2026 FIFA Men's World Cup groups revealed; Team USA learns its opponents

Superior Player of the match trophy is displayed during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Dec. 05, 2025 in Washington, DC. Hector Vivas - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images The draw will divide the 48 teams into 12 groups of four. The teams will be pulled from four separate pots, which are determined by the teams' rankings. Pot 1 includes the three host countries — the U.S., Canada and Mexico — along with Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Pot 2 is Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, the Korea Republic, Ecuador, Austria and Australia. Pot 3 is Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d'Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Pot 4 is Jordan, Cabo Verde, Ghana, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand and the six remaining playoff teams that will be determined in March. Teams in Pot 1 will be placed in the top position of the group they are drawn into. Two teams in the same confederation — the regional groups FIFA splits international teams into — cannot be placed into the same group, except for the European confederation UEFA, which has more teams than there are groups. During the group stage, the teams in a given group play each other in a round-robin format. …