The U.S. men’s national team is co-hosting the 2026 World Cup with the largest ever field (48 teams) in the tournament’s history. So, what will constitute success for the USA after the team learned its group stage opponents?
Former USA greats Landon Donovan, Brad Guzan, and Cobi Jones believe that the current squad can reach at least the quarterfinals. That would mean winning at least two knockout round games in the edition’s expanded bracket.
But it all starts by winning a very favorable group for the U.S. team.
Coach Mauricio Pochettino’s squad was drawn in Group D for the World Cup with Australia, Panama, and a team that will be determined in March via the UEFA playoffs (Türkiye, Romania, Slovakia, or Kosovo). If Türkiye clinches that spot, it means that all the USA’s World Cup opponents will be teams that the squad has played this past year in various friendlies.
“I wouldn’t want the players to think we’ve played them before, we’ve beat them before, we got this in the bag,” Jones said. “This onus is going to be on Pochettino to make sure they’re not going to fall into that, that they’re to walk through into the next round.”
The U.S. opens its World Cup campaign on June 12 against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. It’s a rematch of a November exhibition in which the USMNT defeated the South American squad, 2-1.
“They’re a tough out. I don’t care that they are not Brazil or Argentina. They’re going to be ready to play,” Donovan said. “I think we win the game, we should win the game, but they are hardened. They go through a hard qualifying schedule.”
“There are no easy games,” Guzan said. “It’s going to make for intense battles … [the U.S. team is] going to need to use the experience they are gaining. They can’t slip into the trap that they’ve beaten these teams.”
Donovan is particularly looking forward to the second game of the group phase, which is a June 19 clash against Australia in Seattle.
“I watched Aussie coach [Tony Popovic] after the draw … his first comment was that ‘We’re satisfied.’ I was like, really? Are you?”
The USMNT defeated Australia 2-1 in October with striker Haji Wright scoring twice, although star forward Christian Pulisic came off with a hamstring injury that sidelined him for weeks.
“They’re a solid team; hard to play against, but it’s a team that I think we should beat,” Donovan said.
The U.S. will close out the group on June 25 back in Los Angeles, even though it’s still not known who’ll be that opponent. Türkiye is the highest-ranked and most talented of the four European teams in contention for that spot. And it is a squad that the U.S. lost to back in June by a 2-1 scoreline.
“You have to be close to wrapped up by this point. You cannot go into this game having it mean whether you can actually just qualify [for the knockout phase],” Donovan said. “We cannot put ourselves in that position.”
Still, all three former World Cup veterans believe that the U.S. will come out on top in the group and get a favorable path in the knockout round.
“A quarterfinal …. We are going to use the experience of how much they’ve grown under Pochettino. I like our chances,” Guzan said.
“With this new World Cup, that’s like an extra game to get there. You can have some brutal matchups just in the next round,” Jones said. “That would be a very good showing to make the quarterfinals.”
Donovan added, “Momentum for a home country is very real. We’ve seen it in South Korea [in 2002], in Russia in [2018] … You can see this happening. Win the group, get a decent draw. … I think a quarterfinal would be a phenomenal result.”
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