WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will face Australia in Seattle on June 19 in their second of three World Cup group-stage matches next summer as soccer’s quadrennial championship returns to North America for the first time since 1994.
That’s one of six 2026 World Cup matches that will take place at Lumen Field – or Seattle Stadium, as it will be renamed for the tournament.
Seattle will host three other group-stage matches on June 15, June 24 and June 26. Seattle also will host a pair of knockout-stage matches – a round-of-32 match on July 1 and a round-of-16 match on July 6.
Specific sites for all group-stage matches and kickoff times will be announced Saturday. The World Cup group draw took place Friday morning.
The expanded 48-nation, 104-match festival will be spread across 11 NFL stadiums in the United States, plus three venues in Mexico and two in Canada.
The U.S. will open Group D play against Paraguay on June 12 in Inglewood, Calif. The Americans then face Australia six days later in Seattle before returning to Inglewood to face the UEFA playoff winner – either Turkey, Romania, Slovakia or Kosovo – on June 25.
“Full respect,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said of the Americans’ group stage foes. “But yes, believing that we can go through, but we need to perform. We need to evolve and be better every time that we are together.”
Argentina and Lionel Messi will start their World Cup title defense against Algeria. The three-time world champions also will play Austria and Jordan in Group J.
Mexico was drawn to open on June 11 in Mexico City against South Africa in Group A, which also includes South Korea and the winner of playoff games among the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark and North Macedonia. When South Africa hosted the tournament in 2010, it drew Mexico for its opening match and tied 1-1. South Africa then became the first host country to fail to advance from the group stage.
Forty-two of the teams have been determined and 22 are competing in playoffs for six berths that will be decided March 31.
Winners and second-place nations from the 12 groups advance to the new round of 32 along with the top eight third-place teams. All games from the quarterfinals on will be in the U.S., culminating in the July 19 final at East Rutherford, N.J.
England, which won its only title in 1966, plays Croatia, Ghana and Panama in Group L, and five-time champion Brazil meets Morocco, Haiti and Scotland in Group C.
Top-ranked Spain, the 2010 champion, faces Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay in Group H, while four-time champion Germany plays Curaçao, Ivory Coast and Ecuador in Group E.
Two-time champion France plays Senegal, Norway and Bolivia, Iraq or Suriname in Group I — Senegal beat defending champion France 1-0 in the 2002 opener. Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, like Messi expected to play in a record sixth World Cup, has Group K matches against Uzbekistan, Colombia and Congo, Jamaica or New Caledonia.
Other groups include:
G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand
B: Canada, Switzerland, Qatar and Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Wales or Northern Ireland
F: Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia and Sweden, Ukraine, Albania and Poland
No team has repeated as champion since Brazil in 1958 and ’62 and only eight nations have won soccer’s biggest prize. Italy has four titles and Uruguay two.
Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan are in the tournament for the first time. Curaçao is the smallest nation by population to reach the World Cup, an autonomous territory of about 156,000 people within the Netherlands kingdom.
Seattle Sports staff made additions to this story.
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