Based on FIFA rankings, No. 15 United States will join No. 5 England, a 2018 semi-finalist, as favorites to advance to the round of 16 of the 32-nation competition from November 21-December. 18. The teams drew 1-1 in the group stage in South Africa in 2010.
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This meeting will take place the day after Thanksgiving at a location and time to be determined.
“The USA is fascinating,” says England manager Gareth Southgate said the BBC. “I know [U.S. Coach] Gregg Berhalter quite well. We’ve met a few times and talked things through for a long time, actually just a few weeks ago. We smiled at the end of the draw.
Southgate said the US team “have some very good players and we know what they could be capable of as a nation”.
Many US players have close ties to English football: starters Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Zack Steffen (Manchester City) and Britain’s Antonee Robinson (Fulham) play for English clubs, as do several others in the US player pool.
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Forward Gio Reyna, who plays in Germany, was born in England when his father, former US captain Claudio Reyna, was employed by Sunderland. Midfielder Yunus Musah lived in London between the ages of 9 and 16 and represented England’s youth national teams before joining the US program last year.
Iran, ranked 21st, have never progressed past the group stage. In the group match of the Asian qualifiers, the Iranians took first place with an 8-1-1 record.
The United States and Iran met in the group stage of the 1998 World Cup in France, with Iran winning 2-1.
The unknown factor is the third US opponent. Wales, No. 18, have not qualified for the World Cup since 1958. Ukraine (No. 27) were quarter-finalists in 2006 and Scotland (No. 39) are seeking their first place since 1998.
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The United States secured their 11th all-time spot on Wednesday and finished third in the Concacaf region despite a 2-0 loss in Costa Rica. Canada and Mexico also made progress, while Costa Rica will enter the playoffs against New Zealand this summer.
The tournament will open in late November with Qatar’s World Cup debut against Ecuador.
Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands.
Group B: England, Iran, USA, playoff winners***.
Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland.
Group D: France, play-off winners*, Denmark, Tunisia.
Group E: Spain, playoff winners**, Germany, Japan.
Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia.
Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon.
Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea.
*Australia, United Arab Emirates or Peru
**Costa Rica or New Zealand
***Wales, Scotland or Ukraine
This is an evolving story and will be updated.