{"id":701115,"date":"2026-06-13T05:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/701115\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T05:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:10:11","slug":"houston-soccer-fans-celebrate-historic-u-s-victory-in-2026-world-cup-opener-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/701115\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston soccer fans celebrate historic U.S. victory in 2026 World Cup opener \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

AP Photo\/Andre Penner<\/p>\n

United States\u2019 Folarin Balogun (20) celebrates scoring his side\u2019s third goal against Paraguay with teamates during the World Cup Group D soccer match in Inglewood, Calif., near Los Angeles, Friday, June 12, 2026.<\/p>\n

Houston’s soccer fans didn’t have to wait long before they began celebrating a great night for the U.S. team. Seven minutes into Friday night\u2019s match against Paraguay in Inglewood, California, hundreds of fans watching at Rice University\u2019s Ion District cheered as the U.S. tallied its first goal of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n

Folarin Balogun scored twice in the Americans\u2019 historic three-goal first half, and the U.S. opened its first home World Cup<\/a> in 32 years with its biggest win in the tournament, a dynamic 4-1 victory.<\/p>\n

“There were questions about whether or not people are really excited [for the World Cup], would there be traffic, but I think everybody’s forgotten all that and are just enjoying the games and having fun,” Rice University President Reginald DesRoches told Houston Public Media after the first goal for the U.S.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

A total of seven World Cup matches will be played in Houston<\/a>, beginning with Sunday\u2019s game between Germany and Cura\u00e7ao at noon.<\/p>\n

The U.S. team won\u2019t play any of its matches in Houston, where Friday\u2019s win was streamed for as many as 400 fans at a free watch party.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Connolly, an intern for the summer at Rice, came from Columbia University in New York. The day before the U.S. match, she had been to a watch party for the tournament-opening match between Mexico and South Africa.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Congo\u2019s soccer team arrives in Houston, where the Texas heat impacted a crowded FIFA Fan Festival<\/a><\/p>\n

“It seems like the city supports the people, and it’s excited for this event, and it seems well done,” she said. “It’s the World Cup. I don’t think there’s ever not going to be excitement.”<\/p>\n

On the other side of the Ion’s massive set of stairs, acting as bleachers, Esteban Resendez said he was pulling for the U.S. in a divided household.<\/p>\n

“My wife is a first-generation American. Her family is from Mexico,” he said. “They’re really excited. Yesterday [Mexico’s winning opening match] was fantastic. I’m rooting for the U.S. … That’s been going on for a while now, [my wife] accepts my American jersey.”<\/p>\n

On Friday, Christian Pulisic<\/a> had an assist in a stellar first-half playmaking performance for the Americans, who enthralled their Southern California fans with an aggressive attack while streaking to a 3-0 halftime lead \u2014 the team\u2019s largest in any World Cup game.<\/p>\n

Gio Reyna ripped another goal in the dying moments of second-half injury time, giving the Americans four goals in a World Cup match for the first time.<\/p>\n

The U.S. scored only three goals combined in its four matches at the Qatar World Cup four years ago, and it had never scored more than three in a World Cup match. But the Americans were a team transformed while playing in new coach Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s more creative system in front of a passionate, star-studded Los Angeles crowd of 70,492.<\/p>\n

Pulisic was replaced by Sebastian Berhalter at halftime for precautionary reasons after he was kicked in the back of his left calf and felt some subsequent tightness.<\/p>\n

“Staying positive,” Pulisic said. “I don’t think it’s anything.”<\/p>\n

Maur\u00edcio scored in the second half for Paraguay, but La Albirroja fell too far behind early in their first World Cup match in 16 years.<\/p>\n

After the U.S. went ahead on an early own-goal created by Pulisic\u2019s playmaking, Balogun scored in the 31st minute<\/a> and again in the fifth minute<\/a> of first-half injury time.<\/p>\n

The New York-born, London-raised striker<\/a> made his World Cup debut with the first multigoal performance from a U.S. player in the tournament since 1930. Balogun chose to represent the U.S. three years ago instead of staying in the English system, where he likely would have struggled to make the Three Lions\u2019 roster \u2014 and the 24-year-old Monaco professional has swiftly provided the top-level striker play historically lacking on U.S. rosters.<\/p>\n

Pulisic created the first two U.S. goals with exceptional runs down the left side. In the seventh minute, he cleverly split two defenders and passed to Weston McKennie, whose centering touch hit Paraguay midfielder Dami\u00e1n Bobadilla’s outstretched foot and went in, setting off pandemonium in the SoFi Stadium stands.<\/p>\n

The Americans gradually amplified their attack centered around Pulisic’s runs \u2014 and three minutes after an apparent goal from Balogun was erased by an offside call, Pulisic again drove the left side and got a deflected pass to the trailing Balogun, who banged it home.<\/p>\n

With first-half injury time winding down, Malik Tillman weighted a long pass to a streaking Balogun, who held up to create space and fired a brilliant shot into the far top corner.<\/p>\n

The Americans were less cohesive without Pulisic in the second half, but Reyna still added the finishing touch by gliding into the box and toe-flicking home his first World Cup goal. The moment was sweet for Reyna, who barely played at the Qatar World Cup amid a messy family dispute with former U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter.<\/p>\n

Dozens of American celebrities and cultural icons turned out for the match 10 miles south of Hollywood, including Tom Cruise, George Lucas, Bill Gates, Halle Berry, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP Photo\/Andre Penner United States\u2019 Folarin Balogun (20) celebrates scoring his side\u2019s third goal against Paraguay with teamates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[166971,23,7095,2091,3729,6377,3,54893,99,81056,303183,21,19,22,20,25,24,84938,303184],"class_list":["post-701115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-america","tag-houston","tag-international","tag-local","tag-national","tag-news","tag-rice-university","tag-sports","tag-u-s-soccer","tag-u-s-mens-national-team","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}