Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

WASHINGTON — Argentina and Lionel Messi will play Algeria to open its World Cup title defense as part of a group that also includes Austria.

The United States was drawn Friday to start against Paraguay at Inglewood, California, on June 12, a day after Mexico hosts the opener against South Africa. The U.S. reached the semifinals at the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and has gotten as far as the quarterfinals only one other time, in 2002.

U.S. President Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney selected the balls of their own countries from bowls during a ceremony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The show was almost as long as a soccer match, with the actual draw for the expanded 48-nat

See Full Page