FIFA World Cup 2026: US punches ticket to World Cup knockout round after 2-0 win over Australia

One of the biggest questions surrounding the Mexican national team ahead of the World Cup was who would start in net.

Would it be the inexperienced Raúl Rangel, who hadn't played a single official match for El Tri? Or the great Guillermo Ochoa, the team's anchor since 2014?

Coach Javier Aguirre bet on youth, and it turned out to be a wise decision.

The 26-year-old Rangel made a spectacular 87th-minute save against South Korea to help the co-hosts secure a dramatic 1-0 victory and become the first team to reach the knockout stage of this year's World Cup.

With two shutouts already under his belt, Rangel has matched the feat of the iconic Jorge Campos. In Mexico's next match against the Czech Republic, he will try to emulate Ignacio Calderón, the only Mexico goalkeeper to record three clean sheets in a single World Cup - achieved at home in 1970.

"Raúl has shown great determination since we first called him up. He was Luis Ángel Malagón's backup, but he persevered and just kept improving," Aguirre said. "He played well with his club, Chivas, and improved day by day. Few players debut with such ease; usually, they have to learn by making mistakes. He seemed a bit nervous in the first match, but he did well."

Rangel's rise to World Cup stardom was very unexpected. He was playing in the second division with Tapatío only three years ago, he became a starter with Chivas just a year ago, and Malagón was the favorite to start for Mexico after leading the team to CONCACAF Nations League and Gold Cup titles, but a ruptured left Achilles tendon in March ruled him out.

Even then, doubts lingered over whether Aguirre would trust Rangel on the world stage or default to the veteran experience of Ochoa. At 40 years old, Ochoa is attending his sixth World Cup, having started in 2014 in Brazil, four years later in Russia, and then at the 2022 tournament in Qatar.

History almost repeated itself for Ochoa. Ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Ochoa was poised to be the starter, but Aguirre - also the coach back then - belatedly benched him in favor of veteran Óscar Pérez. This time, Aguirre went with youth.

Despite being relegated to the bench, Ochoa has embraced the role of teacher.

"I have to thank 'Memo,' who has been a true mentor to me. I say it openly, he has helped me a lot," Rangel said. "He has instilled in me the serenity he brings every day, despite all the World Cups he has played in."

After the match against South Korea, Ochoa waited for Rangel to greet him and hugged him before making his way to the locker room.

"Having Guillermo Ochoa behind me raises the level and intensity in all aspects, and that helps me mature. Knowing that I have a figure like him behind me, or beside me, supporting me, competing for the position, gives me a lot of confidence," Rangel said.

"Feeling like favorites would lead to complacency, and the team isn't ready for that," Rangel said about starting with two wins. "The team needs to focus on one game at a time, knowing that we're going to face tough opponents and avoiding overconfidence."

By keeping two clean sheets in his first two matches, Rangel equaled Ochoa's own debut run from 2014. Ochoa would go on to collect additional shutouts in 2018 and 2022, holding the Mexican record for the most total clean sheets in the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Campos, famous for his colorful uniforms and acrobatic style, recorded two shutouts over the 1994 and 1998 tournaments.

If Rangel manages to shutout the Czech Republic, he will equal Calderón's Mexican mark - though he will still be chasing the ultimate milestone. Italy goalkeeper Walter Zenga holds the all-time World Cup record, keeping five consecutive clean sheets during the 1990 tournament.

The images show young men wearing Mexico's green national team jersey. A FIFA-style logo appears in the corner. The design mimics the collectible World Cup Panini stickers millions of soccer fans trade during the tournament.

But above each face taped to a concrete bench, utility pole or wall across downtown Guadalajara is a label:

"DESAPARECIDO."

Missing.

One shows Christian Emmanuel Rivera, disappeared in August 2023. Another is Jaime Adrián Ramírez, missing since September 2020.

As Guadalajara hosts matches during the 2026 World Cup, families searching for missing relatives have transformed one of soccer's most familiar images into a campaign to make Mexico's 135,000 missing people visible to the tens of thousands of visitors.

The initiative was launched by Luz de Esperanza, a search collective in the western state of Jalisco, which leads Mexico in disappearances with more than 16,000 people listed as missing in the state's registry. Members say other groups already have contacted them about adopting the idea.

"This is our way of drawing attention to the fact that we miss our children, that they are absent from our lives," said María de Jesús Solís, 57, whose son Jaime Adrián disappeared nearly six years ago.

She wears a pendant bearing his photograph around her neck.

"This is my boy," she said. "The difference is that now he's wearing the World Cup shirt."

Searching for the living

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cross Mexico, relatives have formed search collectives that comb fields, ravines, abandoned buildings and clandestine graves, often carrying out searches they say authorities have failed to pursue.

Nearly every Sunday since 2021, members of Luz de Esperanza spread across Guadalajara carrying stacks of missing-person posters, hoping someone might recognize a face or provide a lead. The collective calls it a "search for the living."

This month they replaced many of those flyers with hundreds of World Cup-inspired posters.

For Solís, the campaign reflects frustration with what families see as competing priorities.

"We're not against the World Cup," she said. "But we're against the excessive spending."

Authorities invested millions preparing Guadalajara for the tournament while search collectives often pay for their own water, food and transportation during searches, she said.

"The government is showing a beautiful face to the world," Solís said. "But if you look around, the city is full of posters of our children."

Digging for answers

On a recent morning, Solís and Guadalupe Rivera joined other members of Luz de Esperanza at an abandoned property on the outskirts of Guadalajara.

The women moved through dark rooms and into a backyard littered with garbage. Some carried metal probes used to test the ground for signs of clandestine graves.

Rivera pressed a steel rod into the soil while others inspected the property. Her son, Christian Emmanuel, disappeared nearly three years ago. She joined the collective almost immediately.

"I thought that if I joined a group, the search would move faster," she said. "Time keeps passing, and I'm still searching."

Rivera helps search for human remains because she wants to support other families, but hopes she doesn't find her own son that way.

"I want to find him alive," she said. "I want him to show up at my front door."

The World Cup campaign, she said, grew from a simple calculation: if soccer dominates conversations across the city, perhaps it could also create space for people to notice those who are missing.

They are all sports fans, Rivera said.

"When it's the World Cup, even if you're not really a fan, you sit down at home and watch it with your family," she said. "But our family isn't whole anymore."

Mixed reactions to the campaign

Some residents have embraced the posters, Rivera said. Others have argued that the World Cup should be a time for celebration rather than a reminder of violence and loss.

But families say they have little choice except to keep finding new ways to make their loved ones visible.

"The government never pays attention to us," Rivera said. "So we want to see whether, this way, the world will."

The U.S. men's national team now knows when and where it will play its first knockout game of the World Cup.

Paraguay held on to beat Turkey 1-0 Friday night, which makes the U.S. the winner of Group D.

As the Group D winner, the U.S. will play a round-of-32 match on July 1 in Santa Clara, California, against a third-place group finisher.

The U.S. defeated Australia 2-0 in Seattle Friday afternoon and enters its last group game against Turkey with six points.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The United States has punched its ticket to the knockout round of the 2026 World Cup after beating Australia 2-0 in front of a raucous crowd in Seattle on Friday.

This is the first time since 1930 that the US has won back-to-back matches at the World Cup.