Credit: Howard Smith - ISIPhotos.com
At the World Cup draw on Tuesday, the United States learned the other three members of group D that they’ll play at the 2026 World Cup. The schedule of games will be announced on Saturday. With the three host nations automatically in pot 1, the rest of pot one and the remaining three pots were seeded by the November 2025 FIFA rankings. With Shaquille O’Neal selecting the balls, Australia was drawn into group D out of pot 2. With Aaron Judge selecting the balls, Paraguay was selected with the third ball but couldn’t be in group C due to confederation conflict. That moved them to group D. With Wayne Gretzky selecting the balls, confederation conflicts meant ball seven put the winner of the Turkey-Romania-Slovakia-Kosovo UEFA playoff C.
The winner of group D will play the 3rd-place team from either group B, E, F, I, or J in Santa Clara on July 2. Finishing 2nd in the group will play the runner-up from group G in Arlington, TX on July 2.
