Listen, I don't make the schedule and I do think it's a little weird that the country that is hosting the final, the United States, is in Group D. And we're playing a double header with Canada before a quadruple header on Saturday with the remaining B and D teams and all of Group C.
But the opening game in Estadio Azteca. Top atmosphere that. FIFA got that one right.
So can the USA get off to a fast start with a win over Paraguay and put some pressure on Turkey and Australia tomorrow? We're going to find out.
We're still unsure who will start in goal for the USMNT as New England Revolution keeper and 2022 World Cup starter Matt Turner looks to take the mantle back from New York City FC's Matt Freese who has been the starter for the bulk of Mauricio Pochettino's tenure.
The USA attack with Christian Pulisic, Sergino Dest, Antonee Robinson and others had two strong warm up games and are joined by talents like attacking mid Arda Guler (Turkey), winger Julio Enciso (Paraguay), and left back Jordan Bos (Australia) which should make for a lot of really solid matchups and the potential for a very close and chaotic group standings at the end.
Why a primer and not a preview? Because this is more of a handy reference guide than it is expert analysis. I did not watch or scout 32 international teams to prepare for the World Cup let alone 48 of them because I enjoy sleep and I am not apologizing.
TV SCHEDULE
Friday, June 12
Match 4: United States vs. Paraguay, 9 p.m. on Fox (Los Angeles)
Saturday, June 13
Match 8: Australia vs. Turkey, midnight Sun./9 p.m. local Sat. on FS1 (Vancouver)
Friday, June 19
Match 29: United States vs. Australia, 3 p.m. on Fox (Seattle)
Match 32: Turkey vs. Paraguay, 11 p.m. on FS1 (Santa Clara, Calif.)
Thursday, June 25
Match 59: Turkey vs. United States, 10 p.m. on Fox (Los Angeles)
Match 60: Paraguay vs. Australia, 10 p.m. on FS1 (Santa Clara, Calif.)
GROUP D TEAM PRIMERS
Author's notes: FIFA Rankings are from the November 2025 listing at the time of the tournament draw and not the most recent June list. Players international caps / goals are relatively accurate but may not include the recent warm-up friendlies as research for these articles started weeks ago. Abbreviations next to the country names should be their official Olympic code on the TV score bug and the Letter/Number is their draw position for the group schedule not their pot from the initial tournament draw. Warm up friendlies in the USA are noted, otherwise vs/at indicates true home/away matches.
AUSTRALIA [AUS/D3]
Head Coach: Tony Popovic (AUS)
FIFA Ranking: 26 Nickname: Socceroos
Qualification: AFC (Asia) Third Round Group C Runners up
Appearance: 7th Best Finish: Round of 16 (2006, 2022)
Roster Breakdown: 5 Domestic, 3 USA/MLS, 4 England/Wales, 2 Japan, 2 Netherlands, 2 Spain, 2 Italy, 2 Germany, 1 Austria, 1 Cyprus, 1 Denmark
Recent Matches: Friendly (Pasadena, CA) L vs Mexico 0-1, Friendly (San Diego, CA) vs Switzerland
Player To Know: MF Jackson Irvine, FC St Pauli (GER), 81 Int’l Caps/14 Int’l Goals) - Club captain for St Pauli who will be moving down to the 2.Bundesliga next year, Irvine has made 20 appearances for the Socceroos since the start of 2024 and has 5 goals.
Player To Watch: FW Mathew Leckie, Melbourne City (AUS), 79 Int’l Caps/14 Int’l Goals – The veteran Bundesliga man has returned to his home city and will look to pass the Tim Cahill Attacking Torch to youngsters Nestory Irankunda (Watford) and Nishan Velupillay (Melbourne Victory).
Tournament Outlook
There are two types of teams that will benefit from an expanded tournament; upstart teams with a Golden Generation and the consistent teams in and around the twenties of the world rankings. Australia is the latter, fully capable of winning two group games like they did against Tunisia and Denmark four years ago and making it into the knockouts but far from being consistently able to do it. The Aussies have also never won a knockout game though they have been tournament regulars since switching to qualifying with the Asia federation back in 2006.
PARAGUAY [PAR/D2]
Head Coach: Gustavo Alfaro (ARG)
FIFA Ranking: 39 Nickname: La Albirroja (The White and Red)
Qualification: CONEMBOL (S. America) Sixth Place
Appearance: 9th Best Finish: Quarterfinals (2010)
Roster Breakdown: 3 Domestic, 7 Brazil, 5 Argentina, 4 MLS (USA/CAN), 3 England, 1 France, 1 Italy, 1 Russia, 1 UAE
Recent Matches: Friendly vs Nicaragua
Player To Know/Watch: F/M Miguel Almiron, Atlanta United (USA/MLS), 75 Int’l Caps/9 Int’l Goals
The former Newcastle man has returned to Atlanta and MLS where he became a league legend and helped the Five Stripes win MLS Cup in 2018. While he is not the same player he was eight years ago, he is still a tremendous talent and if Paraguay is going to return to the knockout stages, they’re going to need him and Julio Enciso to have a major impact.
Tournament Outlook
I can’t figure out this team. They only lost four games in CONMEBOL qualifying largely due to only allowing 10 goals in 18 games which is tremendous. But they don’t score, netting only 14 times (same as Ecuador) in that stretch. Going deeper into their recent fixtures they did knock off Mexico and Greece in friendlies and gave the USA and Morocco pretty good games in losing efforts. Probably going to be a side more dangerous in the group stage than the knockouts given the balance of Group D.
TURKIYE [TUR/D4]
Head Coach: Vincenzo Montella (ITA)
FIFA Ranking: 25 Nickname: Ay-Yıldızlılar (The Crescent-Stars), Bizim Çocuklar (Our Boys)
Qualification: UEFA (Europe) Group E 2nd Place, Path C Playoff Winners
Appearance: 3rd Best Finish: Third Place (2002)
Roster Breakdown: 15 Domestic, 3 Germany, 3 Italy, 2 England, 1 Portugal, 1 Spain, 1 Saudi Arabia
Recent Matches: UEFA Playoffs: W vs Romania 1-0, W at Kosovo 1-0; Friendly W vs North Macedonia 4-0, Friendly (Fort Lauderdale, FL) vs Venezuela
Player To Know: MF Hakan Calhanoglu, Inter Milan (ITA), 104 Int’l Caps/22 Int’l Goals – Turkey's captain has almost 300 games and 60 goals in nearly a decade of playing on both sides of the Milan derby and gets to lead his country onto a World Cup field for the first time in over two decades.
Player To Watch: AM Arda Guler, Real Madrid (ESP), 28 Int’l Caps/6 Int’l Goals – Probably the most individually talented player in the entire group and he’s just 21 years old with over 70 La Liga appearances and over 20 UCL matches already on his resume.
Tournament Outlook
This is going to be a recurring theme in these primers...but Turkey has only been to TWO previous World Cups?!?! I don’t know why I find this absolutely stunning on top of the fact they finished THIRD in Japan/Korea in 2002. Have to assume with Guler helping to lead the attacking line they’re going to make a few more appearances in the near future. Clear darkhorse candidates especially if they can top the group over the USA.
UNITED STATES [USA/D1]
Head Coach: Mauricio Pochettino (ARG)
FIFA Ranking: 14 Nickname: The Yanks
Qualification: CONCACAF (N. America), Hosts
Appearance: 12th Best Finish: Third Place (1930)
Roster Breakdown: 8 MLS (USA/Canada), 5 England, 3 Germany, 3 France, 2 Italy, 2 Netherlands, 1 Scotland, 1 Spain, 1 Mexico
Recent Matches: Friendly W vs Senegal 3-2, Friendly vs Germany
Player To Know: GK Matt Turner, New England Revolution (USA/MLS), 54 Int’l Caps – Whether or not he beats out Matt Freese as the starting keeper, we will be there.
Players To Watch: DF Sergino Dest and Antonee Robinson, Combined 89 Int’l Caps/ 7 Int’l Goals – The key to the entire USMNT success lies in their dynamic wingback pair. The US needs these two getting forward regularly but it also leaves them open to counter attacks the other way. Now that they’re both healthy, we can finally see the potential full strength of the USA.
Tournament Outlook
After friendly losses in March to Portugal and Belgium there was a lot of doubt returning about the USMNT’s ability to make a deep run on home soil. It still should be quarterfinals or bust but in order to put themselves in the best spot to do that, they’ll need to win this group. The USA played all three of these teams in friendlies back in 2025 the only blemish a B-team loss to Turkey. Can they win the group and/or make the quarters? Yes. But there’s been enough inconsistency with this team that possible is very far from probable.
GROUP OVERVIEW
There's two ways this can go. The bad USMNT shows up and struggles to win games or the good USMNT shows up and probably has six points going into their final match against Turkey. I'm leaning towards the latter after the USA's performances against Senegal and Germany, especially if Chris Richards is starting at centerback.
Outside of the USA, I can not stress how awesome Arda Guler is and how much he can help put a very experienced Turkey side over the top in this group. I am stunned that Paraguay is the lowest ranked team in this group by decent amount because I don't think they're that far off the pace talent wise here. Whoever wins this group is absolutely a darkhorse quarterfinal team and while there are two clear favorites, all possibilities exist here in Group D.
I don't think both the USA and Turkey will be on six points heading into their final game, someone will probably drop points along the way and it's hard to not give the overall edge to the U.S. being at home. I think everyone in this group is more than capable of winning a knockout game in the expanded format, which is why it sucks that one team is guaranteed to go home and if we start getting all the draws it could very well be two if third place doesn't have a win.
I'm leaning towards Paraguay as that third team but I have questions about both them and Australia's potency going forward. But qualifying so well in the gauntlet that is CONEBOL I think gives La Albirroja the edge.
Third Place Advancement: Mid (Paraguay)
GROUP PREDICTIONS
- United States 2. Turkey 3. Paraguay 4. Australia
