against Paraguay likely gets a late afternoon, early evening (EDT) kickoff. Since this one is only preceded by Canada's match and is likely going to be treated as a glamorous affair, it needs to be later in the afternoon for US viewers but somewhat early for European audiences.
Friday, June 19 against Australia likely gets the latest evening (EDT) kickoff.
Thursday, June 25 against UEFA C likely gets the evening (EDT) kickoff too.

 

If there is one country I’d like to see us inflict an *ss whooping on, it’s the Australians. I like their spirit, and internationally, we are culturally very similar, but they also tend to be overly cocky (again, like us).

I hope our guys bring the hellfire on them.

 

The good news is that Paraguay has already scored their one goal on us for this 12 month period. So it's just a matter of putting one in.

 

A competitive game against Australia will be interesting, I have a harder time trying to predict how that will go.

 

South Africa has to play in Mexico, then Atlanta, then back to Mexico.
Rough.

 

Andres Cantor is the MAN.

Hosting this show very well while translating for multiple languages.

 

Haiti and Scotland in Foxboro will be an AMAZING atmosphere, holy crap.

 

British colonies that are predominantly white call it soccer. Those that are not call it football.

I noticed this rule of thumb years ago, and it’s an easy reminder.

 

A group with the US, Australia, Scotland, and one of Ireland/Northern Ireland/Wales/New Zealand would have been incredible

 

Yeah let's not forget they gave Argentina a scare late, though to be fair everyone besides Croatia did that as far as the knockout games went, they just couldn't lock it down for whatever reason.

 

US kickoff times:

USA v Paraguay - 9 PM EDT
USA v Australia - 3 PM EDT
USA v UEFA C - 10 PM EDT

 

Mostly true but this is correlation, the causation is that all of those countries have another football sport (American/Canadian, rugby, Aussie rules, Gaelic) which is equally or more popular.

I'm sure you could do some sociological analysis on why other forms of football became more popular in predominantly white former British colonies (Ireland wasn't technically a colony, but you get my point) as opposed to someplace like Jamaica but it's not directly a race thing--South Africa is the outlier although in a lot of these places both terms are common.

And then there's India/Pakistan, which took to an upper class British sport...but in their case cricket, rugby or other football codes never took on, and while association football isn't the primary sport there they do call it football.

 

The curse of Andrés Escobar will end. The USMNT will face a CONMEBOL opponent in the World Cup for the first time in 32 years.