Group D's General Discussion Thread

Some dummies around here: uSmNT cOuLd fiNisH LaSt.

 

🚨 | GOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!!!!!! ⚽🎥

🇺🇸 USA 4-1 PARAGUAY 🇵🇾 #USAPAR
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— HeroFPL هيرو (@HeroFPL1) June 13, 2026

 

That's literally the first time anyone has ever said that in history about a USMNT match played in the US (other than when we use the winter against teams in WCQ).

 

Guess what buddy? You're getting some of the same stuff in a week that Paraguay got tonight. Pucker up.

 

Average 0.83 goals received under Alfaro at qualifiers, with clean sheets at Uruguay, Ecuador, with Brazil.

What happened today was a Twilight Zone episode .

 

USA 4-1 Paraguay
Australia 0-1 Turkey
Australia 1-0 USA
Turkey 1-2 Pargauay
Australia 0-0 Paraguay
USA 1-3 Turkey

1. Turkey 6pts
2. Australia 4pts
3. Paraguay 4pts
4. USA 3pts

Still POSSIBLE

 

That was a super impressive 1st half display from the USA.

 

I told people not to read too much into Conmebol qualifiers which at this point are glorified friendly matches with almost nothing to play for.

Like I said I actually think they are worse than friendlies.

 

Such a dream start.

I mean , I knew they could play well in front of great home crowds and be inspired. I picked them to win all three games weeks ago.
But last night not only proves to me that the team can win the group but they can make a deep run.
Fantastic.

 

I know plenty of people are going to roast me about the United States, so I’ll explain this:

Coming into this tournament, I had a lot of concerns about the chemistry and organization of this team under Pochettino. I will admit that host nations can be wild cards and hard to predict because they’re not competitively tested regularly in qualification, and friendlies are NOT reliable.

Anyways, I first want to say that I was very impressed with the chemistry and link up play in attack last night vs Paraguay. Very good, and I think Pochettino has finally found the rythemn for this team. I’m still concerned about the defense, as they were rarely tested last night, but did lose the ball and looked fragile at rare occasions.

Here’s my expectations judging off of everything I saw:

I see a very similar path to Russia 2018. Because the USA are hosts, they’re going to have extra motivation and energy to perform. They will score more goals and blow out teams that they’re better than on paper by higher scorelines. They will also survive better against bigger teams and make things difficult, but the ceiling will eventually reveal itself later in the tournament.

As of right now, I see:

USA 2-1 Australia: USA will win, but it’ll be closer and they need to earn it this time. They won’t score til second half, but when they score, they’ll get momentum and finish the game.

Turkey 3-1 USA: Turkey is a great team and will reveal the ceiling of the USA. They’ll do well and try but Turkey will be a bit too much for them. Might be an off game for the USA too as they’re already through and might rest some players.

USA advances in second place.

Round of 32:
Likely USA 3-1 Egypt: Egypt will cause them a lot of trouble, but USA prevails in the end and finishes them off close to the end of the game.

Round of 16:
Likely Austria 3-2 USA: Now this will be the game where the USA tries hard and gets a few goals, but eventually the ceiling is revealed and Austria proves to be too much!

This is how I see everything going! USA makes Round of 16 and fights hard! Please let me know if you have any further questions.

 

Prediction for today:

Australia 0-1 Turkey

 

Australia is always a surprise, I expect Turkey to win, and predicted that in the athletic game, but Australia on their day can surprise just about anyone, so a draw or an Australia win wouldn't surprise me either, I'm just expecting Turkey to get it done.

The US core problem has been consistency, so it will be interesting to see if for the first time ever w/this generation of players they can string together 3 consecutive quality games. I'm hoping the fact that there is nearly a week off between every game, might help make that a reality.

 

I agree! I expect a similar match to Turkey vs Romania in the playoffs.

 

Gosh wow. I gotta ask, are Australia the Costa Rica of 2014 World Cup?

because honestly, Turkey did not play bad at all. Turkey played well. It was a huge tactical masterclass by Australia.

 

That's called winning ugly I think.

 

Very good, solid, performance by Australia. Disappointing result for Turkey, who had many shots and enough chances to equalize when it was merely 1:0, although Australia had some chances of their own even before their second goal. All and all, well deserved win by Australia, who did better than I had seem them show in the qualifiers.