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USA’s World Cup moment arrives: How Pulisic, Balogun turned opening night into a spectacle

Under the Hollywood lights of Los Angeles, Mauricio Pochettino's side thrashes Paraguay 4-1 and delivers the kind of performance that could turn curiosity into football mania

At the heart of the demolition were Christian Pulisic and Folarin Bolagun, the creator and the destructor. (AP Photo)

Written by: Sandip G

6 min readJun 13, 2026 09:55 AM IST First published on: Jun 13, 2026 at 09:45 AM IST

When the final whistle blew, the beatific Los Angeles Stadium was a blizzard of miniature US flags fluttered in the stadium.

The stands fully enjoyed a blockbuster evening, arguably the co-hosts’ most authoritative display in the World Cups. The 4-1 scoreline, Giovanni Reyna splashing the icing on the cake in the last minute, fully captured their domination over an unusually frazzled Paraguay.

So joyous the occasion was that the celebrations brought bedlam. They piled onto each other near the corner flag, some weeping, some screaming, before they huddled bang in the middle of the pitch, joined by the support staff. In the broadcasters’ box, Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave the appraisal. “We were speaking before the game about believing. My message to the American people is, if you didn’t believe before the game, that performance in the first half — start believing. This American team can do something big.” It’s a wave that could spill on and grip the entire nation in football mania.

AS IT HAPPENED | USA vs Paraguay, FIFA World Cup 2026

The first half was ripped from a Hollywood thriller in its searing intensity. The Mad Max types where the movie rolled at a frenetic pace, the audience holding their breath and adrenalin shooting through the roofs.

At the heart of the demolition were Christian Pulisic and Folarin Balogun, the creator and the destructor. Pulisic was in an inspired mood, like in his Chelsea spring, playmaking frictionlessly and finding space wherever he drifted in. The opening goal stemmed from a delightful pass of his; the second was a beautiful cut back to Bolagun, the former Arsenal striker, who hammered past the goalkeeper to double the lead. A minute earlier, he had a goal disallowed for off-side after another move that Pulisic initiated.

Folarin Balogun celebrates scoring his side’s third goal against Paraguay with teamates during the World Cup Group D match. (AP Photo)

In the 15-minute spell, the buzzing US could have fired in half a dozen goals. Their moves were svelte and precise, no amount of energy wasted, no pass misplaced. Before the half-time, Bolagun nicked his second goal in the final minute of the stoppage time. He picked a pass in his box, then feigned to stumble and let the defender commit to him, before he spun past him and blasted the ball into the left corner, before teeing off to celebrations.

The USMNT’s desperation to land Balogun stood vindicated. He was born to Nigerian parents in Brooklyn, but raised in London. His eligibility to play for the US was accidental. His mother Florence had come for a vacation in the US where her sister lived. She was seven months pregnant then. So the airplane denied her entry into the return flight, as she could not present a letter from her doctor in London. She stayed back and gave birth to Balogun. So, when her son was confused to choose between nationalities — he had played for the US at the U-17 level but was turning up for England U-21 and had strong interest from Nigeria — she persuaded her to choose the US. “Even when he wasn’t even thinking of making an international decision, I’d already made up my mind that he is going to play for America,” Florence told ESPN television. She was in the stands, tears overflowing, as her son completed a strange destiny.

The USMNT were aggressive in their pursuit of him, a fleet-footed centre forward with pace to burn, hammer for a right foot and nourished by exposure in Europe. Mauricio Pochettino would call him the missing piece in his puzzle, for they faced an acute shortage of goal-scoring forwards. The pursuit was intense and public, and the player would say that US fans would bombard his Instagram account with emojis of the American flag.

Football is steadily hooking them. The exuberant audience at the Los Angeles Stadium testified to the game’s swelling pull in the country. Nights like these help in raising the profile. Barely had the crowd settled into their seats that they leapt out of it. Roughly seven minutes had passed when the hosts struck the first goal, inducing panic in a stingy backline.

Paraguay had conceded only 10 goals in their last 18 games, but Pulisic disarrayed their organisation with a scything pass to Weston McKennie. Paraguay’s Damian Bobadilla’s endeavour to clear ended in an accidental poke towards his own goal, in a sequence eerily resembling the in US’s opening game in the 1994 World Cup against Colombia, where the unfortunate Andre Escobar unwittingly deflected a ball into his own nets. He was shot dead shortly after he returned home.

If the goal was the reward for a composed start, the hosts did not retreat to their own half and defend. They pushed Paraguay further into the back-foot, their men caught between panic and the rush to equalise. Seldom has their backline been probed as relentlessly as the US had. Pulisic was the creator, conducting the game’s tempo with his imagination and courage. Paraguay tried to stifle him with men, but he would wriggle past the muscled chamber with a pickpocket’s cunning. Paraguay grew physical but only ended up conceding fouls and free-kicks. They looked rattled, and at their wits’ end. Their fabled defence lay in tatters.

It was the perfect night that reeked of Americanness from the moment the opening ceremony began. Chicago Bulls’ famous anthem Sirius crackled in the stadium, the packed stands waving miniature sang along passionately. The players strode out thunderous applause, the intensity stirring them towards their most memorable World Cup hour. A pity that the president was not in the stands to watch the show. It was pure Hollywood, in the city of Hollywood, and made for America’s ultimate showman.