{"id":369986,"date":"2026-06-22T09:28:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/369986\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T09:28:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:28:58","slug":"world-cup-us-wins-group-d-will-play-at-levis-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/369986\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: US wins Group D, will play at Levi\u2019s Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA<\/p>\n

The opening two weeks of the World Cup could not have gone better for the United States.<\/p>\n

The host nation on Friday night clinched a win in Group D thanks to their 2-0 win over Australia on Friday afternoon in Seattle, paired with the result of Paraguay-Turkey nightcap at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara.<\/p>\n

The U.S. men\u2019s national team won its group as early as it could have, with Friday\u2019s victory following a 4-1 triumph over Paraguay in the group stage opener. It marks the third time the U.S. has won its group in World Cup history (1930 and 2010).<\/p>\n

Earning the top spot in Group D means the U.S. will play a game in the knockout Round of 32 at Levi\u2019s Stadium on July 1, and their third group stage match against Turkey next Thursday in Inglewood will be largely meaningless. It also gives star winger Christian Pulisic more time to recover after missing Friday\u2019s victory with a left calf injury.<\/p>\n

The U.S. came into the tournament with mixed expectations while having arguably the most talented team in modern history. Aside from a third-place finish in 1930, American fans have only seen their team advance beyond the Round of 16 in 2002.<\/p>\n

As winners of the group in the new 48-team format, the Americans will play a third-place finisher from groups B, E, F, I or J. FIFA expanded the field from 32 teams to 48 for this World Cup, with eight third-place teams from group play advancing to the knockout stage.<\/p>\n

Aside from their win over Australia, the U.S. needed Paraguay to tie or beat Turkey in the 8 p.m. game to clinch the group. Paraguay earned a 1-0 win, with the game\u2019s first and only goal just 65 seconds into the match from Matias Galarza, who plays domestically for Atlanta United FC of the MLS. It was the fastest of the World Cup so far.<\/p>\n

\"Ugurcan Ugurcan Cakir of Turkey concedes the first goal to Matias Galarza (not pictured) of Paraguay during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group D match between Turkey and Paraguay at Levi\u2019s Stadium on Friday, June 19, 2026 in Santa Clara. Richard Heathcote Getty Images <\/p>\n

Paraguay held on for the win despite being down to 10 men for the second half when midfielder Milguel Almiron was given a red card in the 48th minute for covering his mouth while in a confrontation with an opponent.<\/p>\n

It was part of a new rule that was implemented before the World Cup<\/a> designed to prevent abusive or racist remarks. The rule stemmed from an incident between Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior and Benfica\u2019s Gianluca Prestianni in February. Almiron was the first player given a red card under the new rule in the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Turkey, which came in as FIFA\u2019s No. 22 ranked team in the world, was held scoreless for consecutive games despite having 62 shots on goal combined. They had one of the biggest stars in the group in 21-year-old midfielder Arda Guler, who plays for Real Madrid.<\/p>\n

\u201cTruth be told, this was an emotional roller coaster,\u201d Paraguay manager Gustavo Alfaro said through a translator. \u201cI\u2019ve thanked (the players) as I experienced the most beautiful evening I have ever experienced as a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paraguay remains alive to advance to the knockout stages with 3 points, which ties them with Australia for second in the group. Friday marked the third straight packed crowd at Levi\u2019s Stadium. The announced attendance was 68,827, which was the exact capacity FIFA announced for the venue before the tournament began.<\/p>\n

The next match in Santa Clara is Monday when Jordan plays Algeria at 8 p.m. Both teams are looking for their first points in Group J, while Austria and Argentina each have 3.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 10:13 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


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

Chris Biderman<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Chris Biderman covers sports and local news for The Sacramento Bee since joining in August 2018 to cover the San Francisco 49ers. He previously spent time with the Associated Press and USA Today Sports Media Group, and has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Athletic and on MLB.com. The Santa Rosa native graduated with a degree in journalism from the Ohio State University.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA The opening two weeks of the World Cup could not have gone better for the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-369986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}