INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2014 Folarin Balogun stood at the podium and flashed a bright smile.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s a dreamy night,\u201d he said to the dozens in the news media looking on.<\/p>\n
Teammates and fans would say that, too.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s performance \u2014 two goals in the U.S. team\u2019s 4-1 win against Paraguay in their World Cup opener \u2014 solidified why the program spent years working to sway him from signing with England.<\/p>\n
Balogun was born in Brooklyn but moved to London when he was only 1 month old. He spent his entire childhood in the U.K. and, as a dual citizen, played on national youth teams for both countries. In 2021, he was called up to the England under-21 squad, leading many to believe he would join the \u201cThree Lions\u201d long term.<\/p>\n
But in 2023, Balogun stunned many by agreeing to join the U.S. for the remainder of his international career. It was a monumental result for the Americans, who not only added a desperately needed scoring threat but also beat out one of the world\u2019s soccer powers for his services.<\/p>\n
At the time, Balogun cited the incredible love fans showed him leading up to his choice and the thought of being a focal point for the Americans on the biggest stage.<\/p>\n
Three years (and only one World Cup game) later, he\u2019s already accomplished just that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always said the fans gave me so much motivation. They showed me so much support,\u201d he said after the game. \u201cFor me, the most important thing has always been to repay that. Today is a great opportunity, and I just want to show the fans I made the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
After an own-goal by Paraguay put the U.S. up 1-0 in the seventh minute on Friday, Balogun extended the lead on a beautiful one-timer in the bottom right of the net from a Christian Pulisic<\/a> pass.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Moments before halftime, Balogun struck again. He was fed the ball just outside the box, gained control, juked one defender and sidestepped another before drilling a shot past the goalkeeper to push the U.S. lead to 3-0. Fans went wild, chanting \u201cU-S-A, U-S-A\u201d as the whistle blew.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n When Balogun was subbed out in the 71st minute, he received a standing ovation from the U.S. fans. It was more than deserved: He had become the first American with multiple goals in a World Cup match since 1930.<\/p>\n \u201cNot much else to say. The kid is insane,\u201d Pulisic said about Balogun\u2019s World Cup debut. \u201cHe\u2019s lethal right now in front of the goal. We\u2019re really lucky to have him. Let\u2019s hope it keeps going like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Pulisic added that Balogun provided more than just scoring against Paraguay.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone will look at the goals,\u201d Pulisic said, but also worth noticing was \u201cthe way he\u2019s fighting against these center backs, holding up the balls, getting fouls.\u201d<\/p>\n Balogun wasn\u2019t the only star, however. Pulisic was exceptional<\/a> before being subbed out at the half<\/a>, weaving past defenders and creating scoring chances. Gio Reyna had an incredible goal using the outside of his foot in the 79th minute to seal the victory.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n New head coach Mauricio Pochettino said it was a total team effort, calling the squad \u201camazing.\u201d Pulisic went a step further.<\/p>\n \u201cAll in all an incredible start,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a lot more that we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n The men will travel to Seattle for their second match, against Australia next Friday, before returning to Los Angeles to face Turkey. The top two teams of the group will advance to the knockout stage.<\/p>\n Depending on how they fare, the U.S. men could be playing for more than a month against the best nations in the world. But after Friday\u2019s victory, they\u2019ve earned some downtime.<\/p>\n Asked what his plans were after a legendary debut, Balogun thought for a second before answering.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I think I\u2019ll probably just watch some Netflix.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2014 Folarin Balogun stood at the podium and flashed a bright smile. Subscribe to read this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-701860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701860","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=701860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}