Tim Ream<\/a> is the only member of the team who was alive in 1994, but he and his younger teammates repeatedly have been reminded of the impact that tournament had on soccer in the U.S. That 1994 team won just one game, though, scored just two goals and didn\u2019t make it past the round of 16.<\/p>\nThis team is convinced it can do better \u2014 on and off the field.<\/p>\n
![\"Fans](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781438830_92_.jpeg\")
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Fans cheer after U.S. beat Paraguay to open the World Cup Friday at SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n
(Kelvin Kuo\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s trying to be an inspiration for the next generation and grow the game,\u201d midfielder Tyler Adams said. \u201cI think we have the opportunity to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of that is kick-starting the kind of interest in soccer that briefly swept the country during the first U.S. World Cup 32 years ago. And this team certainly energized fans Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving this crowd around us, seeing the red, white and blue, it\u2019s awesome,\u201d Pulisic said. \u201cIt\u2019s really pushing us forward. We just hope it continues like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will if Pulisic and Co. continue playing like that.<\/p>\n
The U.S. controlled the ball for nearly an hour of the 90 minutes, completed more than twice as many passes as Paraguay and took almost twice as many shots. It was a game that was as attractive and inviting as it was one-sided, one that might turn the most skeptical viewer into a fan.<\/p>\n
It was, midfielder Weston McKennie said, the kind of game that could push the U.S. closer to becoming a proper soccer nation.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
American midfielder Weston McKennie outruns two Paraguay defenders.<\/p>\n
(Kelvin Kuo\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it\u2019s a World Cup and it\u2019s in America, people came out,\u201d McKennie said. \u201cWe\u2019re OK with that. There\u2019s a lot of people that maybe have never come out to support us. But hopefully today, with this performance, they can connect with us.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel this electricity in the stadium and the passion. That\u2019s one thing that\u2019s going to change soccer here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulisic and McKennie helped put the U.S. in front to stay in the seventh minute, although the goal was credited to Paraguayan midfielder Dami\u00e1n Bobadilla, who got his right foot in front of a McKennie pass intended for Balogun and deflected it into the net for an own goal. Pulisic made the whole sequence happen, however, pushing the ball between a pair of defenders before poking it on to McKennie in the center of the box.<\/p>\n
Balogun scored twice in the final 20 minutes of the first half, one-timing a perfect pass from Pulisic in from the penalty spot in the 31st minute, then running on to a perfectly weighted through ball from Malik Tillman and avoiding two defenders to line a left-footed shot into the top left corner five minutes into stoppage time.<\/p>\n
The brace was the first of Balogun\u2019s international career and came in his World Cup debut before a crowd of family and friends, a cheering section he saluted from behind the goal line after scoring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to sort through a lot of ticket [requests.] It\u2019s a dream night, you know? I\u2019ve not been able to take it all in,\u201d said Balogun, whose brace marked the first multigoal game by an American in the World Cup since 1930. <\/p>\n
And that wasn\u2019t the only history the U.S. made Friday. Defender Chris Richards, whose status for the opener was in doubt after he tore two ligaments in his left ankle a month ago, completed all 83 of his passes, the most without a miss in a World Cup game since 1966.<\/p>\n
Mauricio pulled one of those goals back for Paraguay in the 73rd minute, before Gio Reyna closed the scoring with his first World Cup goal deep in stoppage time.<\/p>\n
Pulisic, who said he took a kick to his left calf in the first half, was replaced by Sebastian Berhalter to start the second. Pulisic showed no signs of injury while talking with reporters after the match, and coach Mauricio Pochettino is hopeful the injury will not limit Pulisic during the next match Friday against Australia.<\/p>\n
For the U.S., the commanding win over Paraguay was just the start. The best, the players promise, is yet to come.<\/p>\n
![\"Fans](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781438831_643_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Fans fill SoFi Stadium during the U.S. World Cup win over Paraguay on Friday.<\/p>\n
(Kelvin Kuo\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was a great starting point for us,\u201d McKennie said. \u201cBut we know that\u2019s just a start and this is something we don\u2019t want to over-celebrate. Because we want this to be the normal for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have two more games to go in the group. Hopefully we improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Pulisic: \u201cThere\u2019s so much more we want to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n
And not all of that will take place on the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. men\u2019s soccer team isn\u2019t only trying to win games in this World Cup. It is trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146615,145222,15722,423,48,52,51,47,50,49,146614,5463,47265,143377,31706,82274,39534,427,37915,88037,5393],"class_list":["post-360286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-big-goal","tag-folarin-balogun","tag-front","tag-game","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mckennie","tag-minute","tag-paraguay","tag-pulisic","tag-soccer-team","tag-sold-out-crowd","tag-stoppage-time","tag-team","tag-u-s-soil","tag-u-s-man","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781438830_61_.jpeg\")
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