LOS ANGELES STADIUM \u2014 <\/strong>A day before the USA men\u2019s national team produced its most lopsided victory in almost a century\u2019s worth of FIFA World Cup appearances, head coach Mauricio Pochettino mentioned something that felt like a throwaway remark at the time.<\/p>\n In their opening match of the 2026 tournament, the USA\u2019s players “need to think tomorrow and play like they are a child,” he said, “and without pressure, without responsibility.”<\/p>\n Did they ever.<\/p>\n In front of a huge home crowd of more than 70,000 fans, Pochettino\u2019s squad demolished a Paraguayan side that had qualified for this World Cup by conceding just 10 goals in 18 qualifying matches \u2014 beating Brazil and defending champion Argentina along the way \u2014 with a 4-1 win on Friday night.<\/p>\n The Stars and Stripes were brave. They were relentless going forward, the risk of a counterattack be damned. They suffocated their battle-tested South American opponent from the opening whistle and didn\u2019t let up until the very end, when Gio Reyna added a beautiful fourth goal\u00a0in the final seconds of stoppage time. The poor Paraguayans never knew what hit them, as the USA scored its most goals ever in a single World Cup match.<\/p>\n Most of all, the co-hosts played freely. Unburdened. Like kids.<\/p>\n “We just wanted to go out there and feel like how we felt whenever we would play pickup ball,” said midfielder Weston McKennie, whose attempted pass to Folarin Balogun in the seventh minute resulted in the own goal that sent the World Cup co-hosts on their way. “We wanted to go out there and just have fun.”<\/p>\n Weston McKennie (left) celebrates Folarin Balogun’s second goal with the American striker. (Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Just a few weeks ago, even diehard USA fans were wondering if their team was capable of a respectable showing at the second World Cup staged on American soil.\u00a0<\/p>\n Badly outclassed by European powers Belgium and Portugal in March, supporters couldn\u2019t be blamed for fearing the worst. A win over Senegal in their penultimate tune-up and a respectable loss to Germany last week restored cautious optimism.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, few could\u2019ve predicted kicking off the World Cup campaign in such glorious fashion.<\/p>\n After having a would-be goal ruled offside after review, striker Folarin Balogun scored twice, the second a left-footed rocket into the top corner of the visitors’ net. The U.S. dominated possession.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paraguay scored in the second half on its only shot of the evening, but the truth is the home side could\u2019ve even added a few more.<\/p>\n Still, it was a historically good showing on the biggest stage in soccer \u2014 one that they can build on as the tournament progresses.<\/p>\n “That’s the first performance that the fans can really be proud of,” veteran left back Antonee “Jedi” Robinson said. “We’re a competitive team, and we mean business.”<\/p>\n Now, the challenge is to do it again. As impressive as Friday night was for the Americans, it won\u2019t mean much if they fail to win their next two Group D contests.<\/p>\n “We\u2019ll try and put in another similar performance against Australia and T\u00fcrkiye, and go from there,” said captain Tim Ream, who at 38 became the oldest American ever to appear in a World Cup match.<\/p>\n The key could be Balogun in attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t immediately clear afterward if Christian Pulisic will be available for next Friday\u2019s meeting with the Socceroos in Seattle. The U.S. headliner, who was involved in the first two American goals vs. Paraguay, took a kick to the left calf and said he\u2019s “hoping I’ll be fine the next few days.”<\/p>\n Either way, Balogun\u2019s presence takes some of the scoring load off of Pulisic. Speaking of history, the AS Monaco striker made some of his own on Friday, becoming the first American to notch multiple tallies in the same match in almost a century.<\/p>\n IChristian Pulisic celebrates with Folarin Balogun after a goal against Paraguay. (Photo by Keith Birmingham\/MediaNews Group\/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY LOS ANGELES STADIUM \u2014 A day before the USA men\u2019s national team produced its most lopsided victory in almost a century\u2019s worth of FIFA World Cup appearances, head coach Mauricio Pochettino mentioned something that felt like a throwaway remark at the time. In their opening match of the 2026 tournament, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4691","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\/4691","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=4691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}