The United States marched into the last 32 of the World Cup on Friday with a 2-0 victory over Australia as Brazil rediscovered their scoring touch to eliminate Haiti. A day after Mexico sealed their place in the knockout rounds, the USA emulated their fellow World Cup co-hosts with a clinical Group D win over Australia in Seattle.A Cameron Burgess own goal in the 11th minute and a headed effort from Alex Freeman two minutes before half-time sealed a comfortable win for Mauricio Pochettino's side, who have advanced to the second phase of the tournament with a game to spare.

After an unconvincing build-up to the World Cup, the Americans have made a dream start to the tournament with Friday's victory following a stylish 4-1 demolition of Paraguay in their opening game last week. The co-hosts could even clinch first place in Group D later on Friday if Turkey lose or draw against Paraguay in the late match."It was a fantastic game again, very good first half," Pochettino said. "I think we dominated the game against a very tough team. "When the draw happened in December I thought it was going to be a really difficult, a really tough game."

Australia coach Tony Popovic blamed "lethargy" for his team's loss."We were slow to every ball, and we couldn't really wrestle back any momentum, which made it difficult," Popovic said. "We conceded a couple of really soft goals but we just looked flat and lethargic in the first half."Morocco secured their first win of the tournament on Friday with a 1-0 defeat of Scotland at Foxborough, Massachusetts. Ismael Saibari scored the games's only goal, lashing home a thunderous angled strike in the second minute to leave the Scots reeling.

Morocco will face Haiti in their final Group C game on June 24, while Brazil take on the Scots in Miami. "Tonight we showed we can compete with the teams in the top 10. Brazil will be a different game, they play with less structure but they have quality that can hurt you at any point," Scotland's John McGinn said."We will need to be at our best. We know what we need to do to try to get through to the next round."Off the field, a leading Iranian football official said on Friday that Iran's treatment at the World Cup was a "dark point" in the history of the competition.

Hedayat Mombeyni, the secretary general of the Iranian football federation, was speaking to reporters the day after his organization said it would lodge a complaint with FIFA, claiming the team was being subjected to travel restrictions that were jeopardizing its performance. Iran wanted to fly from their base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, to Los Angeles two days before their next match, against Belgium on Sunday.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)