Americans get easier draw, grouped with Paraguay, Australia

Friday's World Cup draw couldn't have gone much better for U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino.

- KEVIN BAXTER

AARON JUDGE draws a ball at the Kennedy Center for the 48-team tournament co-hosted by the U.S., which has reached the quarterfinals once in this century.

In a star-studded two-hour ceremony held at the Kennedy Center, Americans were grouped with Paraguay and Australia, teams they beat in the last two months, along with the winner of a European playoff in March featuring Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo.

"We've already done the homework because it's fresh," Pochettino said. "We know them but they know us. The most important thing is evolution and improving in all the areas for us to be sure that, in our debut, we will be stronger than today.

"I've been looking forward to the World Cup. We start today."

Next summer's tournament, which will kick off June 11 in Mexico City with Mexico facing South Africa, will be the largest, most complex single-sport competition in history, with 48 teams playing 104 games across three countries before the July 19 final in East Rutherford, N.J.

It will also be the first World Cup to be played in the U.S. in 32 years. And for the players, that means everything.

"You can't ask for anything better. It's what we dreamed of as kids," forward Christian Pulisic said. "It's important to go into it with the mentality that we're just going to enjoy it. We're going to try to take in the whole experience.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." The U.S. is ranked 14th in the world; of the six other teams drawn into its group, only Turkey is in the top 25.

That would seem to make the path to the knockout stage a bit easier.

The Americans will open the tournament against No.