World Cup 2026 draw: U.S. finds out most of its opponents, countries that might play in Philly, Trump gets a medal

The U.S. men’s soccer team will open its 2026 World Cup group stage run against Paraguay on June 12 in Inglewood, Calif.

That will mean a meeting right out of the gate with a team the Americans just beat last month, 2-1, at Subaru Park in Chester.

The game will be played on the second day of the tournament, with co-host Mexico playing the opener against South Africa on June 11 at Mexico City’s fabled Estadio Azteca.

President Donald Trump was awarded the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize ahead of the 2026 World Cup draw Friday.

“This is truly one of the great honors of my life,” Trump said during a brief speech.

FIFA said the award would be given to individuals who, through their unwavering commitment and their special actions, have helped to unite people all over the world.

Friday morning at Stateside Live! felt like a fever dream for Philadelphia sports fans as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro stood above guests on the second floor surrounded by Phang, Gritty, Swoop, and the Phanatic as they prepared for the Philadelphia Soccer 2026 World Cup draw watch party.

“We won this bid to host the FIFA World Cup next year because we've got the greatest fans on the face of the earth,” Shapiro said.

“The eyes of the world are going to be on Philly next year when we celebrate USA 250," Shapiro added. "FIFA World Cup is gonna be great. And let's pray for a USA-Mexico matchup on July 4th right here in the Philly.”

Hello from inside the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall, a legendary space in the most-famous performing arts venue in America’s capital city. Just 15 of the over 900 credentialed media have seats in the hall for the World Cup draw, and I’m lucky to be one of them.

I must admit it’s a bit of a surreal feeling for me. I grew up in D.C. (sorry to anyone who thought I was a Philly native), and attended lots of concerts and musicals in this very space. To see it converted for a World Cup draw is a strange sight — and all the stranger by the inevitable politics surrounding this day.

While walking over from the media work area, I saw a lot of familiar faces: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, U.S. Soccer Federation president Cindy Cone, sporting director Matt Crocker, former president Sunil Gulati, and MLS commissioner Don Garber.

President Donald Trump, who will attend Friday's World Cup draw, continues to speak with FIFA about moving games out of cities controlled by Democrats, a White House official said on Fox News Friday.

"President Trump is very concerned about some of these blue cities' high crime rates, and he's talking to FIFA," said Monica Crowley, White House chief of protocol, adding "no decisions have been made."

Trump made similar threats in September about removing games from cities run by Democrats. Trump has cited crime, but crime rates are down in most cities, including Philadelphia, where violence in the city has dropped to near-historic lows.

FIFA’s decision to extend its draw over two days always felt by design.

On Friday, ahead of the World Cup draw that begins at noon, an official said that doing so was nothing more than trying to make the draw “into an event.”

Historically, FIFA would announce the venue pairings before the draw, so you’d know where teams would be after they fell into group pairings. For example, the nation slotted into Group A1 would play A4 making it easy to know where those nations would be playing even during the draw.

With heads of state from all three host nations scheduled to take in today’s FIFA World Cup draw, U.S. Secret Service is taking no chances with what is being allowed inside the Kennedy Center.

But what’s making its way into the trash cans outside is pretty hilarious. From Yeti coffee canisters valued at $30 on up to vape pens and cartridges, all had to get tossed before entering. One FIFA official joked to the Inquirer that he’d planned to collect it all and start a resale store.

Upsetting at least the media on hand is that at a briefing yesterday, FIFA relayed that bringing in canisters for water and coffee would be an approved item.

Yes. Fans interested in buying tickets for World Cup matches at Lincoln Financial Field can enter ticket lotteries for individual group-stage games via FIFA’s random selection draw.

The lotteries will begin accepting entries on Dec. 11 at 11 a.m. and close at the same time on Jan. 13.

After the random selection draw phase of ticket sales has finished, any remaining inventory will be released on a first-come, first-served basis closer to the beginning of the tournament. Single-match and multimatch hospitality packages are also available through FIFA.

It was snowing as the sun rose over the nation’s capital Friday, a rare sight in December. The rest of the scene around the Kennedy Center was one this town is used to: rows of giant black SUVs for dignitaries, and fences lining many blocks of sidewalks.

I got to the security checkpoint just after 8 a.m., and there were already long lines to get in and many nearby streets were closed.

The checkpoint, by the way, was up the street near the Watergate hotel — made famous by former President Richard Nixon’s scandal in the 1970s. There have been plenty of jokes about that this week among the international media who’ve come to town.

The World Cup draw, which will determine the groups for the round-robin stage of the tournament, will take place today at noon.

The event will be hosted by the Kennedy Center in Washington and broadcast live on Fox. Coverage of the draw will begin at 11:30 a.m. and conclude at 3 p.m.

FIFA’s event is expected to last about an hour and a half, with the draw itself accounting for about 45 minutes of that time.

Qualified nations have been divided into four pots based on their FIFA World Rankings positions. Pot 1 contains the nine best-qualified teams in the rankings, as well as the three cohosts.

The host nations have already been assigned to groups — Mexico will be in Group A, Canada will be in Group B, and the U.S. will be in Group D. The remaining teams will be assigned to the other nine groups, one team per group.

After all the teams in Pot 1 have been drawn, the draw will move to Pot 2, selecting one team for each of the 12 groups. The process will repeat with Pot 3 and Pot 4, resulting in 12 groups of four teams.

42 countries have already qualified for next year's World Cup, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and will be included in today's draw.

There are six spots remaining – four for the top teams in the European Federation’s 16-team playoff, and two for the top two finishers in FIFA's intercontinental playoff tournament. Both take place in March.

Since those have not been determined yet, those six teams will be represented by placeholders in today's draw.