{"id":879423,"date":"2026-06-20T00:55:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T00:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/879423\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T00:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T00:55:24","slug":"u-s-defeats-australia-clinches-spot-in-world-cup-knockout-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/879423\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. defeats Australia, clinches spot in World Cup knockout round"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SEATTLE\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The World Cup<\/a> is only a little more than a week old, but it\u2019s already a historic one for the U.S.<\/p>\n

With Friday\u2019s 2-0 win<\/a> over Australia, the U.S. matched its best World Cup performance ever with two victories. Their six goals match the most the U.S. has ever scored in the group stage and its goal differential of plus-five is also its best ever in the tournament. The U.S. also clinched a spot in the round of 32.<\/p>\n

Most impressive of all, however, is how the U.S. achieved most of that without their best player, Christian Pulisic<\/a>, who had an electric first half in the U.S. opener against Paraguay but hasn\u2019t seen the field since.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve known what this team is capable of,\u201d captain Tim Ream said. \u201cI don\u2019t think any of us are surprised. The pieces have always been there. It was just putting them all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia coach Tony Popovic agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no surprises in what they did,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not surprising because their quality is clear, their power is clear, their athleticism is clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may not have been surprising, but it was historic. The only time the U.S. won consecutive games at a World Cup was in 1930, when the tournament had just 13 teams. That was also the last time the U.S. won its group.<\/p>\n

For defender Chris Richards, the milestones are nice. But he said the team didn\u2019t come to the World Cup to rewrite the record books. If they\u2019re going to do something no U.S. team has ever done before, they might as well think big.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we take it one game at a time. But every game, every tournament we play, we want to win,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t think it\u2019s ridiculous to say that we want to win it.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot more games before we get to that moment. But we want to lift the trophy by the end of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Highlights from the United States\u2019 2-0 win over Australia at the World Cup on Friday.<\/p>\n

The strength of this U.S. team, Ream said, is its camaraderie, which is what coach Mauricio Pochettino focused on when he selected his roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe right 26,\u201d he said, \u201cnot the best … 26.\u201d<\/p>\n

The locker room chemistry has proven Pochettino got the mix right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve told these guys that this is the most fun, special, enjoyable group that I\u2019ve been a part of,\u201d said Ream, at 38 the oldest player on the roster. \u201cThere\u2019s something about this one that just feels different.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the different personalities, the way everybody meshes, the way everybody fits together, it\u2019s really enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n

And successful. In its first two games in this tournament, the U.S. has taken twice as many shots and completed twice as many passes as their opponents and possessed the ball for nearly 120 minutes of the 180 they played.<\/p>\n

So while Pulisic, who is nursing a calf injury, was missed, he wasn\u2019t needed.<\/p>\n

The Americans didn\u2019t need much help, but Australia gifted the U.S. its first goal anyway when defender Cameron Burgess deflected in a cross from Folarin Balogun<\/a> in the 11th minute, igniting a red, white and blue-clad crowd of 66,925 inside Seattle Stadium (Lumen Field) and tens of thousands more who gathered outside the stadium and at viewing parties across the city.<\/p>\n

\"U.S. <\/p>\n

U.S. fans react after a 2-0 win over Australia at Seattle Stadium (Lumen Field) on Friday in World Cup Group D play.<\/p>\n

(Ted S. Warren \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The first U.S. score in its opener with Paraguay came on an almost identical own goal, with Paraguayan midfielder Dami\u00e1n Bobadilla getting his right foot on a pass Weston McKennie had aimed at Balogun. The U.S. is the first team in World Cup history to get own goals in consecutive matches.<\/p>\n

Australia tried to neutralize the Americans\u2019 superior speed and technical abilities by getting physical, rough play that German referee Felix Zwayer largely allowed. But Australia paid dearly for that just before the intermission when Alex Freeman<\/a>, who was leveled by Australia\u2019s Paul Okon-Engstler moments earlier, climbed off the turf to head in a loose ball to give the U.S. a 2-0 lead at the break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got hit in the head pretty hard,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cWe knew they were going to be physical. For us, it was how can we be physical first?\u201d<\/p>\n

The scoring sequence started with a free kick following a foul by Burgess. Antonee Robinson left-footed the ball to an unmarked Sergi\u00f1o Dest at the top of the box, a shot that was blocked in the wall, then arced toward the goal. Freeman and Balogun raced Patrick Beach to the ball, with Freeman getting there just ahead of the Australian goalie to nod it in.<\/p>\n

Robinson and Dest were also involved in the build-up to the own goal. Australia tried to make a game of it in the second half, but it had too big a hill to climb and the U.S. never let it get close to the top.<\/p>\n

\"Alex <\/p>\n

Alex Freeman heads the ball for a goal past Australia goalkeeper Patrick Beach during the United States\u2019 2-0 win in World Cup Group D play Friday.<\/p>\n

(Maddy Grassy \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Now that the Americans are on to the next round, there\u2019s a temptation to look beyond next week\u2019s group-stage finale with Turkey and ahead at which teams might be looming in the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

Balogun said that\u2019s a temptation he\u2019s avoiding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next focus for me is just the Turkey game,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether we\u2019re through or not, to me it doesn\u2019t matter. We have to go out there and put [on] another performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if they put up another performance like the first two, the U.S. will not only make more history. It may get other teams looking ahead to the next round, fearing they might have to play the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to win and be one of the good teams, dreaming big, we only need to talk about the U.S. men\u2019s national team and not the [other] names,\u201d Pochettino said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something else that\u2019s never happened before.<\/p>\n

Deputy Sports editor Ed Guzman contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The World Cup is only a little more than a week old, but it\u2019s already a historic one…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":879424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[150463,9331,150462,4740,20698,357274,1582,276,85471,8897,42155,2961,224,5337,357321,81103,357323,1439,2030,357322],"class_list":["post-879423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alex-freeman","tag-americans","tag-antonee-robinson","tag-australia","tag-ball","tag-burgess","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-christian-pulisic","tag-folarin-balogun","tag-goal","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-lumen-field","tag-sequence","tag-six-yard-box","tag-u-s","tag-win","tag-world-cup-knockout-round"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}