Australia’s path through the group stages of the World Cup will pass through Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco, after Fifa confirmed the venues and kick-off times for the 2026 tournament.

Drawn in Group D alongside the co-hosts the United States, Paraguay and the European qualifier to emerge from the playoffs involving Slovakia, Kosovo, Turkey and Romania, the Socceroos will start their campaign against their European foes at BC Place in Vancouver at a local time of 9pm on 12 June (2pm on 13 June AEST).

Dodging the worst of the North American summer heat by playing two games in the Pacific Northwest, Tony Popovic’s side will then head to Seattle Stadium to face the United States at noon local time on 19 June 19 (5am 20 June AEST) before ending their group slate against Paraguay at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium at 7pm on 25 June (12pm, 26 June AEST).

“We’ve been doing a lot of planning on maybe getting the east coast or somewhere central in America,” said Popovic. “We were looking at the hot-weather training, and we were preparing for altitude as well.

“So it will be cooler conditions; I don’t think they expect over 20 degrees in June from past history for Seattle or Vancouver. And San Francisco might be just slightly warmer.

“So that’s something a little bit different. But that won’t affect our preparation too much and the plans that we have in place.”

With the locations and times of their fixtures locked in, Popovic and Socceroos and Football Australia staff will now spend the coming days seeking to solidify their plans for next June – particularly where they will call home throughout the tournament.

Fifa lists 16 potential bases in the western region in their official team base camp brochure, ranging from the host cities Vancouver and San Francisco, major cities such as Portland and San Diego, and smaller locations such as Boise, Idaho, and Spokane, Washington.

“[I’ll] get with the staff the next day or two and map out a plan,” said Popovic. “In terms of base camps, pre-camp: what do we want to get out of that? When do we start it? Friendly games in June, how many do we want to play?

“We know now that we’ll be playing on the 12th of June – so we can work our way back from there. I think we’re in a good place. There’s some work to do, but nothing excessive. We’ve got some good plans that we have in place.

“And with the staff that we have, we’ve got a lot of people here with a lot of experience at World Cups – a lot more than me – in this preparation phase now. And they’re confident that we’ll get everything that we want in terms of being ready.”