LOS ANGELES — The United States powered into the last 32 of the World Cup on Friday with a 2-0 victory over Australia as Scotland’s hopes of advancing suffered a blow with defeat to Morocco.

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, 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.”

In other games on Friday, Scotland’s hopes of advancing out of the group stage for the first time in their history suffered a blow in Group C with a 1-0 loss to African champions Morocco at Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Ismael Saibari scored the game’s only goal, lashing home a thunderous angled strike in the second minute to leave the Scots reeling.