Summary
- The USA defeated Paraguay 4-1 in its opening World Cup match at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
- Folarin Balogun scored two goals for the US in a performance he called dreamy.
- The victory marked the first three-goal margin of victory for the US in a World Cup since 1930.
AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.
Inglewood, California —
He was, at his core, the perfect person to summon the right word to describe the USA’s opening game in the World Cup.
Born in New York to Nigerian parents, Folarin Balogun speaks with a British accent, courtesy of a childhood largely forged in England. He is, in other words, what America once prided itself on being – a melting pot of cultures cooked together to create the greatest of flavorful stews.
Lately, in a world grown more complicated, that homespun notion has grown conflicted. The United States often feels more fractured than fraternal, a search for commonality hard to find in a land of boundaries drawn harder each day.
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But here, in a city that prides itself on make-believe, the country came together to celebrate something everyone can still get behind: Being good at sports.
“Dreamy,” is how Balogun described the US’ dominating 4-1 win against Paraguay, its first three-goal margin of victory in a World Cup since 1930. “It was dreamy.”
Played in a space-age stadium stuffed with every morsel of Americana, it indeed felt like some sort of soccer fantasy penned down the street in Hollywood. Save for a slight question hanging over the health of star Christian Pulisic, who was subbed out to start the second half after getting kicked in the left calf, it could not have played out better. (For what it’s worth, Pulisic brushed it off. “I’m really hoping that it’s nothing,” he said. “I’m taking a little bit of precaution and hoping it will be fine in a couple of days.”)
Fans clogged the streets outside of SoFi Stadium (or Los Angeles Stadium, as FIFA would prefer), turned out in every which way one could fashion the stars and stripes. Boxing robes and boxers, hair ribbons and socks, hats and bandanas – it felt like a country’s worth of Fourth of July parades combined into one. Some folks got even more creative, donning full-headed bald eagle gear or fashioning an entire Statue of Liberty look, complete with torch. A crowd even hoisted a massive flag overhead down the street.
It all carried into the stadium like a tidal wave of patriotism, lifted by chants of “U-S-A!” that turned into a bellowing rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” that nearly rendered singers Dan + Shay obsolete.
American ethos played out everywhere. Good old Michelob beer sold in red, white, and blue cans poured from the concessions; helicopters choppered overhead for a flyover and movie stars got face time. Tom Cruise sat elbow to elbow with David Beckham; UCLA and Los Angeles Lakers star Kareem Abdul Jabbar got a rousing ovation and Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart was lustily booed.
Meanwhile, entirely on brand, Paris Hilton was too busy taking selfies to even notice she was on the big screen.
“Having this crowd behind us, seeing the red, white and blue, all of our striped shirts, it was awesome,” Pulisic said. “Hearing the USA chants, it really pushed us forward.”
That it all happened surrounding the World Cup is the inflection point, of course.
Being good at this particular sport has eluded Americans. The United States, which can gobble up Olympic medals and force-feed its brand of football to a happy audience across the pond, has had to cede superiority to the rest of the world, unable to even get its own term for the game to catch on.
It is why the charge for this US men’s national team has been so heavy.
Tabbed nothing less than the golden generation, they were meant to grow a sport that long had roots but never could quite blossom, using the soil of their own country to do it. The bulk of the roster brought together at a prospects camp as U-14s, they are also the first American World Cup generation to come to this event with serious professional credentials, selected as a real team, not merely collected of available options.
It is, to put it lightly, a lot to ask. Before the players even arrived at the stadium, the speakers blared David Bowie and Queen singing, “Under Pressure,” either signs of a disc jockey with a funny bone or an accidental dose of irony.
And then seven minutes in, the whole thing lifted like a pressure cooker releasing the steam.
Pulisic, who shoulders the heaviest load for the USMNT, split two defenders and poked a pass to Weston McKennie, who seemed to be trying to send a cross across the goal. Instead, a Paraguayan defender tipped it into the open goal, meaning that technically Damián Bobadilla is the first player to score for the United States at the 2026 World Cup.
To explain the stadium eruption that followed is to imagine a Super Bowl where nearly everyone was rooting for one team.
And then it all got decidedly American, a pouring of offense so dominant it felt like Paraguay had whiplash. Twenty minutes after McKennie’s goal, the US appeared to score again, but it was negated when Balogun was called offside. Hilariously, just as the big board inside the stadium displayed the graphic showing Balogun was offside by a kneecap, he went and scored again.
He added another just before half, sending the fans into near rapture.
Flo Balogun had choices, options rather familiar to the traditional American sports fan. The son of Nigerian parents born in New York but raised in England was something of a free agent, and even after playing for the US Under-18 team, could have gone into the international soccer version of the transfer portal.
Instead, he fell under the spell of a very American lure of adoration. No one can woo quite like Americans who want to win.
Three years ago, Balogun came to Orlando with England and the US pulled out an all-out offensive to convince him to play for their side. The Yankees invited him to throw out a first pitch; the Orlando Magic gave him courtside seats and fans got wind of the effort and started flooding his social media with messages and pleas. It worked, the striker opting to join the US.
“The fans gave me so much motivation and gave me so much support,” Balogun said. “For me, the most important thing is to repay that. I made the right decision, and I am completely proud and I want to continue to make the fans proud as well.”
To be clear, Paraguay is not among the favorites in this tournament. They were 300 to 1 to start the World Cup and ranked 42nd in FIFA’s world rankings. This felt and looked like a 1-16 game in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
But at the last World Cup in Qatar, the US opened with a tie, a less-than-inspiring message to send to a country it was trying to convince to get behind it. This is different.
“It was definitely a statement,” Balogun said without hesitation.
Except the stakes are higher now. The charge is to use this generational team’s arrival to spur the next generation, to inspire not just the little kids who escorted the players on the pitch for the anthem to dream of scoring a World Cup goal, but to create converts who might otherwise not consider the sport.
And that happens only in the basest of American ways: Winning. The Americans have won just one knockout game in their history, and that was back in 2002.
“For sure, we’re going to enjoy this one tonight and spend some time with our families,” Pulisic said. “But then we’re going right back to work. There’s so much more we want to accomplish in this tournament.”
