⚽ FIFA World Cup 2026 · Group D
United States
USA
Full time
4-1
Paraguay
PAR
2026-06-12 · Los Angeles Stadium (SoFi Stadium), Los Angeles
The verdict“A one-sided Hollywood party with genuine star power up front, but Paraguay showed up as the catering staff, not the co-headliner.”
The Performance Review
Look, USA vs Paraguay, you came out swinging and that is legitimately impressive. A 7th-minute own goal from Damian Bobadilla basically handed the hosts a gift-wrapped opener before Paraguay had even found their seats. Then Folarin Balogun went and scored twice before halftime, at 31 and 45+5 minutes, making this a 3-0 cakewalk by the time the tunnel swallowed both squads for oranges. As a piece of football entertainment, you were thrilling for exactly one half of football. The problem is you are a 90-minute product, not a highlight reel.
Paraguay, your defensive shape in the first half was a polite suggestion rather than an actual plan. You allowed USA 16 attempts and only mustered 9 yourself, with a single shot on target to show for it. Your consolation goal from substitute Mauricio in the 73rd minute was a decent moment of rebellion, but by then the match had already filed its ending paperwork. Offering a pulse after conceding three goals is not a comeback arc, it is a footnote. You were the second half of a fireworks show where someone already turned the lights back on.
And then there was the 90+8 finish from Gio Reyna, a late substitute who came off the bench and immediately scored a gorgeous goal at the end of a long passing move. That is either a coaching masterstroke or a reminder that your starters left enough work on the table for a sub to clean up in injury time. Either way, USA finished 4-1, a record World Cup score for them, and the match delivered enough action to justify its existence. Just barely.
The VAR Tax
VAR spent the 53rd minute explaining to referee Danny Makkelie that Tim Ream, already booked, had not actually fouled anyone, and that Miguel Almirón had dived so convincingly he fooled the ref in real time, which is impressive in its own useless way. The card was transferred from the innocent to the guilty and play resumed, but the spectacle of 'VAR check: mistaken identity' flashing on the giant screens at SoFi will live rent-free in viewers' heads as proof that football's technology budget is still paying the debt of football's incompetence budget.
Who Got Burned
Paraguay's Damian Bobadilla got burned first, most literally, putting the ball into his own net in the 7th minute and becoming the accidental opening act of America's home party. But the real victim of the evening was Paraguay's defensive unit as a collective organism. USA put 13 of their 16 attempts inside the penalty area and converted a frankly embarrassing percentage of them. Paraguay's goalkeeper was not so much busy as he was repeatedly humiliated by the scoreboard. When your most memorable moment as a defense is an own goal at minute seven, you have not shown up to a football match, you have shown up to a press conference announcing your own defeat.
The Bright Side
Folarin Balogun is the genuine article and this match proved it loudly. Born in New York, raised in London, eligible for three national teams, he chose the USA in 2023 and repaid that faith with a World Cup brace, the first by a US player since 1930. His second goal, a curled finish into the top-left corner off a pinpoint pass from Malik Tillman, was the kind of moment that makes the whole tournament worth watching. When he said afterward that he had 'visualized scoring' and that it was 'a real dream,' you believed every word. That is a striker who arrived on the biggest stage and simply refused to be nervous.
Think your work can survive this?
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.