The USA cruise to victory in Los Angeles in their opening World Cup match: 4-1 over Paraguay, who only managed a few shots in the second half. Otherwise, it was a red, white and blue show, with Bobadilla’s own goal after a brilliant Pulisic move (7'), Balogun’s brace (31'; 45+5') and G. Reyna’s goal (90+8').
Paraguay’s only goal came from Mauricio (73'), but now let’s look at everything you probably missed from the American night.
📲 EVERYONE at SoFi Stadium, except Trump... who calls Pochettino
At SoFi Stadium, the parade of stars started in the stands: Tom Cruise, David Beckham, George Lucas (creator of Star Wars), Paris Hilton and more. Donald Trump was the notable absentee, staying in Washington, and Marco Rubio was sent in his place: the U.S. Secretary of State.
The U.S. President still made sure to show support for the team with a call to Pochettino and the whole squad: "You have a great chance of going all the way", a routine call in which captain Tim Ream didn’t seem particularly involved.
😅 Ibrahimovic and Henry kick Speed off Fox Sports
Even before the match, there was a pregame show starring Ibrahimovic (who admitted he is also rooting for Croatia) and Thierry Henry on Fox Sports: Henry’s reaction to a comment from Alexi Lalas, the former U.S. player who also had a spell at Padova, has already gone viral.
The pundit spots someone and says "How do you call it? A full-kit wanker", which in American English means "A complete idiot", while in standard English it sounds more like "A complete w***er".Henry’s face says it all.
Then came the inevitable interruption from Speed, who reminded everyone of his love for CR7: "Portugal will win the World Cup," he said on Fox Sports, before being kicked off the show by Ibrahimovic and Henry.
🚔 Pitch invasion attempt stopped: police incredibly efficient
A video of an attempted pitch invasion at SoFi Stadium is also blowing up on social media, though it was actually pretty clumsy. Security for this event is at the highest level, and the American police don’t mess around: in the 97th minute, the guy tried to run onto the field but didn’t even manage to take a single step.
🗽 Balogun: first USA World Cup brace since 1930
Folarin Balogun’s brace, with another goal of his also ruled out, goes down in U.S. history: he is the first American player to score two goals in a World Cup match since July 17, 1930, back in Bert Patenaude’s day. Fun fact: both braces came against Paraguay.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.
