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The U.S. didn’t just win its World Cup opener — it answered every nagging question about whether this country could actually show up for its own tournament.
The USMNT World Cup opener on Friday, June 13 in Inglewood, California went about as well as anyone could have drawn it up: a 4-1 victory over Paraguay, a sell-out crowd of 70,492, and a stadium that felt, from first whistle to last, like a genuine home game. After years of the U.S. playing in front of indifferent or hostile crowds on its own soil, the atmosphere at SoFi Stadium wasn’t just acceptable — it was loud, passionate, and sustained. The doubters, and there were plenty of them, had a rough night.
The Attendance Question Got Answered Immediately
The pre-match anxiety was legitimate. FIFA priced tickets at record levels for opening-round matches — fans reported paying well above $1,000 each on primary and secondary markets, with some father-son pairs reportedly spending over $2,000 per ticket to be there. The day of the match, there were still more than 150 tickets available on FIFA’s primary site with a get-in price around $1,120. After sections of empty seats appeared at Thursday’s opener in Guadalajara, the worry was real.
It didn’t materialize. Fans were marching toward the stadium three hours before kickoff, carrying flags and waving red smoke bombs. Inside, the slow-clap “U-S-A” chant started almost immediately — and it barely stopped. Mauricio Pochettino, whose emotional low point during this cycle reportedly came when the team felt like visitors in their own country during last summer’s Gold Cup, got the polar opposite on Friday night.
Balogun and Reyna Bookended the Night
The match itself delivered the script. Paraguay conceded an own goal early to open the scoring, then Folarin Balogun scored twice before halftime to put the game away. Christian Pulisic came off at the break as a precaution, per reports after the match. Paraguay pulled one back in the second half shortly after a round of Pochettino substitutions. Then, in the final moments of extra time, Gio Reyna — a player who has faced as much scrutiny as anyone on this roster — sent one into the net to restore the pandemonium in the stands and close out a statement performance.
The Real Story Is What This Moment Buys the Sport Long-Term
Here’s what Front Office Sports’ match report doesn’t fully press on: Friday’s atmosphere isn’t just a feel-good story for the USMNT — it’s a data point the entire American soccer ecosystem will spend the next decade citing. The argument that the U.S. can’t sustain genuine soccer culture has been the default position for skeptics since the NASL folded. One sold-out, electric World Cup opener doesn’t retire that argument, but it materially shifts the burden of proof. If the crowds hold — and the schedule gives the U.S. two more chances to prove it, with Australia in Seattle on July 19 and Turkey back in LA on June 25 — MLS expansion pitches get easier, youth soccer investment narratives get stronger, and the next round of TV rights negotiations for the national team happen in a completely different room. The economic flywheel that FIFA is betting on doesn’t spin without moments exactly like this one.
The other implication worth watching: Pochettino’s credibility inside the locker room just rose significantly. A first World Cup win as a manager, on home soil, with the crowd behind him — that’s the kind of night that earns a coach the right to make hard decisions in the knockout rounds without pushback. How he manages the roster depth over the next two group-stage matches will tell us whether he can translate a dream opener into a genuine run.
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