Friday, December 5th the Final Draw took place in Washington, DC. We found out the 12 groups of 4 teams. Then just 24 hours later we found out the exact matchup locations for the group stage. So, now we officially know who plays who for the first round, what venue they play, and the day they play. There are a few exceptions because six teams are still to be determined through playoffs. Two teams will make the tournament from a FIFA playoff, and 4 teams will make the tournament from a FIFA European tournament.
See the match schedule HERE.
Notable for the United States:
June 12 – USA plays Paraguay in Los Angeles at 9pm
June 19 – USA plays Australia in Seattle at 3pm
June 25 – USA plays a team that wins the FIFA Playoff Tournament in Los Angeles at 10pm
Notable for Dallas Host City:
June 14- Netherlands play Japan at 3pm in Arlington, TX.
June 17 – England plays Croatia at 3pm
June 22 – Argentina plays Austria at 12pm
June 25 – Japan plays a team that wins the FIFA European Playoff Spot #2 at 6pm
June 27 – Jordan plays Argentina at 9pm
That’s it for the GROUP STAGE. After that, the top two teams from each group advance to the next round. And, the next 8 top teams also advance. This part is a little new. Typically just the top teams advance, but with the expansion to 48 teams this time, more teams will advance than just 24 teams, so they take the top two from all 12 groups (24) plus the next 8 to equal 32 to advance to the knockout stage round.
