W/Cup: US Qualify For Knockout Round After 2-0 Win Over Australia

The United States became the second nation to reach the knockout stage of the 2026 World Cup with a commanding 2-0 victory over Australia in Seattle.

As in its 4-1 win over Paraguay, the U.S. made a lightning-quick start and took the lead when Cameron Burgess turned Folarin Balogun’s pass into his own net.

Alex Freeman then made sure of the three points when he nodded in Sergino Dest’s deflected strike.

The win means the U.S. follows fellow co-host Mexico into the Round of 32.

Mauricio Pochettino hopes to have Christian Pulisic available for The US Men’s National Team (USMNT’s) next game, but was encouraged by the performance without him.

“It’s difficult because we want to have all the players. He’s an important player for us, Christian, but that is a team and it was impossible today for him to play.

“We hope that for the next game he will be available but if we want to win the competition, we need the whole team and all the players to be important.

“But of course Christian is one of the best players in the world, and I hope that he can recover as soon as possible and can enjoy being on the pitch and helping the team.”, Pochettino said.

A perfect start at the World Cup for the United States is setting up for a special tournament.

For those who have watched every U.S. game of the Mauricio Pochettino era — frankly, every USMNT performance since Qatar — it cannot be overstated how surprising these back-to-back dominant performances have been. The evidence to reasonably expect it was not there.

Pochettino was always going to be judged based on his World Cup performance. And he’s got the team playing their best soccer in his era and, perhaps, a long time.