By OkayGoal 
World Cup co-hosts United States will look to build on their sensational start to the tournament as they face Australia in Seattle.
The USA boosted belief of going deep into the knockout rounds on home soil as they beat Paraguay 4-1 in their tournament opener.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men have likely done enough already to secure their spot in the knockouts, but they will have designs on winning the group.
Australia, having stunned Turkey 2-0, will look to provide a difficult obstacle for the USA, the Socceroos having done an excellent job of soaking up the pressure and counter-attacking to claim victory in their opener.
It should make for a fascinating encounter in the Pacific Northwest, and 101GreatGoals has the full team news.
United States team news
The USA make one change from the win over Paraguay and it is a significant one.
Ricardo Pepi comes in as Christian Pulisic is ruled out with a calf injury.
United States: Freese; Freeman, Richards, Ream, Robinson; Adams, Tillman; Dest, McKennie, Pepi; Balogun.
United States substitutes:
Australia team news
Australia: Beach; Italiano, Circati, Souttar, Burgess, Bos; Velupillay, O’Neill, Okon-Engstler, Leckie; Toure.
Australia substitutes:
Where to watch United States v Australia: TV channel, live online streams
Kick-off on Friday is at 20:00 BST (15:00 ET / 12:00 PT). In the UK, live coverage is on BBC One.
Streaming on a vast range of devices is available through the BBC iPlayer app and BBC Sport website.
World Cup 2026: United States v Australia stats
- This is the first World Cup meeting between the teams, who have shared four friendlies
- The USA have won their last two encounters, prevailing 3-1 in June 2010 and 2-1 in October 2025, when Haji Wright scored twice from Cristian Roldan assists
- They have won each of their last seven matches played in Seattle, including each of their five matches at the Seattle Stadium
- The win over Paraguay was the USA’s joint-largest margin of victory at the World Cup and the first time they’ve scored at least four goals in a match at the finals
- The USMNT last won consecutive games at the tournament in their first two matches in the inaugural 1930 edition, one of which was a three-goal victory over Paraguay.
- Australia’s only previous match against a World Cup host was in 1974, losing 3-0 to West Germany in Hamburg
- They have won three of their last four World Cup matches (L1), which is more than they won across their first 17 matches in the competition (W2 D4 L11)
- Those victories have come despite facing 31 more shots than they had themselves across all three wins (26 shots, 57 faced)
- The 30 shots Australia faced in their win over Turkiye on MD1 was the second-most they have absorbed in a World Cup match, after a total of 31 against West Germany in 1974)
- Nestory Irankunda became Australia’s youngest ever World Cup scorer (20 years, 125 days) in their win over Turkiye on MD1 and could become the first player under the age of 21 to score in his first two World Cup appearances since Memphis Depay for the Netherlands in 2014
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