INGLEWOOD, Calif. — For years, the U.S. men’s national team has been told what this summer could be. It was a chance to prove something, everyone said, in a home World Cup. A chance to silence doubters and reward believers. A chance to, in the team’s own words, change American soccer forever.
All they had to do was take it.
In truth, saying they took it would be underselling it. The USMNT seized that opportunity, dribbled around with it a bit and then seized it again and again. For years, they’ve imagined what this moment could look like. Even the most optimistic among them might not have believed it would look quite like this: USMNT 4, Paraguay 1, and a night filled with more excitement than could be captured by a mere scoreboard reference.
“I think that was the bigger moment for us: just hearing the national anthem,” midfielder Weston McKennie said, describing the USMNT’s perfect World Cup night. “Hearing the fans singing it, just in that moment, it’s one of those things that just pushes the feeling even further, where you’re like, ‘I’m proud to be American.’ This is my home, this is my country, and that’s something that is hard to describe.
“It’s something that, as a player, you just feel whenever you see that. And so even if a lot of the people here were maybe first-time comers and have never supported us before, or maybe just came out because they wanted to get out of the house and go to an event, I hope they were captivated by what we did today.”
That’s a good word for it: captivated. That was the level the USMNT played at on Friday night. From the opening whistle, they sliced and diced an overmatched Paraguay team. They danced and entertained. They scored and celebrated. Generally, they had fun, and that fun was blasted onto millions of screens across the United States.
That was worth more than three points, although, in this tournament setting, those points and goals sure mattered, too. The USMNT won on Friday. So, too, did American soccer, as this team started its home World Cup with a bang too loud to ignore.
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