{"id":747975,"date":"2026-06-20T02:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747975\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T02:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:47:11","slug":"usa-beat-australia-2-0-to-book-knockout-spot-at-world-cup-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747975\/","title":{"rendered":"USA beat Australia 2\u20130 to book knockout spot at World Cup | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"World<\/a><\/p>\n

An own goal and a goal by Alex Freeman helped the home side maintain a perfect record and progress to the round of 32.<\/p>\n

Published On 19 Jun 202619 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

The \u200c\u200cUnited States showed they could win without Christian Pulisic, \u2060\u2060beating Australia 2-0 \u2060\u2060to reach the World Cup round of 32, but coach Mauricio Pochettino is hoping his talisman will return for their next \u2060\u2060match.<\/p>\n

Pulisic missed Friday\u2019s Group D clash in Seattle with a calf injury sustained in the USA\u2019s opening win over Paraguay, leaving the cohosts without \u2060\u2060their most influential attacking player.<\/p>\n

The Americans still found a way through, taking the lead in the 11th minute through a Cameron Burgess own goal before Alex Freeman headed in shortly before half-time after a VAR review overturned an \u200c\u200cinitial offside decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always difficult because we want to have all the players,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cChristian is an important player for us, but \u2026 it was impossible today for him to play. We hope that next game he will be available.\u201d<\/p>\n

The USA moved to six points and secured their place in the knockout rounds with one group-stage match still to play.<\/p>\n

\"SoccerUSA\u2019s Weston McKennie with Australia\u2019s Alessandro Circati [Blake Dahlin\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Pochettino \u2060\u2060said Pulisic remained central to his plans but \u2060\u2060added that any successful World Cup run would require contributions from the entire squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to win the competition, we need the whole team,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the players need to \u2060\u2060be important.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, Christian is one of the best players in the world. I hope that he can \u2060\u2060recover as soon as possible and can \u2060\u2060enjoy being on the pitch and helping the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weston McKennie praised the US team\u2019s depth and said the squad showed on Friday that they could do it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can play the \u200c\u200cphysical game because we have guys on the field who are ready to step up for that, and we have guys with quality who can \u200c\u200cplay possession-based football,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

USA close out Group D against Turkiye on Thursday at Los Angeles Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"SoccerUnited States fans celebrate after the match [Troy Wayrynen\/Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An own goal and a goal by Alex Freeman helped the home side maintain a perfect record and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[596,43,44,588,41,39,42,40,1055,6075,124617],"class_list":["post-747975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}