{"id":213613,"date":"2026-06-13T04:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T04:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/usmnt-thrash-paraguay-to-begin-2026-world-cup-campaign-in-style-live-updates-pulisic-latest-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T04:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T04:47:10","slug":"usmnt-thrash-paraguay-to-begin-2026-world-cup-campaign-in-style-live-updates-pulisic-latest-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/usmnt-thrash-paraguay-to-begin-2026-world-cup-campaign-in-style-live-updates-pulisic-latest-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"USMNT thrash Paraguay to begin 2026 World Cup campaign in style: Live updates, Pulisic latest &#8211; The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>World Cup<br \/>World Cup 2026<br \/>LIVE<br \/><span><\/span><br \/>Advertisement<br \/>live<br \/>Updated <time datetime=\"2026-06-13T04:43:05.650Z\">4m ago<\/time><br \/><strong>The USMNT got its home World Cup campaign off to the best possible start by easing past Paraguay 4-1 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.<\/strong><br \/>The U.S. raced out of the blocks and took the lead when Weston McKennie\u2019s cross was turned into the Paraguay net by the unfortunate Dami\u00e1n Bobadilla.<br \/>The outstanding Folarin Balogun then took center stage for the U.S., scoring two fine goals after seeing an impressive earlier finish ruled out for offside.<br \/>Paraguay\u2019s Maur\u00edcio pulled one back late on, but Gio Reyna restored the three-goal lead with a fantastic finish that crowned a dream evening for the USMNT.<br \/>GO FURTHER<br \/>USMNT relentless vs. Paraguay to win World Cup opener: Balogun stars; did Pulisic get hurt?<br \/>The Mauricio Pochettino Press is THE tactic of this World Cup thus far.<br \/><strong>Weston McKennie<\/strong> said he got \u201cgoosebumps\u201d on the field during the national anthem, looking around, seeing all the fans.<br \/>Said the night was exactly what he\u2019d hoped it would be \u2014 but also stressed that it\u2019s just a start.<br \/>Nothing is guaranteed, but by winning \u2014 and winning handily \u2014 the U.S. has all but punched its ticket to the knockout stage. <br \/>It\u2019s a far cry from leaving it until the very end and sweating out the final moments of the group stage four years ago in Qatar.<br \/>According to<strong> <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/interactive\/fifa-mens-world-cup-2026-tracker\/group-knockout-chances-country\/united-states\/\" target=_self><strong><em>The Athletic<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s World Cup tracker,<\/a> the U.S. now has a staggering 97 percent chance of going through to the round of 32. The expanded format, which sees eight third-place teams go through, certainly helps \u2014 but so too does a dominant performance.<br \/>There\u2019s work to be done, as just going through isn\u2019t the goal. That goal is winning the group, for which the U.S. has a 59 percent chance of achieving, according to the tracker. <br \/>By doing so, the U.S. would face a third-place finisher from Groups B, E, F, I or J. Anything less would figure to ramp up the degree of difficulty for that first knockout game. <br \/>Those scenarios will come into focus as the tournament unfolds but for the meantime, the U.S. could hardly have put itself in better position after one match.<br \/>Time and time again throughout the laborious buildup to the 2026 World Cup, the U.S. played in half-empty stadiums, in soulless environments, or even as an away team on home soil.<br \/>Tonight, fans met the moment just like their team. They began filing into SoFi Stadium four hours before kickoff, buzzing with excitement. There were American soccer lovers from many different walks of life \u2014 Black men and White men, Latina women and Asian women, grandparents and young kids, many wearing U.S. soccer jerseys or other paraphernalia.<br \/>Overpriced tickets had generated concern the match would not be sold out. But diehard supporters, many of whom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7356159\/2026\/06\/12\/usmnt-first-world-cup-game-tickets\/\" target=_self>jumped at dipping prices over the past week<\/a>, decided they couldn\u2019t miss this grand occasion. <br \/>They helped propel the team and the team propelled them; the virtuous cycle of emotion head coach Mauricio Pochettino has long craved came to fruition.<br \/>With the reaction continuing to come through from L.A. but with the immediate dust settling, it really is hard not to be impressed with what USMNT did tonight. <br \/>It looked well drilled and certain in what it was trying to do, and it did it with energy and power that blew away a Paraguay team that wanted time and patience. No chance.<br \/>Australia might just have to rethink any plans to approach its second game similarly to Paraguay. Equally, it will be a few games yet before we can truly assess just how good this U.S. unit is.<br \/>Still, that really is some start \u2014 when so much of all this is about belief and confidence. <br \/>I was just on the subway in New York City, coming from Brooklyn to Manhattan, and walked past six separate people on the platform who were all watching \u2014 either for the first time or replays \u2014 goals scored by USMNT tonight. <br \/>Which is very similar to scenes I saw during the Knicks game earlier this week. <br \/>That\u2019s cut through.<br \/>Safe to say, there are going to be so many awesome photos from that game.<br \/>Many of them will make good posters.<br \/>But this one is just a beautiful bit of timing from <strong>Gio Reyna<\/strong>\u2019s gorgeous fourth goal. <br \/>If you haven&#x27;t caught World Cup fever yet \u2014 even after tonight\u2019s win in Inglewood \u2014 fear not! There is plenty of time to get into it.<br \/>Four of the 104 matches are in the books with all three co-hosts up and running, two of them with wins and Canada fighting back to draw.<br \/><strong>Thursday<\/strong><br \/><strong>Today<\/strong><br \/>It\u2019s so, so good for the tournament that all three host nations have turned up. <br \/>Will make such a buzz across the cities.<br \/><strong>Mauricio Pochettino<\/strong> on the fans in Los Angeles tonight:<br \/>&#x1f4ac; <strong><em>\u201cThe fans were amazing. On behalf of the whole team, massive thank you to the fans. The energy translated to the team was amazing.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><br \/>According to TicketData.com, the lowest-price tickets \u2014 referred to as the \u201cget-in price\u201d for the USMNT\u2019s next match against Australia in Seattle \u2014 have spiked over the last few hours.<br \/>They are now sitting at around $1,700 USD.<br \/>Demand appears to be skyrocketing after this U.S. performance tonight!<br \/>As well as the U.S. stars \u2014 Richards, Adams, Pulisic, Balogun \u2014 it was a good day for some of the lesser players too.<br \/>Experienced defender Tim Ream was solid and reliable, <strong>Sebastian Berhalter<\/strong> was effective off the bench, and <strong>Gio Reyna<\/strong> scored that gorgeous fourth goal too.<br \/>An all-round top performance where so many players contributed.<br \/>Sounds like it\u2019s still quite in the mixed zone as our reporters wait for the players to come through. <br \/>But <strong>Tim Ream<\/strong> has been speaking to broadcasters after his night, so here\u2019s a bit of what he said:<br \/>&#x1f4ac; <strong><em>\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to lead the team and just to be part of the group. We\u2019ve put in a lot of work and the guys have done a lot to get to this point. <\/em><\/strong><br \/><strong><em>\u201cTo put in a performance like that and get three points and start the way we have, is everything we wanted. Hats off to the guys \u2014 a lot of firsts, first goals \u2026 it\u2019s been a good night overall.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><br \/>Well played yourself, Tim.<br \/>OK, we\u2019re sorry &#8230; Maybe 22nd was a little cautious.<br \/>GO FURTHER<br \/>Re-ranking the 48 World Cup teams after day one of the tournament<br \/>Paraguay didn\u2019t really want to press the U.S. backline at any point tonight, so that no doubt helped how Tim Ream and <strong>Chris Richards<\/strong> went about their work.<br \/>Still, it\u2019s notable that Richards completed ALL 83 passes he attempted against Paraguay \u2014 which is the most passes with a 100 percent accuracy rate by any player in any World Cup match since 1966.<br \/>Another 60-year first!<br \/>Chris Richards, who returned from injury, and the highly experienced <strong>Tim Ream<\/strong> formed a stable base at the heart of the United States defence.<br \/>Ream became the oldest player to appear for the country at the World Cup, at 38 years and 250 days old.<br \/>He also Ream completed 23 line-breaking passes: the most by any player in a match so far at this year\u2019s World Cup, and the most by a defender in a World Cup match since John Paintsil for Ghana against the U.S. in 2010 \u2014 a match which went to extra time.<br \/>Let\u2019s bring you some more stats from a special night in Los Angeles.<br \/>First up \u2014 speed! <strong>USMNT<\/strong>\u2019s opening goal in the seventh minute was the third-fastest goal by a host nation in their opening match at the World Cup: France scored in the first minute in 1938, Germany in the sixth in 2006.<br \/>The U.S. has now also won a World Cup match by three goals for the third time \u2014 the previous two both coming in 1930, with 3-0 wins over Belgium and Paraguay, respectively. <br \/>And one more. This is also the first time the U.S. has scored four goals in a World Cup match.<br \/>Thanks to our friends at Opta for those magic numbers.<br \/>It is only the fourth game of the tournament but that may well be the most dominant group-stage performance we will see at this World Cup.<br \/>Other than a small patch of sloppy defending that allowed Paraguay to get on the scoresheet in the second half, that was a near-perfect showing from USMNT.<br \/>A great way to build some early momentum for Mauricio Pochettino and his players.<br \/>Speaking of<strong> Folarin Balogun <\/strong>goals, he is the second player to score multiple goals in a World Cup match for USMNT. <br \/>The previous player? <br \/>Bert Patenaude in 1930 with three goals. So 96 years ago and yet \u2026 also against Paraguay!<br \/>Team Stats<br \/>USA<br \/>PAR<br \/>Game Details<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMitwFBVV95cUxPLUJHcG9QZXctRUYtUDFLdWR5dEFLX0wta2QwOUNzaGFMYWpITTdyUGVfQkIydU9teWV5U214dGNCaFZINmhsSGFiYVAtSzZlR2RXY2c5MmRvRXdyTEJwWE5LOWlfQlZkS2F5UU9CWVlseHNHOFFib0FmZlZYOVRCcDhGS3Y4bncyZXU3MGVfRGdCVDJadjd2eTBUcEFNWXI4SkdUTGNqNG1lSkRNTlpDVElfdWpYeGs?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World CupWorld Cup 2026LIVEAdvertisementliveUpdated 4m agoThe USMNT got its home World Cup campaign off to the best possible start by easing past Paraguay 4-1 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.The U.S. raced out of the blocks and took the lead when Weston McKennie\u2019s cross was turned into the Paraguay net by the unfortunate Dami\u00e1n Bobadilla.The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-213613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}