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The Group D top spot could be decided in this clash between the United States men's national team and Australia, after both sides claimed opening wins over Paraguay and Türkiye respectively.
Mauricio Pochettino's U.S. side delivered one of the tournament's most impressive performances in the opening round of group games, dismantling Paraguay—a well-established World Cup contender. Australia, on the other hand, claimed their victory in a more composed and methodical fashion.
Excitement surrounding this encounter has been steadily growing, with both teams buoyed by their strong starts. A win for either side here would almost certainly secure first place in the group standings. Even a point would be valuable, as four points should generally be sufficient to advance to the knockout stage under this tournament's format.
The biggest injury concern heading into this week has been U.S. key player Christian Pulisic, who was outstanding for the first 45 minutes against Paraguay six days ago. The AC Milan winger was limited in training throughout the week, leaving Pochettino with a difficult decision over whether to risk starting him.
Neither side had any other reported injury concerns going into the match.
Christian Pulisic Ruled Out
Pochettino ultimately chose not to take that gamble, likely with the knockout rounds already in mind. The rest of the lineup, however, remains unchanged from the side that faced Paraguay.
Ricardo Pepi has been selected to fill Pulisic's role, edging out Sebastian Berhalter and Gio Reyna for the starting spot. It was Berhalter who came on as a substitute when Pulisic went off against Paraguay, while Reyna made an impact from the bench shortly after.
Pulisic has not even been named among the substitutes this time around.
Australia made two changes to their lineup, bringing in wingers Matthew Leckie and Nishan Velupillay to replace both scorers from the Türkiye game: Nestory Irankunda and Connor Metcalfe.
USMNT Starting Lineup vs. Australia
Starting XI: Freese; Freeman, Richards, Ream, A. Robinson; Tillman, Adams, McKennie; Dest, Balogun, Pepi.
Subs: Turner (GK), Brady (GK), Trusty, M. Robinson, Arfstein, McKenzie, Scally, Reyna, Berhalter, Roldan, Aaronson, Wright, Weah, Zendejas.
Australia Starting Lineup vs. USMNT
📋 Our official Starting XI to take on the USA is locked in 💪
⦿ Two changes to the side that beat Türkiye ✅
⦿ Leckie and Velupillay come in for Irankunda and Metcalfe 🔁
🇺🇸 v 🇦🇺 - 19.6.26 - 12:00pm local
🇺🇸 v 🇦🇺 - 20.6.26 - 5:00am AEST
📱💻📺 Live on SBS & SBS On Demand… pic.twitter.com/xtPWNtcbBR
Starting XI: Beach; Italiano, Circati, Souttar, Burgess, Bos; Leckie, O'Neill, Okon-Engstler, Velupillay; Touré.
SI answers is our AI answer engine trained on human-created content.
Subs: Ryan (GK), Izzo (GK), Degenek, Geria, Trewin, Behich, Herrington, Metcalfe, Devlin, Irvine, Hrustić, Mabil, Irankunda, Volpato, Yengi.