Estados Unidos aplasta 4-1 a Paraguay en debut mundialista

Folarin Balogun’s two goals, plus a Damian Bobadilla own goal and Gio Reyna’s stoppage-time finish, gave the United States a 4-1 rout of Paraguay at SoFi Stadium and a start that looked far sharper than the usual opening-night nerves. In front of 70,492 fans in Los Ángeles/Inglewood, the Americans seized control early and never gave it back, turning their Group D debut into a loud statement about the value of hosting and the pressure that comes with it.

The match was already tilted before halftime. Bobadilla’s own goal in the seventh minute opened the door, Balogun struck in the 31st minute, and the forward added his second in first-half stoppage time to send the United States into the break with a 3-0 lead. That was the clearest sign that this was not simply a home crowd feeding off emotion. The tempo was urgent, the finishing was clinical, and Paraguay spent most of the first half trying to survive rather than settle into the game.

Balogun’s finishing stood out as the decisive difference. The United States has often entered major tournaments with flashes of energy but too little ruthlessness in front of goal. Against Paraguay, Balogun needed few invitations, and the team around him kept the pressure high enough to make the scoreline look inevitable rather than opportunistic. Reyna’s goal in the 90th minute plus eight seconds sealed it, while Mauricio Magalhães Prado got Paraguay’s lone goal in the 73rd minute, long after the result had effectively been decided.

The performance also sharpened the contrast between opening-night celebration and something more substantive. FIFA described the atmosphere as an “American party,” and Sky Sports called it the United States men’s national team’s joint-biggest World Cup win at home and one of the largest in its tournament history. For Mauricio Pochettino’s side, that matters because the tournament began under scrutiny, with expectations tied directly to whether the host nation can turn familiar surroundings into a real run.

There is recent evidence that this matchup favored the United States before kickoff. The Americans had already beaten Paraguay 2-1 in a November 2025 friendly in Philadelphia, a useful reminder that this was not an isolated surge. Next comes Australia on June 19 in Seattle for the United States, while Paraguay moves on to Turkey on June 20 in Santa Clara. The margin against Paraguay will not decide a World Cup, but it did suggest the host may be carrying more than home-field noise into the group stage.