Behind a brace from Folarin Balogun, the co-hosts started off their tournament in style.
Read more They call him ‘Captain America.’ On Friday night, he showed why.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The World Cup had finally arrived in America, the cameras were rolling, the suites were packed with Hollywood stars and the host nation had the stage it had spent years building. And in a city fluent in glitz and glamour, the United States found a striking new leading man for an opening act that hinted at something bigger — perhaps even a summer blockbuster.
The U.S. men’s national team began the tournament it is co-hosting with a dominant 4-1 win, overwhelming Paraguay with a first-half scoring squall that raised hopes, expectations and the noise level inside a stadium suddenly ready to believe.
It was the kind of opener a soccer fan dreams about — the Americans had never before scored four goals in a World Cup match — but dares not script. SoFi Stadium, temporarily “debranded” by FIFA as Los Angeles Stadium — had the feel of a Hollywood premiere crossed with a July 4 costume party. Fans arrived in scarves, body paint and starred-and-striped capes. There were bald eagles in the bathroom line, Uncle Sams waiting to buy beer and enough red, white and blue to make patriotism feel like the night’s most fashionable accessory.
The famous people came, too, because this was Southern California and because this was the World Cup. Paris Hilton watched from a suite. Tom Cruise and David Beckham sat together in a private box. Jason Sudeikis, television’s Ted Lasso, was here, too. And Katy Perry, dressed in shimmering tinsel, performed “Wonder.”
But by the end of the night, the biggest star in the building was Folarin Balogun, the Brooklyn-born, London-raised forward who scored twice — and nearly a third time — to put the United States’ entire group on notice.
Balogun was born to Nigerian parents and once had three national teams wooing him. He chose the United States in 2023, giving the Americans something they had long lacked and long craved: a true net-hunting striker.
The United States was already on the scoreboard by the time Balogun announced himself. Seven minutes into the match, Weston McKennie found Christian Pulisic in space. Pulisic split a pair of defenders and slipped the ball back toward McKennie, whose touch glanced off Paraguay’s Damián Bobadilla and into the net.
Officially, it went down as an own goal. In every way that mattered, it belonged to Pulisic.
The score ignited the crowd and gave the Americans their first surge of momentum, a sudden gust at their backs.
Balogun first stirred the crowd in the 28th minute, zipping a shot into the net only to see it wiped away by a late offside call. No matter. The Americans came right back, and three minutes later, with Pulisic again at the center of the attack, drawing Paraguay’s defense toward him and centering the ball to Balogun, the striker tucked it into the back corner.
“Not much to say, the kid’s insane. He’s lethal right now in front of the goal,” Pulisic said. “We’re really lucky to have him.”
Balogun’s second came in first-half stoppage time, and it was the prettier one: patience and brilliance packed into one left-footed swing. He slipped a defender and unleashed a shot into the upper-left corner, giving the Americans a 3-0 lead and sending them into halftime with the kind of cushion — and the kind of confidence — that could echo well beyond one match.
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“It’s a dream,” the 24-year-old Monaco forward said later. “I’ve not been able to take it all in yet. I’m sure when I get back to my hotel and I rest, I’m sure I’ll really be able to be in the moment and experience how much of an amazing night this is.”
Balogun became the first U.S. player since 1930 to score more than one goal in a World Cup match. The dominance was atypical for an American squad on this stage. The early barrage matched the total number of goals the United States scored in the entire 2022 World Cup. The 3-0 advantage marked its largest World Cup lead in 24 years — and only the second three-goal lead the Americans had managed since 1930.
The Americans didn’t sparkle quite as much in the second half — at least until the final minute of stoppage time. They batted around 26 consecutive passes before Gio Reyna, the 23-year-old midfielder who was cast as a pariah following the 2022 World Cup, unleashed the final U.S. goal, sending elated fans into the parking lots with something worth celebrating.
It was a confidence builder in all the right places. Goalkeeper Matt Freese barely broke a sweat, aside from Paraguay’s lone score in the 73rd minute, when Maurício caught the back line flat-footed. Defender Chris Richards returned from injury and played for the first time in four weeks. And Pulisic made clear he is not entering this tournament in a slump. He sat out the second half as a precaution due to a left calf injury, but by then he had already left his fingerprints all over the match.
This was the Americans’ first men’s World Cup match on home soil since 1994, the start of a summer U.S. Soccer has been building toward for years. With the tournament expanded to 48 teams, the United States is widely expected to advance from its group. But the program’s ambitions stretch well beyond that. The Americans have not won a knockout-round match since 2002, and this tournament — at home, in familiar stadiums, in front of crowds eager to believe — has long been framed as their best chance to break through.
That is why U.S. Soccer made a splashy hire in Mauricio Pochettino, the well-regarded Argentine coach tasked with injecting not just structure but conviction. He has spoken openly about belief, confidence and the possibility of a real run. Friday offered the first evidence that such talk might be more than wishful thinking.
For all the noise that had trailed the tournament into Southern California — the geopolitical drama, the threats from the Oval Office, the weeks of hand-wringing over security and immigration enforcement — the focus Friday settled squarely on the field. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were nowhere to be found around the stadium bowl, despite concerns that they would be visible around U.S. venues during the World Cup. The loudest authority figures here were the ones in referee kits, and the only border that seemed to matter was the thin white line Paraguay kept trying, and failing, to hold.
For a few hours, at least, a country divided in so many ways had something to rally around — inside the stadium, in sports bars, at watch parties and in living rooms across the country. It was the most anticipated men’s soccer match the United States had hosted in a generation, the beginning of a World Cup that could test both the country’s appetite for the sport and the team’s ability to meet the moment.
“It is not just how you start, but it’s about what happens along the way,” Pochettino said. “The most important thing is the end.”
The Americans still have two more group-stage matches: next Friday against Australia in Seattle, then a June 25 return to Inglewood to face Turkey. Those games will determine the shape of the United States’ path through the tournament — whether the summer becomes a celebration, an opportunity lost or something more complicated.
But Friday sure looked like an arrival.
The players eventually disappeared into the locker room. The scoreboards went dark. The “USA!” chants moved into the stadium parking lots. But after one commanding performance, one breakout star turn and one opening act that left a home crowd roaring, the United States had given this World Cup something it badly wanted: a reason to wonder what comes next.
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