World Cup Match Recap: The USMNT Came Out Cold-Blooded Against Paraguay in World Cup Opener

For one half last night, the United States looked exactly like the team we have been promised for years. The U.S. opened its home World Cup with a 4-1 thumping over Paraguay at SoFi Stadium, and the scoreline undersells how one-sided the first 45 minutes were. It was the most goals the U.S men have ever scored in a World Cup match, and their first three-goal World Cup win since 1930. SoFi was shaking before the drinks break.

Mauricio Pochettino set his team up to choke the middle of the field, and it worked from the first whistle. The U.S. pressed in a shape that slipped between a back three and a back four, allowing Antonee Robinson and Sergiño Dest to push high and pin Paraguay deep. Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie owned the center, and Paraguay could never string together the possession that makes Miguel Almirón dangerous. Take away a counterattacking team’s ability to win the ball and run, and you take their bite force.

The goals started pouring in the 7th minute, when a relentless American pressure forced an own goal off Paraguay’s Damián Bobadilla. Folarin Balogun made it 2-0 in the 31st, finishing a Christian Pulisic sutback. Right before halftime, he opened up in the channel, turned his defender, and curled a shot into the top corner with his weaker left foot. Three goals in one half, and honestly, no one saw that coming.

The backline barely had work for it. Chris Richards was making his first start in a month after an ankle injury kept him out of both tune-ups, and he looked like he had never left, calm on the ball and quick into passing lanes in front of captain Tim Ream. Matt Freese, getting the goalkeeper job over 2022 starter Matt Turner, made one save in the first minute and then didn’t have so much to do the whole half. The center held so easily that the wing backs could keep flying forward without worry.

The second half was a quieter game. Pulisic came off at the break with what he called a knock to his calf, the one bit of news worth watching, though Pochettino expects him back. With the game won, the U.S. eased off, and Paraguay pulled one back in the 73rd through substitute Mauricio after a rare lapse in focus.

Then Gio Reyna had the final word, with the last kick of the game, Reyna curled in a trivela with the outside of his right boot to make it 4-1. Reyna has spent two years on the fringe of this team, his club career stalled and his place in doubt, so a goal as beautiful as the night’s last act carried extra weight. It pushed the U.S. goal difference to plus-three, which could matter a great deal in a format where the eight best third-place teams advance and tiebreakers can decide who goes home.

The win puts the U.S. at the top of Group D and sends a real message, because dominating a half like that builds confidence. The next test comes quickly and looks nothing like this one. The team travels to Seattle to face Australia on June 19, and the Socceroos are everything Paraguay was not: a disciplined, defense-first side that sits deep in a low block and dares you to break it down. The U.S. will not get acres of space to press into next time, so the job shifts from suffocating an opponent to patiently picking the lock of one that wants things ugly. Solve that the way they solved Paraguay, and this tournament is going to be a lot of fun for us.