INGLEWOOD — Paraguay national coach Gustavo Alfaro ascribed his team’s recovery from a dreadful start in South American World Cup qualifying to a change in mentality.
“All I had to do was shake the tree a little so the spiders would fall off and we would realize the tree is full of fruit,” he said following a win against Brazil.
Friday night, however, they were still shaking off the cobwebs.
El Albirroja ran into a World Cup foe that, for a half at least, looked like Brazil, circa 1970 — the United States.
Yes, that United States.
A men’s national program that managed just seven wins in its last 35 World Cup matches and only one in which it scored three goals struck three times in the first half of Friday’s opener against the stunned Paraguayans en route to a record 4-1 victory at SoFi Stadium.
Both teams’ primary jerseys feature red and white stripes, wavy horizontal for the hosts and vertical for the visitors. That’s where the similarities ended.
It was hard to determine which was higher, the percentage of U.S. fans packed in Stan Kroenke’s $5.5 billion shrine or the percentage of U.S. possession in the first half. Both were prodigious numbers.
The other prodigious number: four, the most goals scored by a U.S. team in World Cup history.
After a nervy start in which Paraguay briefly threatened Matt Freese’s goal, the Yanks got on the scoreboard in the seventh minute after Christian Pulisic split two defenders on the left side and flicked to Weston McKennie, whose cross was deflected by defender Damian Bobadilla into his net for a dreaded own goal.
Some historical context: The last time the U.S. won a World Cup match on home soil, 2-1 against Colombia at the Rose Bowl, it also included an own-goal.
That seemed to relax the hosts, and British-raised forward Folarin Balogun — he was born in New York to Nigerian parents but moved to England a few months later — would have had a hat trick by halftime had one of his strikes not been nixed by offside.
As it was, he scored in the 31st minute on a Pulisic cross and again in first-half stoppage time after controlling a long ball, cutting back on a defender and curling a left-footed shot past goalkeeper Orlando Gill into the upper left corner that certainly qualifies as a golazo.
¡GOLEADA DE ESTADOS UNIDOS!
¡Tremendo golazo de Folarin Balogun! Increíble jugada dentro del área y marca su DOBLETE… ¡3-0!
Baile total de los estadounidenses ante Paraguay. pic.twitter.com/0waPWq126A
— Telemundo Deportes (@TelemundoSports) June 13, 2026
The second half was an exercise in game management and potentially health management, with the unexplained sub of Pulisic at intermission.
Pulisic motioned to people on the field that he was OK, but it seemed an odd decision after his best half of soccer in months, responsible for the first two goals and dangerous seemingly every time he touched the ball.
Then again, he has been injury-prone and they didn’t exactly need him.
The last time the U.S. scored three goals in a World Cup game also came in the tournament opener, a 3-2 win against Portugal in 2002 in South Korea. It bodes well. That year, they reached the quarterfinals, beating Mexico in the round of 16 for their only knockout stage victory in World Cup history.
But that was a 32-team tournament, and only the top two teams in each group advanced, and the Americans barely did after tying and losing their next two matches.
With 48 teams here, the top two in each group make it — as do eight third-place teams. A three-goal victory in the opener — goal differential is a key tiebreaker — doesn’t mathematically guarantee advancement, but it’s a pretty good bet.
Tyler Adams #4 of the United States assists Folarin Balogun #20, who scored against Paraguay during a FIFA World Cup 2026 Group D match at Los Angeles Stadium on June 12, 2026 in Inglewood, California. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Paraguay was forced to come out of its preferred defensive shell in the second half and try to generate offense after averaging just .78 goals in 18 South American qualifiers.
La Albirroja finally did in the 73rd minute, when a misplayed clearance by 38-year-old center back Tim Ream — the oldest U.S. player to appear in a World Cup match — left Mauricio open to slot home a shot and momentarily dampen the celebratory mood among a star-studded SoFi crowd that included Tom Cruise, George Lucas, David Beckham, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jamie Foxx, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Sofia Vergara, Paris Hilton and Chargers safety Derwin James Jr.
The roars returned just before the final whistle, which was supposed to come after seven minutes of stoppage time but Dutch referee Danny Makkelie allowed to go longer, perhaps anticipating the magic off the foot of substitute Gio Reyna.
Instead of mercifully running out the clock, the maligned midfielder from the 2022 World Cup ripped a shot with the outside of his right boot that bent into the upper left corner for the record fourth goal.
It was that kind of night.