After the U.S. men’s national team’s dominant 4-1 win over Paraguay in its opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, all eyes have shifted to its second Group D game.<\/p>\n
The U.S. will face Australia on Friday, June 19 on FOX at 3 p.m. ET (stream on FOX One).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The winner of this match would officially advance to the knockout stage, and a U.S. win, combined with a Paraguay win or draw against T\u00fcrkiye, would clinch the group on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, who is the referee for this critical match?\u00a0<\/p>\n
German official Felix Zwayer will officiate Friday\u2019s Group D showdown. He is one of UEFA\u2019s most experienced referees and a figure who has remained under the spotlight throughout his career.<\/p>\n
Zwayer has been a FIFA-listed referee for more than a decade and is currently ranked in UEFA\u2019s elite category.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He referees for SC Charlottenburg through the Berlin Football Association and has worked some of the biggest matches in international soccer.<\/p>\n
While Friday\u2019s match will be Zwayer\u2019s first World Cup assignment as the lead referee, he is no stranger to major tournaments. He previously served as a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Felix Zwayer will be the referee <\/strong>in the USA’s match against Australia on Friday (Photo by Marcus Brandt\/picture alliance via Getty Images).\u00a0<\/span> <\/p>\n Despite his extensive resume, Zwayer\u2019s career has long been linked to a match-fixing scandal that rocked German soccer in 2005. The controversy centered around referee Robert Hoyzer, who admitted to accepting bribes to manipulate matches.<\/p>\n According to reports, Zwayer assisted Hoyzer in one match and allegedly accepted a payment of 300 euros in connection with the scandal. He received a six-month suspension.\u00a0<\/p>\n The controversy resurfaced in 2021 following a heated Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. After Dortmund suffered a controversial loss, then-Dortmund star Jude Bellingham publicly referenced Zwayer\u2019s past.<\/p>\n “You give a referee that has match-fixed before the biggest game in Germany, what do you expect?” Bellingham said after the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, with the entire world watching, Zwayer will be the referee on Friday in Seattle as the United States look to make history.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY After the U.S. men’s national team’s dominant 4-1 win over Paraguay in its opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, all eyes have shifted to its second Group D game. The U.S. will face Australia on Friday, June 19 on FOX at 3 p.m. ET (stream on FOX One).\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}