The United States beat Australia 2-0 on Friday 19 June to win Group D and reach the round of 32, with captain Christian Pulisic watching from the bench in a compression sleeve. Cameron Burgess turned a Folarin Balogun run into his own net on 11 minutes, and Alex Freeman headed the second three minutes before half-time. Pulisic, the AC Milan winger who carries the attack for the co-host, had picked up a calf injury in the Paraguay opener .
Mauricio Pochettino called the late withdrawal precautionary 1, and is targeting the round-of-32 fixture against Turkey on Thursday 25 June for his return. Pulisic played the knock down himself as "just a bit of a kick." The absence lands against a thread the topic has tracked for weeks: Pochettino had settled his system around Pulisic leading a 4-3-3 and named the captain in his Paraguay XI .
Winning without him removes the immediate panic. Burgess's own goal and Freeman's header did the job against an Australia side that needed a result, and the squad now has six days before a knockout tie that no longer hinges on a single fitness call. Pochettino now points to 25 June, not the group result, as the date that matters.
