World Cup 2026: USMNT set to face Bosnia and Herzegovina in Round of 32

Sat, Jun 27, 2026 at 9:21 PM PDT107

https://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/article/world-cup-2026-usmnt-set-to-face-bosnia-and-herzegovina-in-round-of-32-205943100.html

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s World Cup journey will continue against the United States.

Bosnia and Herzegovina clinched a Round of 32 berth by finishing third in Group B with four points after a 3-1 win over Qatar. That was enough to secure one of the tournament’s eight best third-place spots and set up a knockout meeting with Group D winner USA on July 1 in Santa Clara, California.

The winner will advance to the Round of 16, while Bosnia and Herzegovina will look to pull off one of the tournament’s biggest upsets against an unbeaten U.S. side.

World Cup schedule | Group schedule, results | Standings

How the third-place teams were bracketed

FIFA determined the World Cup 2026 knockout-round bracket well in advance. The eight third-place teams will each play a team that finished first in its group.

With FIFA wanting to ensure that no teams from the same group meet again before the quarterfinals, third-place teams are slotted into the bracket based on which groups have third-place teams advancing.

In most of the combinations FIFA ran during the tournament, the third-place team from Group B — Bosnia and Herzegovina — was the most likely opponent for the winner of Group D. That scenario came to fruition and was confirmed after Sweden‘s draw with Japan on Thursday afternoon.

Scotland, Uruguay, Iran and South Korea miss out

Just one third-place team with three points ended up making the knockout rounds. That lucky team was Senegal, who had a goal difference of plus-2 thanks to a blowout win over Iraq to end the group stage.

Senegal finished two goals ahead of Iran, which tied all three of its group stage games. South Korea, Uruguay and Scotland all had three points but a negative goal differential.

DR Congo and Algeria both jumped into the top eight on Saturday thanks to their wins. DR Congo beat Uzbekistan 3-1 and ended up as the top third-place team thanks to its positive goal differential. Algeria, which earned an incredibly entertaining 3-3 tie with Austria, vaulted ahead of Paraguay among teams on four points.