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Group D’s opening fixture will be played this evening — USA vs Paraguay at the Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles.
USA, the tournament co-hosts, will look to start their World Cup campaign strongly against Paraguay, having previously beaten them 2-1 in a November 2025 friendly.
Paraguay head into this clash in slightly stronger form, claiming three wins from their last five games, while the USA prevailed in just two of their previous five — but who will be officiating?
The referee for USA’s opening World Cup fixture against Paraguay in Group D
Danny Makkelie will serve as the referee for USA vs Paraguay in tonight’s Group D opening fixture.
Dutchmen Hessel Steegstra and Jan De Vries will serve as assistant referees, while Japan’s Yusuke Araki will operate as the fourth official.
Makkelie has previous World Cup experience in the 2022 Qatar tournament, which Argentina went on to win against France.
The Dutchman served as the referee for two group stage matches, one of those being the eventual champion’s match against Poland, which ended 2-0 to the former.
He also officiated Spain vs Germany in Group E, which culminated in a 1-1 stalemate with goals courtesy of Alvaro Morata and Niclas Fullkrug.
Lionel Messi scored four penalties en-route to his historic World Cup victory with Argentina, including a 23rd minute spot-kick in the final against France.
He also tallied 10 goal involvements in Qatar, the joint most at the World Cup alongside Kylian Mbappe.
Tonight’s referee, Makkelie, almost aided Messi en-route to that achievement, despite granting his nation a penalty against Poland.
The Argentine missed his 39th-minute spot kick and failed to record a goal contribution for the first and only time at the 2022 World Cup.
Makkelie handed out six yellow cards across his two group stage games in 2022, and previously officiated the USMNT in a 2015 friendly against Germany, which ended 2-1 to the former.
