2026 World Cup: USA soccer up next in Seattle. What to know

Now that the curtain was officially raised on the FIFA Men's World Cup in Seattle, all the attention can turn to the home team.

The Yanks are coming. And they're about to play one of the more significant matches in their World Cup history.

Friday afternoon will see the United States face off with Australia in a Group D matchup at Seattle Stadium, the temporary name for Lumen Field, with the chance for the Americans to wrap up a spot in the knockout stage of the tournament with a victory.

It was always going to be the group-stage match in Seattle that received the most local and national attention. Internationally, the match between Iran and Egypt has understandably garnered most of the headlines, but at home, the Stars and Stripes being here is the headliner.

And then the U.S. went out and dominated Paraguay in a lopsided 4-1 victory in the opening match last Friday, the most resounding win by an American team in World Cup history.

But Australia did its part in building the hype for the match. The Socceroos pulled off one of the more surprising results of the first week of the tournament with a 2-0 win over Turkey last Saturday. Turkey was expected to be the team to compete with the U.S. for the top of the group, not the Aussies.

As it stands, a winner on Friday almost assuredly will finish at the top of the group and have a path to the round of 16 that comes back through Seattle in a few weeks.

"We can't get too ahead of ourselves. It's time to flip the page. Australia is an incredibly tough opponent," U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams told reporters in Southern California on Monday.

Here are a few things to watch for as we get closer to Friday:

What's the status of Pulisic?

U.S. star Christian Pulisic was one of the best players on the field in the first half against Paraguay and was responsible for creating two of the three American goals in the first 45 minutes. If anyone was the engine to the offensive press the U.S. put forth, it was Pulisic.

But he didn't return for the second half nursing a calf injury picked up in training. Pulisic went through "modified training" on his own away from the rest of the U.S. team on Tuesday in Southern California.

It's still more than a month before the final. This is a long tournament and if the U.S. is going to make a deep run it'll need Pulisic as healthy as possible. While the injury was downplayed in the aftermath of the Paraguay win, Pulisic's status will be one of the big unknowns going into Friday.

The yellow card watch

Adams was one of the top players for the U.S. in the opener against Paraguay. He also picked up the only yellow card for the Americans.

That's notable because if Adams picks up a yellow card on Friday, he would be suspended for the final group-stage match against Turkey on June 25. And in a strange way, it could end up leading to a better chance of seeing Cristian Roldan on the field.

Adams is the primary defensive midfielder in the formation the U.S. uses. And while Sebastian Berhalter can fill that role, it is the natural position Roldan plays for the Sounders.

Adams is almost certain to be the starter. But theoretically, if the U.S. wants or needs to protect Adams from potentially picking up a suspension, it could end up leading to Roldan getting the call.

Accumulation of yellow cards in the World Cup used to be more punishing, but with the tournament expanding to 48 teams and an additional knockout round added it's not as bad. Yellow card accumulation toward a suspension resets to zero after the group stage and again after the quarterfinals.

Young ‘Roos

Making Australia's opening win over Turkey more impressive was the amount of inexperienced youth in the Australian lineup that performed unexpectedly well.

Australia coach Tony Popovic made a couple of bold choices with his lineup and went with 10 players in the starting 11 who had never played in a World Cup before. The move paid off as the Australian goals came from 20-year-old Nestory Irankunda and Connor Metcalfe, who scored for just the second time for the national team.

At the same time, it wasn't necessarily a match the Socceroos deserved to win. Turkey dominated in possession, passes, total shots and expected goals. But all that matters is what showed up on the scoreboard.

Aussie invasion

Reports out of Vancouver indicated that while in the stadium the crowd was tilted toward Turkish fans, there was a healthy amount of Australian fans in and around the streets of the downtown Vancouver leading into the match. There are more than 10,000 Australians living in British Columbia, according to the 2021 Canadian census.

While not on the level of what we've seen from some fan bases so far in the tournament - i.e., Scotland - Australian fans are nevertheless a fun group to be around at the World Cup. Assuming many of them who were in Vancouver make the trip down from British Columbia, it could create a festive pregame that might not be matched by any of the other games taking place in Seattle.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 4:50 PM.