DON'T MISS A MOMENT OF THE WORLD CUP

Your all-access pass to scores, live updates, and insights

Explore GOAL | Ryan Tolmich | Jun 15, 2026 03:52+06:00

'Be careful, other sports' - USMNT made the most of their World Cup first impression, and soccer in America may never be the same again

Analysis | USA | FEATURES | USA vs Paraguay | Paraguay World Cup

The USMNT had one chance to show the country - and the world - what soccer in America is and could become. They made the most of it.

These are the feelings that change things. National anthems sung so loudly they could be heard for miles. Skill moves hit with such audacity that all anyone could do was laugh. Goals, too - plenty of them - each crescendo louder than the last, each celebration wider than the one before.

Christian Pulisic’s dribble. Folarin Balogun’s cutback. Gio Reyna’s trivela. Chris Richards’ composure, Sergino Dest’s courage, Malik Tillman’s flair. Mauricio Pochettino, seemingly overcome by it all, sprinting onto the field like a current player, not a former one, desperate to celebrate with everyone else.

Bedlam in the crowd. Beers thrown in living rooms. Parents hugging children while trying to explain just how long they’ve waited for this.

These are moments and, as Pochettino would say, "This is football!" This is what makes it all so special. And on Friday night, in American soccer’s most important moment, the rest of the country felt it in abundance.

That will be the lasting legacy of the U.S. Men's National Team's 4-1 win over Paraguay, a game that was so much more than a game; it was a moment. It was one watched by a record audience, with nearly 16 million tuning in, one that allowed many to feel something about the American game for the first time.

There might be a time, years from now, when we all look back and see that night in Los Angeles as an era-starter, a night where everything changed and people started to look forward and stop looking back.

For generations, fans of the USMNT held out on belief. There would be a day, someday, when the U.S. could step into a World Cup and play. Not just win, not just scrape by - actually play. Dazzle, entertain, dominate. Someday, those fans hoped, the traditional grit would be matched with pure talent. How special would that be?

Those generations laid the foundation. They showed up, supported and worked to take the game forward. All the while, they hoped and believed it could happen. After Friday, a new generation won't have to hope and believe; they'll know it's possible because they saw it with their own eyes.

The performance

Entering this summer's World Cup, the U.S. had played 37 total matches at the world's biggest tournament. They'd won just nine. Only six of those nine had come in the last 76 years. Just one had been by multiple goals.

All of that is to say that this wasn't a common feeling. USMNT games were never parties; they were tests of will. Players at home fought, suffered and, ultimately, survived. Fans stressed through every touch and felt every moment, knowing that it could all change in an instant.

There was nothing that could have changed what happened against Paraguay. It was thorough. It was planned out and perfectly executed. From the opening whistle to the moment Reyna bent that legacy-defining goal into the back of the net with the last kick of the game, the game was a celebration, one unlike anything American soccer had ever seen before.

It was Reyna's goal that perhaps best exemplified that fact: 70 seconds, 26 passes and one jaw-dropping finish on par with any you'll see this summer. It was a goal that had foreign fans raving on social media as they declared that the Yanks had finally arrived. It was also a goal that made American fans emotional because it came in a way and in a game that never felt possible.

In between, though, there were plenty of moments. Pulisic dribbled past two defenders to set up the opener, an unfortunate own goal. Tillman, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams ran the show in midfield. Balogun scored twice, with his second showcasing the fact that the USMNT may have a world-class No. 9 up top. Hell, there was even a moment where the ball popped out to Sebastian Berhalter 40 yards out and the crowd demanded he shoot. He missed and everyone cracked a smile, such were the stress levels in the room at that point of the night.

"We just wanted to go out there and feel like how we felt when we played pickup ball," McKennie said. "The hard work and everything that we did is what we did before. Everything we did to get to this moment, that was hard work and sacrifice. That was the time that we put in. Now, it's about going out there and just having fun."

It was a fun night for the players, who spent most of the evening dancing past every challenge Paraguay threw at them. It might have been even more fun for those in the crowd, who will likely say that whatever they paid to get in was worth every penny.

The atmosphere

It began early. Hours before kickoff, crowds of fans in Red, White and Blue marched their way into the stadium that FIFA temporarily changed the name from SoFi Stadium to Los Angeles. They marched carrying flares of red smoke. They marched with Pulisic signs. They marched past police on horses, street vendors and small enclaves of Paraguay fans. They wore George Washington costumes, eagle helmets and jerseys of their favorite stars.

It was the jerseys, Adams says, that stood out. At the last World Cup, the members of the USMNT felt like they weren't represented in those shirts and, ultimately, they felt America wasn't either. This time, they designed them, focusing on one moment in mind: this one.

"The stadium was completely full with those jerseys," Adams said. "We created those jerseys with Nike in order to look into the stands and be like, 'That's us'. It felt like it was us."

That connection between players and fans felt real. The national anthem was sung loud by the 70,000-plus in attendance, many of whom were fans of the USMNT. Players looked emotional as they stood next to their longtime friends and looked around. Some were able to lock eyes with loved ones, although Balogun admitted that it was hard. There were simply too many red and white stripes for eyes to sift through, even if you knew, roughly, where the family was sitting.

Family, friends, fans and everyone in between had plenty to celebrate, which is why Friday became the celebration of American soccer. In the stadium, it ended with a huddle, one of the full USMNT, players and staff. At the center of that huddle was Mark McKenzie, who led the USMNT in a moment of reflection after what had just happened. In homes, though, the night didn't end when the broadcast did; the parties went into the night and the TVs stayed on as long as humanly possible.

Those watching at home

For many, first World Cup memories begin at home. That's only natural. First exposure to these tournaments often happens through the television screen and, only after that, does a viewer's soccer journey really begin. A lot of those journeys began on Friday night.

On Saturday, FOX announced that 15,986,000 viewers tuned into their English-language coverage of the USMNT's World Cup opener. That's up 106 percent on their previous opener in 2022 against Wales. The audience peaked at nearly 19,000,000 viewers in the final moments of the match, which means plenty of people tuned in just in time to see Reyna's curtain closer. Telemundo, meanwhile, added an additional 8.9 million viewers across its channel and on streaming service Peacock. Add it all together and nearly 25 million watched on from home.

There are certain things those numbers can't tell us. How many watched on for the first time? How many players who will be on the 2042, 2046 or 2050 World Cup team started their soccer adventures with this game? How many people tuned in, saw something they liked and will be back again next week for the match against Australia?

The players played with those questions in mind. Ultimately, they did what they could to convince the world to stay with them.

"I hope they were captivated by what we did today," McKennie said. "I think, Americans, they want something exciting, and they want to see action and they want to see something. I think scoring four goals and just there being five goals in general in a game today, that was something that could captivate them as well as just seeing the joy that we had and the togetherness that we had on the field."

What comes next

This, ultimately, is just the beginning of this World Cup. So, while it may be the beginning of something bigger, everything has to keep moving. Friday was a start, not a finish, not an end product.

The USMNT's players reiterated that on Friday night. There would be celebrations and little moments of reflections, yes, but soon after, it was back to work. Balogun was going to watch Netflix. Adams would briefly enjoy the New York Knicks' NBA Finals triumph before getting back to work. The team would spend some time with family, recenter and then look towards Australia, who captured the hearts of their own country with a 2-0 win over Turkey to start their tournament run.

The show goes on, then, but there's no overstating how well that show started. You get one chance at a first impression, and the USMNT knocked theirs out of the park.

“Now,” Pochettino told FOX, “[people] realize that soccer here in America is massive. It’s big. Be careful, other sports.”

That, ultimately, will be the lasting legacy of the win over Paraguay, a game that might go down as the most important game in the USMNT's history. Given the benefit of hindsight, it could also go down as the spark, the one that won over a country long treated as unwinnable and the one that showed the next generation of fans what it means to believe.

Of course, it's just a start. Of course, there's more World Cup left to be played. And, of course, the tests will get harder from this point forward, because they always do in a World Cup. The truth is, though, that more people will be along for the ride for those tests, and the reason why will be because they were captured by what they saw on Friday night.