The United States began their World Cup campaign at home with their joint best-ever victory in tournament history, defeating Paraguay 4-1 in Los Angeles.
Any weight of expectation on Mauricio Pochettino’s team was quickly dispelled as they lead from the seventh minute in front of a sell-out crowd, with ex-Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic pulling the strings. His influence forced the opening goal, which Damian Bobadilla put into his own net before being substituted at halftime as a precaution.
He was eventually dethroned by former Arsenal forward Folarin Balogun, who scored twice in the first half to put the hosts out of sight before the break, as a performance full of Pochettino-esque rotations and urgency swept their normally defensively resolute visitors away.
That intensity eased after the break, giving substitute Mauricio a chance to equalize with 17 minutes remaining, but Giovanni Reyna capped a rampant – and well-deserved – opening victory with a fittingly confident outside-of-the-boot finish in the final seconds.
It remains to be seen how much Pochettino and his team can take from their opening victory, and his pre-match claim that the USA can win the World Cup appears unlikely – but for a country that has only won one knock-out World Cup game in its history, this certainly suggests a second may not be far away.
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