Gio Reyna’s buzzer-beating goal in World Cup opener was affirmation of larger message: Th USMNT can play this game originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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INGLEWOOD, Calif. – That last goal could have been nothing more than a device to pump up the goal differential that can be a factor in World Cup group play. When delivered so audaciously, though, with such a supremely confident flourish of skill, Gio Reyna’s last-minute strike became so very much more.
This was the final sentence of United States men’s national team’s declaration: We can play this game. We did not invent it, and we ignored it for the better part of a century, but we’re catching on and catching up.
This 4-1 victory Friday evening over Paraguay, which concluded with Reyna scoring in the final minute on a sizzling strike with the outside of his right foot, was the greatest World Cup performance by the USMNT in its modern history. Until this game, the word “blowout” was necessary in this tournament only when the Americans were on the ugly side of that description. They entered the SoFi Stadium field before 70,492 and, sorry, embarrassed their guests through their 2026 opening game.
This is only the opening game. The idea is to make displays such as this common, in impending group games against Australia and Turkey and whatever they might be able to achieve beyond. There can be no great start, though, without a great start. Think about it.
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“Over the years, one thing we’ve always tried to do is, we want to change American soccer forever,” defender Chris Richards told the Sporting News. “I think tonight was the best way to start off. Every game we play, we want to make a statement. But tonight definitely was kind of that line in the sand for us.”
They played with a degree of skill that once seemed beyond the USMNT, who relied through the first 25 years of their renaissance on a few star players — a Tab Ramos or Claudio Reyna, a Landon Donovan or Clint Dempsey — and a supreme competitive fire many have suggested was absent from the current squad.
Against Paraguay, there were so many stars it was like another release in the Ocean’s Eleven series.
“For me, personally, that’s what I hoped for,” midfielder Weston McKennie told reporters after the game. “Obviously, you never know what’s going to happen. Obviously, there’s a lot of expectations for you that everyone has, that you put on yourself, that you put on yourself as a team, and we know what we’re capable of. Tonight was a great starting point for us.”
McKennie sliced through the previously impenetrable Paraguay defense in the 7th minute with a beautiful move to generate an attack, found forward Christian Pulisic with a sweet pass and ran to make himself available for when Pulisic returned the ball after splitting two defenders with a dribble. McKennie launched a cross upon receiving that, and midfielder Damian Bobadilla deflected that into his own goal.
“We wanted to go out there and feel like however we felt when we played pickup ball,” McKennie said, adding that head coach Mauricio Pochettino emphasizes this approach. “He preaches a lot that the hard work and everything we did is before – everything we did to get to this moment, that was the hard work, that was the sacrifice, that was the time we put in … Because not many moments like this come in your career.”
Folarin Balogun scored twice, the first when left wingback Antonee Robinson placed a beautiful pass down the left side to Pulisic, who found Balogun for a quick finish.
Malik Tillman, a Germany native but dual citizen who committed to the USMNT right before the 2022 World Cup, consistently tore apart Paraguay, particularly with his beautiful pass to Balogun for the goal that made it 3-0 just before halftime.
Pulisic stuffed more magic into 45 minutes than Bruce Springsteen did onto the “Born to Run” LP, before leaving with a minor injury he predicted should be “nothing.”
And Richards, in his first game for anyone in nearly a month, completed more passes without a miss than any World Cup player since 1966, according to Opta.
“I don’t think I’m surprised,” Pulisic said. “I’ve seen us play like this recently, the guys were up for it, and we just put in – you know, we have the ability to play and do the things that we do on the ball, score goals, but today just the effort, everything was there.”
About the only U.S. starter who could not feel wholly comfortable with his performance was goalkeeper Matt Freese, who was given so little to do aside from distributing the ball. When he at last was called upon to make a stop, in the 73rd minute after a quick move from Paraguay collapsed the entire defense and permitted halftime sub Mauricio a clear chance from the left. It was hardly Freese’s fault, but a save would have preserved this as a flawless night.
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This was not a more impressive result than beating Portugal in the opener of the 2002 tournament, the “Golden Generation” Portugal of Luis Figo and Rui Costa and Pauleta. It was not a more important result than defeating Mexico, 2-0, in that same World Cup, the victory that delivered the U.S. to their only quarterfinal appearance in the modern era. It was not more gratifying than defeating Ghana in the 2014 opener, after the Black Stars had eliminated the USMNT from the previous two cycles.
It was a more impressive performance than the Portugal victory, though, because after the Americans seized a staggering 3-0 lead in the first 36 minutes of that one, they had to hang on for more than 20 minutes after a Jeff Agoos own-goal cut the lead to 3-2.
It was more dazzling than the 2-0 win over Mexico because the skill on display against Paraguay from nearly the entire 11 was everything American soccer had dreamed about since launching “Project 2010” – the plan concocted to ostensibly become World Cup contenders within a dozen years – back in 1998.
It was more exhilarating than the Ghana victory because it didn’t require a late rescue, when young defender John Brooks headed in the game-winner off a corner kick in the 86th minute of a tie game.
This was American men’s soccer at its most picturesque.
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“Tonight was a very special night,” Richards said. “I know all the guys felt the love from all 80,000 fans. It was just a perfect night overall.
“After the national anthem hit, I think some of the nerves kind of went away. That was just an unreal moment. I’ve thought about it for the last four years, after missing the last one. First national anthem, hearing it, what that would be like. I couldn’t even describe how beautiful it was.”
Paraguay is not an elite opponent. This is not some world power with a substantial World Cup history. This is the team, however, that yielded only 10 goals in 18 games of CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying. They defeated Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay in earning their position at this tournament. And the USMNT controlled the ball 65 percent of the time, even while leading for 83 minutes. They had 53 touches in the Paraguay box and only allowed 9 in their own end. They frustrated the opposition into five yellow-card infractions, including a dive by Major League Soccer veteran Miguel Almiron when he was just looking to make something, anything happen – even slightly outside the rules.
“We also know this is just a start,” McKennie said. “We don’t want to overcelebrate because we want this to be the normal for us. We have two more games to go in the group, and hopefully we can continue the kind of performance we had today – and even improve more.”
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