Los Angeles shines bright in American opener of World Cup '26

INGLEWOOD, Calf. — The City of Angels knows how to put on a show.

SoFi Stadium was the site of the American and Team USA's opening match against Paraguay of the FIFA 2026 World Cup. This is the first time in history that a continent is hosting the tournament. Along with the United States, Mexico and Canada are sharing hosting duties. Mexico City kicked off the festivities on Thursday afternoon with Mexico defeating South Africa 2-0.

Friday night was America's turn and LA brought out the stars to get the party started. Musical artists Katy Perry and LISA from the group Blackpink performed in an opening ceremony to rev up the crowd of 70,492. Before the teams came out for the national anthems, flag bearers representing each of the 48 countries in the tournament paraded out to the middle of the pitch where a huge FIFA logo donned the midfield circle. The three host nations were the last to make their way to the field.

Of course, the majority of the fans were rooting for Team USA, but the Paraguayans also represented as they were donned in their country's colors and flags. They made their presence known cheering and chanting from the time they entered the stadium.

As I drove into the stadium area at 2pm in the afternoon after dealing with typical LA traffic, there were droves of fans decked out in the USA gear walking up to the stadium a good four hours before kickoff in a spirited mood. Many there were experiencing their first World Cup as yours truly did.

Business located along Prairie Ave. where the parking lots were located, were getting fans fired up walking by with DJ's spinning music, their parkign lots were decorated in red, white and blue and gave out handouts to anybody walking by.

Once inside the sold-out crowd were ready to roar as both squads took the pitch during warmups waving rally towels that were given out to anybody who wanted one as volunteers all inside the stadium were more than happy to put them in the hands of the fans.

As far as the game went, the American fans were the ones who did most of the cheering as Team USA scored three goals in the opening 45 minutes for a 3-0 lead sending the pro-American crowd into a frenzy.

Team USA led by striker Florian Balogun two goals, routed Paraguay in 4-1 victory to get off to a great start in Group D which also includes Australia and Turkiye who play against each other in both country's opening match on Saturday night.

Midfielder Christian Pulisic, also known as Captain America, started off the offensive showcase for Team USA in the 7th minute when he made a quick move to split two Paraguayan defenders before slipping the ball over to Weston McKennie inside the box. McKennie's pass attempt went off the foot of defender Damian Bobadilla for an own goal. The Americans never looked back.

Balogun scored his first goal in the 31st minute when he finished a brilliant cross into the middle of the box by Pulisic with a right-footed one-timer. Then he recorded his brace right before halftime after a great individual display using his size and strength to gain possession inside the box before beating Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gil with a rocket of a shot from 12 yards out.

Pulisic was subbed out to the start the second half by Sebastian Berhalter as head coach Mauricio Pochettino said after the match that Pulisic was kicked in the calf and it tightened up on him during halftime. With Pochettino's team up three goals there was no need to risk any further injury to America's best play with still two more group stage matches left and into the knockout round stages.

In fact, if Team USA finishes first in Group D, they would play their Round of 32 match right here at Levi's Stadium.

Midfielder Mauricio finally gave the visiting fans something to cheer about and kept his team from being shutout when he scored in the 73rd minute but it was too little too late for the South American country as the Americans didn't panic and calmed the waters in the final 20 minutes. Giovanni Reyna concluded the match's scoring on the final play of the night when he fired in a shot from 15 yards for his first goal of the tournament.

Team USA showed they are a team to be reckoned with in this World Cup and Los Angeles, for this night, showed they were ready to host and entertain a huge crowd for the biggest sporting event on the planet.

Team USA continues Group D play on Friday when they take on Australia in an afternoon tilt on Friday June 19th at noon at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington.