Eden Hazard Headlines U.S. 4-1 Win Over Paraguay at SoFi Stadium
eden hazard may have been the headline reference, but the United States opened its 2026 FIFA World Cup run with a 4-1 win over Paraguay at SoFi Stadium on Friday night. The result came in front of thousands of Southern California fans and gave the U.S. a fast start in a tournament it is expected to shape on home soil.
Christian Pulisic said the squad has been building together for a long time and believes it can compete with anyone. The United States is hosting 78 World Cup matches, with eight of them set for Inglewood's SoFi Stadium, which will be known as Los Angeles Stadium for the duration of the tournament.
Christian Pulisic Leads the Message
“It's like a family, obviously. So many of us have known each other for such a long time and played together for a long time -- you know, a lot of guys at the last World Cup,” Pulisic said when asked about the group's familiarity. He added: “We've just been growing together. Yeah, it's a really good group that we have. We're a really good team. We're able to compete with anyone and we want to be a real force in this tournament. I think that's what we want to show to everyone. I think we know, from the inside, what we're capable of... now it's about showing it.”
Half of the current U.S. roster also played in the 2022 World Cup team that finished 2nd in its group in Qatar and reached the Round of 16. That gives this opening result more weight than a single night in Los Angeles; it shows a core group moving from promise to execution on a stage the country is hosting in full.
Pochettino Keeps the Message Plain
Mauricio Pochettino set the tone before kickoff with a blunt line about preparation: “Everyone knows how to be ready. I say now, there's no need for external motivation or inspirational speech. Tomorrow it's late,” he said at a Thursday press conference. The coach did not frame the opener as a search for energy so much as a test of whether the team could turn familiarity into immediate results.
That carried into the match itself. Team USA beat Paraguay 4-1 for its opening game, while Mexico beat South Africa 2-0 in the World Cup opener on Thursday and Canada and Bosnia-Herzegovina played to a 1-1 draw earlier Friday in Toronto. The U.S. result was the cleanest statement of the day from the region's host nations.
Los Angeles Stadium and the Crowd
SoFi Stadium's tournament role stretches well beyond Friday night. Eight World Cup matches will be played there, and the venue will carry the Los Angeles Stadium name during the competition. That makes the opening win the first of several matches Southern California fans will see at the site.
L.A. Metro has also started preparing for the traffic and transit load around the event, with enhanced World Cup bus service to SoFi Stadium operating from 15 locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Patrick Chandler said, “We want to give people a really easy option to get to the fan zones, to get to the games to go support the U.S.”
For the Americans, the practical next step is simple: keep the standard that produced a 4-1 opener and carry it through the rest of a tournament played largely at home. For fans in Los Angeles, the match was the first sign that the World Cup's local schedule, the transit plan, and the team's ambitions are already moving on the same track.
