At the World Cup draw, soccer gets its moment and Donald Trump gets his prize

With world leaders in attendance, musical artists filling time, sports stars making small talk, the president receiving a newly invented peace prize and a rapt audience glued to TVs around the globe, Friday’s World Cup draw promised no shortage of spectacle.

But in the end, the real stars of the show were always going to be the tiny bouncing balls that would determine the path to soccer’s biggest prize.

While snow dusted Washington outside, inside the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, an invitation-only crowd settled into cushioned seats for a two-hour show that unfolded with all the pomp FIFA favors - scripted jokes, soaring vocals and choreographed introductions. But it also carried political undertones that were hard to miss.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino feted President Donald Trump onstage for his peacekeeping efforts, and Trump delivered a short speech to a worldwide audience. Trump remained for the entire show, sitting beside his wife, Melania, applauding and later doing his familiar shoulder-shimmy as the Village People closed the program with “YMCA,” the MAGA-adopted anthem from his campaign rallies.

On paper, the draw is simple: Pull some balls, make some groups, set the World Cup road map. Fans across the world eagerly watch to see whether their country will get an easy path or the soccer gods will cruelly cast their team into a “group of death.” But in FIFA’s hands, it becomes an elaborate, Vegas-style production.

Friday’s show opened with Andrea Bocelli’s soaring rendition of “Nessun dorma” and included performances by Robbie Williams and Lauryn Hill, among others. Retired NFL quarterback Eli Manning worked the red carpet, while soccer stars past and present mingled with diplomats and elected officials.

The crowd inside the Concert Hall waited patiently; the rest of the soccer world, maybe less so. Just a couple of miles away, at Ireland’s Four Courts pub in Arlington, a group of early-drinking fans hoisted a replica FIFA World Cup trophy and chanted “Ole, ole, ole!” Other fans groaned as the program stretched on, detouring into musical segments and diplomatic exchanges.

“I appreciate some of the entertainment, but waiting an hour and a half just to get to the draw is insane,” said Cecily Perez, a U.S. team fan.

It might have taken a couple of drinks, but fans of the United States squad were largely pleased with their draw: a group that includes Australia, Paraguay and a to-be-determined European squad that must still qualify through a playoff. The U.S. men will open the tournament June 12 in Los Angeles, though the full schedule won’t be revealed until Saturday.

“This is probably the best we could’ve hoped for, hands down,” Jake Didinsky, president of the D.C. chapter of the American Outlaws, the U.S. team’s support group. “If we fail to get out of this group, it’s time to just cut U.S. Soccer. That’s it.”

While the United States is co-hosting the tournament alongside Canada and Mexico, Friday’s draw seemed to revolve around Trump early on. The U.S. president leaned on his close relationship with Infantino and persuaded FIFA to stage the event in Washington, even though the city wasn’t selected to host any actual World Cup matches. Early in Friday’s program, Infantino brought Trump onstage to receive the organization’s inaugural peace prize - an award created this fall, four weeks after Trump was passed over by the Nobel Committee.

“This is your peace prize,” Infantino told him as he handed over a medal, a trophy and a certificate. Trump called it “one of the great honors of my life,” delivering a brief speech about his administration’s efforts to “make the world safer” and referencing places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and India as locations of conflicts he said the U.S. had helped settle.

The moment drew polite applause in the building, but the award has raised eyebrows from human rights groups, which have criticized Trump’s immigration policies and recent lethal boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea. The FIFA award comes a day after Trump spoke at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, which the president’s deputies rebranded to honor him.

Trump has fashioned himself into a key player in this World Cup, chummy with Infantino and outspoken about tournament plans, including repeated threats to relocate matches from U.S. cities he deems “unsafe.” Asked Friday about his interest in relocating matches, he said doesn’t “want to do that” and suggested that he can “solve” local crime issues, invoking his crackdown on Washington.

“If they do have a problem, by the time we get there, we’ll take care of that problem,” Trump told reporters.

His banter was a bit lighter onstage.

“There’s no question that we have to come up with another name” for American football, Trump said onstage. “It really doesn’t make sense.”

While the United States is technically a co-host of the tournament, the heavy doses of American flavor were hard to miss. “Watching Americans onstage and the president giving speeches and [the] performances, it made it feel like an American event already,” U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams said.

At a news conference at the Canadian embassy Friday evening, officials dribbled around the president responsible for tensions over trade with Canada’s southern neighbor and Cup co-host.

“Sport is a fantastic vehicle for peace,” Adam van Koeverden, Canada’s secretary of state for sport, said when asked about Trump’s award.

Canada Coach Jesse Marsch, an outspoken American who has previously pushed back against Trump’s anti-Canada rhetoric, paused when asked about the peace prize.

“I won’t talk about that too much,” Marsch said. “I’ll just say the whole spectacle was amazing.”

Later, a reporter asked Marsch about the identity of Canada’s friendly opponents in coming months. Marsch said he couldn’t yet reveal that, then looked at a Canadian Soccer media official. “And I can’t comment on Trump?” Marsch asked, smiling. “So I can’t do either of those things.”

Following the initial group announcements, Trump posed for a selfie alongside Infantino, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. More than 90 minutes passed before the program turned toward the purpose of the day: mapping out the road to next summer’s World Cup. Sports stars Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, Wayne Gretzky and Aaron Judge were summoned to the stage to help pull balls from tiny bowls, assigning 48 teams to their respective groups.

Delegates scribbled notes, analysts started dissecting matchups, and flashes of applause punctuated the quiet tension of the process. As one of the three host nations, the United States was an automatic qualifier and was the first team selected for Group D.

Fans gathered at Solace Brewing Company in Washington’s Navy Yard wore scarves, critiqued the draw and discussed their plans for next summer’s tournament. Didinsky said he’s been planning for this moment - and the logistics of next summer’s matches - for years. Because of the cost of tickets, Didinsky realizes that many people who want to cheer for their teams in person can’t afford to, and instead will be gathering around TVs and watching with groups.

“Every bar is going to be flooded,” he predicted.

Back in the hall, when the final ball was pulled and New Zealand was slotted into Group G, the field was formally set, and the assembled crowd dispersed into the snow-covered city. Trump, meanwhile, stayed behind for meetings with global leaders and to pursue another pet project: personally inspecting renovations to the Kennedy Center, according to a White House official.

The Kennedy Center got its event, FIFA got its audience. Trump got his prize, and soccer fans got gristle that will keep them busy until Mexico opens the tournament against South Africa on June 11 in Mexico City.

- - -

Thomas Floyd, Fritz Hahn, Adam Kilgore and Jorge Ribas contributed to this report.

- - -

2026 World Cup groups

Group A: Mexico, South Korea, South Africa, Euro Playoff D (Denmark, Ireland, Czech Republic or North Macedonia)

Group B: Canada, Switzerland, Qatar, Euro Playoff A (Bosnia, Italy, Wales or Northern Ireland)

Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Scotland, Haiti

Group D: United States, Australia, Paraguay, Euro Playoff C (Slovakia, Kosovo, Turkey or Romania)

Group E: Germany, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Curaçao

Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia, Euro Playoff B (Ukraine, Poland, Albania or Sweden)

Group G: Belgium, Iran, Egypt, New Zealand

Group H: Spain, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde

Group I: France, Senegal, Norway, FIFA Playoff 2 (Bolivia, Iraq or Suriname)

Group J: Argentina, Austria, Algeria, Jordan

Group K: Portugal, Colombia, Uzbekistan, FIFA Playoff 1 (Democratic Republic of Congo, New Caledonia or Jamaica)

Group L: England, Croatia, Panama, Ghana

© 2025 , The Washington Post