These two teams met in the fall in a friendly match. The thing everyone remembers most? The melee at the end. After a mini-confrontation between Alex Freeman and Paraguay’s bench, tensions boiled over. Multiple USMNT players ran in to save the day, defending Freeman while sending a message to a team that, coincidentally, would become a World Cup opponent.
So, is there anything to learn from that game? Is there anything to take away from that scrap? Yes and no.
“At the end, there was a little bit extra,” Tim Ream recalled. “It had the feel of a game that meant something more, and now you look at it, and you think, ‘Okay, it was a perfect test for us in that moment’. It’s good that we’ve had that experience, you come to this point, it’s a World Cup. Yes, there are things you can glean from it and learn, but it’s kind of in the rear-view mirror.”
In that November matchup, the USMNT won, 2-1. Gio Reyna scored four minutes in before Alex Arce scored six minutes later. In the 71st minute, Folarin Balogun scored the winner.
“It was a really, really intense game,” goalscorer Reyna said. “I was happy to score a goal, and I know it was a good win for the team, but obviously, it will be completely different now. A World Cup is hard to compare to. We just have to be ready to match the intensity and energy we did last time. With our talent, we believe we can find a way to get over the line and win the game.”
The truth is, though, that these two teams will look very different on Friday. The USMNT, for example, played without Richards, Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Malik Tillman and Antonee Robinson. Each of those players seems likely to start this next game, so don’t expect this clash to look much like the last one, even if both coaches will surely be studying film for those little advantages.
“I think for the guys that were on the field against Paraguay, it’s helpful because now we’re breaking down film against an opposition with what we did and what we can now change in order to have even more success,” Tyler Adams said. “So, obviously, getting a win against them is good, but they’ll be hungry, probably even hungrier in their first World Cup game against a team that just recently beat them.
“They’ll be hungry to get after it, so we need to deal with that as well.”
