INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Ninety-six years.
That’s how far back you have to reach to find anything in the history of the U.S. men’s national team that really compares to Friday’s 4–1 win over Paraguay in their opening match at the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup, a stunningly overwhelming display that seems to have been nearly as delirious to produce for the players as it was for fans and media to witness.
"It’s a dreamy night, you know? I’ve not been able to take it all in,” said Folarin Balogun after bagging two ruthlessly clinical goals in his World Cup debut to give him the first American brace at the World Cup since 1930. “When I get back to my hotel and I rest, I’m sure I’m going to really be able to be in the moment and experience how much of an amazing night this is.”
Consummate first-half domination of a ferocious South American adversary to cruise into halftime with a 3–0 lead. Attackers like Balogun and Christian Pulisic in such imperious form that kicking them was essentially Paraguay’s only useful response. Slick passing sequences. Unprecedented levels of tenacity and collective coordination with their pressing. And a euphoric, VIP-laden crowd roaring them on in the glittering confines of a space-age NFL stadium to open their homefield World Cup campaign.
A question circulated among the veterans in the press box: Was that first half the best 45 minutes this program has ever produced? Might it even have eclipsed the jaw-dropping iconic upset of Luis Figo and Portugal’s golden generation in 2002? It felt like decades of USMNTers walked – perhaps crawled is a better metaphor in some cases – so that the current roster could fly on an evening like this.
“Surreal … like, a feeling that that's what U.S. soccer should be,” said Sebastian Berhalter postgame. “Walking around and just seeing almost 70,000 U.S. fans just going crazy, and even getting them going, getting them fired up, it was so cool just to be on the field during that.”
The very earliest version of the program beat Belgium 3–0 in the first-ever World Cup — held in Uruguay in 1930 — then downed Paraguay’s forbears by the same scoreline four days later to advance to that tournament’s semifinals, where it all came crashing to a halt in a 6–1 thrashing at the hands of Argentina. Herbert Hoover was the president back then; the Great Depression loomed. Mickey Mouse made his comic-strip debut. Construction of the Empire State Building had just begun. It would be another 65 years before FIFA started awarding three points for a win at the World Cup.
Friday’s rout ties those 1930 wins for the program's largest margin of victory at a World Cup. It’s the Yanks’ first multi-goal win in this tournament since the Dos-a-Cero win over Mexico in 2002’s round of 16. These four goals are more than they scored across four games at Qatar 2022 – in fact it equals their total in their past six World Cup games combined.
“Things were definitely clicking,” said Pulisic, whose levels of focus and quality were “scary,” in Berhalter’s words. “It's pretty special to watch. It's fun to look around and know that there's different guys that can pull off these different skills and moves and things going on. It's great, it's great. But more than just that. I feel like there's such a good connection between us right now.”
Mauricio Pochettino’s repudiation of the idea of inspiring motivational speeches the day before this match suddenly made sense. We soon learned that he’d told his squad they’d already done the heavy labor, the years-long grind to make it to this point; now was their chance to enjoy its fruits.
“The coach, as well as the players and the staff and everyone, we just wanted to go out there and feel like how we felt whenever we would play pickup ball,” said Weston McKennie. “[Pochettino] preaches a lot that the hard work and everything that we did is before – everything to get to this moment, that was the hard work, that was the sacrifice, that was the time that we put in. And now it's about to go out there and just have fun, because not many moments come like this in your career.”
Afterwards "Poch" went out of his way to keep his group grounded. This, he emphasized, can and should be just the beginning if the Yanks are serious about turning heads both home and abroad this summer.
“We’ve played a good game, and we’ve won a game that’s given us three points. But to be a surprise, you’d have to reach the quarterfinals at a minimum, or semifinals,” he said in Spanish. “You say maybe we’re a surprise, but for now, I think you only need to analyze that we’ve played well, we’re doing things well, we played a certain way, and we’ve earned a very important win against a Paraguay side who’s always difficult to compete against.”
Yet this was a night that made tantalizingly rich possibilities feel more real than ever, even – perhaps especially? – for those who’ve seen this team at some pretty low ebbs over the past decade. Sergino Dest was the last U.S. player to walk through the postgame mixed zone; one of this USMNT’s "vibiest" personalities professed to be startled when a reporter told him the Paraguay trouncing had already caused a spike in interest around tickets for next week’s match vs. Australia in Seattle.
Bring it on, he replied.
“That's amazing. I didn't know that, but that's amazing,” he said. “If you play the next games and more and more fans are coming, even for the opponents it's more difficult because they feel more pressure. So that's what we need, and we want to make a great run in the USA, for the USA.
“So we need every support that we get.”
