The USA beat Australia and made it to the 2026 World Cup playoffs

In the morning on European time, the national team of Mexico, as one of the host countries of the World Cup-2026, managed to make it to the playoffs, and at the same time took the early first line in its group A, so it could be considered a kind of challenge for other sides that host this tournament. And, of course, the United States of America could not afford such a story that the southern neighbor managed to solve the issue in a timely manner in the group stage, and Mauricio Pochettino's team got stuck somewhere halfway to the goal. So it was not for nothing that the Americans decided to hold their second match in Quartet D in Seattle, where before that the national team won all their matches of any kind. The opponent was also quite principled - the Australian national team, which represents a country with which the USA has quite close historical and modern relations in all possible fields. Therefore, it was not surprising when in some episodes of this game we saw overly tense conversations between football players. However, since Tony Popovych's team did not have everything going well in this game, it is not surprising that in the end the Socceroos got a little heated. There were plenty of reasons for this. At the very least, the fact that already according to the results of the first half they were significantly behind the score on the scoreboard. The Stars and Stripes actually continued the trend of the match against Paraguay, but with the only exception that the Australians still had a much more powerful preparation for the power opposition against Mauricio Pochettino's team. But in individual qualities, the advantage was still in favor of the hosts, and at least in the 11th minute after the episode with Burgess's unsuccessfully placed foot under Balogun's cross from the left wing of the penalty area, this could be clearly observed. In the end, the USA's pressure saw them double their lead late in the second half, creating plenty of scoring chances before that. In the 44th minute, Robinson wittily played a free kick on the right flank into the area in front of the possession of Adams, who was blocked, but the rebound on the edge of the goal was headed into the net by Freeman and avoided offside. After the break, the Americans seemed to not let go of the initiative for a long time, but at the same time they attacked much less, so we can assume that they focused on maintaining their own advantage. And they played a bit on the local audience, which very passionately welcomed every clash with the Australians, so it turned out to be a kind of parody of the World Cup derby. At the same time, both teams had very few chances in the second half, so nothing prevented the home team from winning. As well as getting to the playoffs, but it is still not a fact that from the first step. In the next round, the US national team will face Turkey, while Australia will play against Paraguay. USA - Australia 2:0 Goals: Burgess, 11 (auto), Freeman, 44 USA: Freeze — Freeman, Richards, Ream, Robinson (Trusty, 80) — Tillman, Adams — Dest (Scully, 80), McKenney (Reina, 90+6), Pepi (Berholter, 74) — Balogun (Wright, 90+6). Australia: Beach - Italiano, Chirkati, Suttar, Burgess (Geria, 46), Boss - Leckie (Volpato, 61), O'Neill, Okon-Engstler (Irwin, 78), Velupillai (Metcalf, 46) - Toure (Irankunda, 46). Warnings: Robinson, Balogun, Richards - Bos, Chirkati, Suttar, Italiano