The United States and Australia first battled each other in an international friendly in 1992, in a game the latter won by the odd goal. Some 34 years later, there’s so much more on the line when the do come together at the 2026 World Cup.Mauricio Pochettino’s Stars and Stripes got its tournament off to a phenomenal start, comprehensively dispatching Paraguay 4–1 in front of a mesmerized SoFi Stadium. Striker Folarin Balogun was the two-goal hero—the second was an absolute peach—but there was so many standout performances from a game that will live long in the memory.But laurels can’t be rested on against Australia. Deemed to be the underdog against Türkiye, Tony Popovic led his team to a deserved 2–0 win, setting up a potentially decisive showdown with the USMNT at Lumen Field in Seattle. Whoever wins could end up topping Group D with a game to spare.Play-by-Play / Live BlogLive Match TrackerMatch MomentumMatch StatsLineupsMatch SummaryREAD THE LATEST WORLD CUP NEWS, ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT FROM SI FCAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow