All around the globe, eyes focused Friday on the stage where World Cup paths were sorted, nations’ names chosen one by one in a draw that determined Argentina and Lionel Messi will start their title defense against Algeria and the U.S. will open against Paraguay.
Twenty-seven months after qualifying began, teams from five-time champion Brazil to newcomers Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan learned their group-stage opponents in the expanded 48-nation, 104-game tournament that starts June 11 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“Exciting for the island, for the people there. They’re so proud,” said Dick Advocaat, the 78-year-old Dutchman leading Curaçao, a Caribbean country with a population of 150,000, into an opener against four-time champion Germany.
On a day that began with snow falling on the nation’s capital, the ceremony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts included U.S. President Donald Trump receiving a newly created peace
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