The United States open their home World Cup campaign on Friday against Paraguay. The US roster features two El Paso natives: Ricardo Pepi and Alex Zendejas. <\/p>\n
The US enter this match as a slight +105 favorite (Paraguay +285). In a November friendly the US defeated Paraguay 2-1. Folarin Balogun and Giovanni Reyna scored for the Americans. <\/p>\n
The US put out two encouraging performances in their tune up matches: a 3-2 victory over Senegal and a 2-1 loss to Germany. Off the back of those performances, the group is feeling confident heading into the opener, especially with the home crowd behind them.<\/p>\n
“We have a certain standard that we want, which is to win games,” Defender Chris Richards said. “We had two good friendlies leading into this. If we clean up some things and play with the same intensity, Friday we will get a good result.”<\/p>\n
This was Mauricio Pochettino’s lineup against Germany: Matt Freese (GK), Antonee Robinson (LWB), Tim Ream (CB), Miles Robinson (CB), Alex Freeman (CB), Sergino Dest (RWB), Tyler Adams (CM), Weston McKennie (CM), Christian Pulisic (LW), Malik Tillman (RW), Folarin Balogun (ST)<\/p>\n
This is expected to largely be the starting lineup for the US on Friday. Defender Chris Richards, who is arguably the US’s top center back, has been recovering from an ankle injury that he suffered a couple weeks ago with his club Crystal Palace. Richards missed both friendlies, but has been in full training this week.<\/p>\n
“I’m ready,” Richards told the media Wednesday. “I mean, it’s the World Cup, so I’m going to make myself ready regardless. I’m feeling good. Maybe a little swollen, but nothing tape can’t help.”<\/p>\n
If the Pochettino decides not to risk his top center half, Robinson could feature again or Mark McKenzie could slide into the middle of the American backline. <\/p>\n
Pochettino also added that all 26 players are available for selection. <\/p>\n
Another area to look at is in the second attacking midfield role on the right side. Tillman started against Germany and looked lively in both tuneups. Reyna started against Senegal and could get the nod after his standout performance in the last match against Paraguay. Timothy Weah is also a possible starter in that role. Weah scored the US’s opening goal in the 2022 World Cup against Wales. <\/p>\n
As for the El Pasoans, both Pepi and Zendejas are likely to be bench options on Friday. Pepi provided an assist in the US’s victory over Senegal and has been an effective substitute option throughout his career. Zendejas offers creativity off the right flank and a left footed option. His role could be to provide a spark that unlocks the Paraguayan backline. <\/p>\n
Paraguay is defensively stout and only lost one match in their final 10 World Cup qualifiers. That run included a 2-1 over Argentina in November 2024. However, Paraguay is set to be without star Julio Enciso, who suffered an injury in a pre-World Cup friendly. <\/p>\n
The United States are expecting a tough and physical match on Friday.<\/p>\n
“It starts with energy, focus and intensity,” Reyna said in a press conference this week. “We believer our talent can win a lot of games for us. When we played them in November it was a really hard game, but we understand the World Cup is that much different and it is going to be chippier than last time.”<\/p>\n
Both teams starting XI will be announced approximately an hour before kickoff. The match will kick off at 7pm MST at Los Angeles Stadium. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States open their home World Cup campaign on Friday against Paraguay. The US roster features two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-336139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}