USA 2-0 Australia
The United States becomes the second team to qualify for the Round of 32 after their win against Australia, and Türkiye’s loss to Paraguay ensures they will finish first in Group D.
The U.S. played confidently but seemed slower than they were in their last match. This could be because they were missing Christian Pulisic who was not fully fit to play. This is also the second time that Gio Reyna, another main creative force, was subbed in at the very end of the match. I think in this case, it was not the best call as this did not give him enough time to contribute much, and the match had already been decided.
The offense took a while to find their groove, and got on the scoreboard thanks to an own goal by Australian defender Cameron Burgess, who could not get his feet out from under the ball and kicked the incoming cross into his own net.
The Americans got their second goal from a deflected shot and Alex Freeman was able to beat his defender and the keeper to the ball and head it in.
These wins were both good confidence boosters for the U.S. which is good, however they have yet to face a top team so they cannot afford to let this streak go to their heads.
Based on tonight’s results, the U.S. has clinched the top spot in Group D.
Morocco 1-0 Scotland
Morocco snuck away with a 1-0 victory after a seemingly one-sided officiating job by Uzbek referee Ilgiz Tantashev. This was his first time officiating a World Cup match and most notably was the referee for the 2024 Olympic semi-final match between Spain and Morocco.
Morocco started the game with a 1-0 lead just 70 seconds after the start of the game. It came from a great pass by Brahim Díaz over the back line to Ismael Saibari who brought it down on the right side of the box, looked up to see he had no other option, and blasted it past the goalkeeper and into the upper left hand of the goal. After this, the match would change.
It seemed Scotland could only get calls to go their way when the foul was insignificant, as in a free kick in their own half or on the far sidelines of the pitch.
The referee seemed to miss two obvious penalties including one in the last ten minutes of the game, caused by Neil El Aynaoui who seemed to be getting away with murder the entire match.
This win puts Morocco in second place in Group C for now. They will be hoping for a big win, and for Brazil to not do the same, in order to reclaim the top spot.
Brazil 3-0 Haiti
Brazil moves to the top of Group C and sends Haiti packing in their 3-0 win.
Brazil needed a multi-goal win both in this match as well as will their next match if they want to keep their hopes of topping the group alive.
Striker Matheus Cunha got Brazil’s first two goals, one by accident and one off of a nice finish. The accidental goal came first when the Haitian defender, in an attempt to clear the incoming pass, hit the ball off of Cunha’s leg and into the goal. In the second goal, Cunha received the ball right outside the box, touched it to the left and into the box, then blasted the ball with his left foot into the upper left side of the goal.
The third goal came right before the half on a breakaway where Vinícius Júnior, ahead of everyone else, went into the left side of the box and calmly passed the ball around the keeper and into the right side of the goal.
Brazil’s only drawback was that for the second half, they could not find a goal and Haiti started to control the game towards the end. Brazil is still lacking the urgency and dominance that they are known for, and now need another convincing win and, will hope that Morocco does not do the same, in order to keep their first place spot.
Paraguay 1-0 Türkiye
In another shock in the tournament, 10-man Paraguay eliminates Türkiye from the World Cup.
It only took Paraguay 65 seconds to get the first goal of the game, and the fastest goal of the tournament so far. It came from a great outside of the box strike by midfielder Matías Galarza, who rifled one off the bottom right post and in.
The game was very back-and-forth for the remainder of the half, with most of the more threatening chances coming from the Turks. In the dying minutes of the first half, the game took a turn when — due to a new rule that FIFA put into play at the start of the tournament to combat “discriminatory behavior” — Miguel Almirón got sent off for covering his mouth when talking to a Turkish player after a foul in the 45+3rd minute.
The second half would almost entirely be played in the Paraguayan half, with the Turks missing chance after chance to keep their World Cup dream alive.
Türkiye, who were favorites to finish in at least second in the group, were outplayed by both teams and now, their matchup against the USA will be for pride, meanwhile the U.S. will be looking to pad their already impressive stats.
Cover Photo: Flages of the eight teams. NOTE: Image generated using the prompt “generate an image that fits the following World Cup article title: “USA clinches Group D, Haiti and Türkiye are eliminated. Remove the title from the image but keep everything else the same,”” by OpenAI, ChatGPT, 2026 (https://chatgpt.com/).
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