WALDRON GRAIN & FUEL

04/14 05:10 CDT US familiar with Australia, Paraguay and Turkey in World Cup Group D US familiar with Australia, Paraguay and Turkey in World Cup Group D By The Associated Press The United States is familiar with Australia, Paraguay and Turkey heading into their World Cup Group D matchups. The U.S played all three opponents in friendlies last year, losing 2-1 to Turkey in June and defeating Australia and Paraguay by 2-1 scores last fall. The Group D games will be played in Vancouver, British Columbia; Seattle; Santa Clara, California, south of San Francisco; and Inglewood, California, next to Los Angeles. This group is one of only four played within one time zone, joined by Group G on the West Coast and C and I on the East Coast.

United States The Americans have their weakest goalkeeper group since the 1980s and only one central defender playing in a top European League, Chris Richards. However, they benefit from being seeded as a co-host of the tournament, The 16th-ranked U.S. opens against No. 27 Australia before facing 40th-ranked Paraguay and No. 22 Turkey. Christian Pulisic, the top U.S. player, entered April in a scoring slump and hasn't gotten an international goal since 2024. Midfielder Tyler Adams and right back Sergio Dest, veterans of the 2022 team that lost to the Netherlands in the Round of 16, faced fitness issues ahead of the tournament. No U.S. team has reached the semifinals since the first World Cup in 1930 and the Americans haven't advanced to the quarterfinals since the 2002 team sparked by 20-year-olds Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley. Coach Mauricio Pochettino replaced Gregg Berhalter after the U.S. was knocked out in the group stage of the 2024 Copa America.

Turkey The Crescent Stars reached the semifinals of the 2002 World Cup and 2008 European Championship but missed five straight World Cups before qualifying this year by beating Kosovo in a playoff. This will be just the third World Cup appearance for the Turks, who reached the tournament for the first time in 1954. Captain Hakan alhano?lu has 22 international goals and Kerem Aktrko?lu has 15, including the winner against Kosovo. Coach Vincenzo Montella, a former Roma striker, took over from Stefan Kuntz in September 2023 and led the team to the quarterfinals of the 2024 European Championship. Turkey needed to win playoff games against Romania and Kosovo to reach the World Cup. It hasn't faced Australia since 2004 and met Paraguay for the only time in 1995.

Paraguay La Albirroja earned the sixth and final automatic berth from South America with a 0-0 draw against Ecuador, returning to soccer's top event for the first time since 2010. Paraguay will be appearing in its ninth World Cup. Its best performance was reaching the 2010 quarterfinals, where it lost to Spain on David Villa's 83rd-minute goal. Miguel Almirn, 32, and Antonio Sanabria, 30, are the veterans who head the offense while 22-year-old Julio Enciso and Diego Gmez, 23, have provided an injection of youth. Gustavo Alfaro took over as coach from Daniel Garnero following an 0-3 performance at the 2024 Copa America.

Australia After four straight group stage eliminations, the Socceroos beat Tunisia and Denmark at the 2022 tournament and then were knocked out by eventual champion Argentina, which won their round of 16 game 2-1. Goalkeeper Matthew Ryan, the team captain, is headed to his fourth World Cup. Former Australia defender Tony Popovic replaced Graham Arnold as coach in September 2024 after a home loss to Bahrain and a draw against Indonesia in qualifying. Arnold, who had been in his second stint as Socceroos coach, was hired to coach Iraq in May 2025. ___ AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup