The United States men’s national team hadn’t seen a performance like this since 1930. That’s the year Bert Patenaude scored the first hat trick in World Cup history. On Friday night at SoFi Stadium, Folarin Balogun didn’t quite match that feat — but he came close enough to rewrite the record books.
Playing in his first World Cup match, Balogun scored twice in the first half, becoming the first American player since Patenaude to bag multiple goals in a single World Cup game. The opponent? Paraguay — the same team Patenaude torched 96 years ago. The symmetry was impossible to ignore.
Balogun’s first goal came in the 31st minute, a crisp first-time finish off a Christian Pulisic pass from inside the box. His second arrived deep into first-half stoppage time, a moment of individual brilliance where he beat two defenders before ripping a shot into the top corner. He nearly had a third before halftime, but an offside call wiped it away.
The 4-1 victory marked the USMNT’s largest World Cup win since those 3-0 shutouts in the inaugural 1930 tournament. It also marked the first time the Americans scored four goals in a World Cup match — a staggering fact considering they managed just three goals across all four games in the 2022 World Cup.
How the rout unfolded
The tone was set early. In the seventh minute, a rapid transition sequence involving Tim Ream, Chris Richards, Alex Freeman, Weston McKennie and Pulisic forced an own goal from Paraguay’s Damián Bobadilla. From there, the Americans never looked back.
Pulisic was the architect of the first-half dominance, assisting Balogun’s opener and helping generate the own goal before being substituted at halftime for undisclosed reasons. The team has not confirmed whether the change was tactical or injury-related.
Possession was largely one-sided in the opening 45 minutes. Tyler Adams and Chris Richards completed every pass they attempted before halftime. McKennie and Malik Tillman controlled the midfield, and Paraguay — a side that conceded only 10 goals in 18 World Cup qualifiers — looked overwhelmed.
Second-half survival and a cherry on top
Paraguay pulled one back after the break through Mauricio, momentarily threatening a comeback. But the momentum never fully shifted. In stoppage time, substitute Gio Reyna put the game to bed with an outside-of-the-foot finish that had fans online noting the audacity of the strike.
The result gave Mauricio Pochettino’s side a 1-0 start in group play and sent a message to the rest of the tournament: this version of the USMNT can score. The crowd of 70,492 at SoFi Stadium certainly left entertained.
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