Key events
Paraguay lineup
According to FIFA’s site, the team will line up like so …
Goalkeeper: Orlando Gill
Defense: Junior Alonso, Gustavo Gomez (captain), Omar Aldarete, Juan Jose Caceres
Midfield: Diego Gomez, Miguel Almiron, Andres Cubas, Damian Bobadilla
Forward: Antonio Sanabria, Julio Enciso
According to our team guide, which correctly predicted the 11 players who’ll start, they’ll line up in more of a 4-2-3-1, with Cubas and Bobadilla making up the “2” while outstanding attacker Enciso is in more of a No. 10 role between Almiron, who had a long stint at Newcastle United between tenures with Atlanta United, and Gomez. That leaves Sanabria as the front-runner.
Jeff Rueter
Chris Richards is IN
A 100% record on our projected lineup, with Chris Richards getting his wish and cracking the opening lineup. So, a nominal lopsided 3-4-2-1 that plays as a 3-2-5 in attack and a 4-4-2 in defense.
The US fared better against Germany after Malik Tillman dropped deeper into midfield and Weston McKennie played more advanced. I would expect similar today, though I wouldn’t discount the potential for something closer to a 4-1-4-1 with Robinson and Freeman operating like full-backs, Tyler Adams behind an attacking line (left to right) of Pulisic-Tillman-McKennie-Dest, and Folarin Balogun taking whatever service he can get.
A memorial and a warning
Early in the 2022 World Cup, a bit of shocking news came across. US journalist Grant Wahl died while covering the tournament. There was no inkling that he was ill.
His wife, epidemiologist Céline Gounder, has posted a remembrance along with a stark warning about disease preparedness or lack thereof.
Preamble
To grasp the significance of the World Cup returning to the US of A, consider this …
In much of the world, association football fans are born, not made. Children typically have a favorite club before they can speak, whether they know it or not.
In the USA, association football fans are often converts. And a lot of us have origin stories.
Which is why I’m starting my contributions to these proceedings with something from my inbox from Peter Rehwaldt in Kansas City, who describes living in an apartment building with some Dutch students during the 1982 World Cup, when the only coverage they could find was on a Spanish-language station in Chicago:
“The three of us took over the common lounge area, and since none of us could speak Spanish, we just turned off the sound,” Peter writes. “The Dutch guys knew a lot of the players, and would give their own play-by-play commentary, which was often both hilarious and not fit for a family setting. In short, World Cup 1982 was a blast.”
Happily for Peter, the Netherlands chose the Kansas City Current’s practice facility as their US home base. (The Current stand sixth in the NWSL at the moment.)
That year was pivotal for me as well. I discovered to my horror that my summer camp experience took place during most of the World Cup. My mother clipped the scores out of the newspaper each day and dropped in the mail, and I had a notebook on which I tracked the group standings. I got home in time to see the final.
In 1994, when I could afford tickets, I found a game I could attend. That’s how I ended up seeing the goal of the tournament, when Saudi Arabia’s Saeed Al-Owairan slalomed through the Belgian defense and scored.
And yet, seven years later, association football was all but dead again. Major League Soccer was hanging by a thread. The first attempt at a women’s league had started well but would soon collapse.
Then came 2002, the best World Cup run any living US citizen has seen, unless that person is roughly 100-110 years old and happened to be in Uruguay at a young age.
Since then, the sport has gone onward and upward. At my age, kids were ridiculed for following soccer. Today, when I do substitute teaching assignments, people argue with me over Messi vs. Ronaldo or Real Madrid vs. Barcelona.
It’s easy to be cynical about this World Cup. Being ambivalent seems perfectly rational. This country may only be unified by one thing …
Messi, of course. Ronaldo? Really?
The last World Cup showed that this sport had support in the US. The attendance records still stand.
This one won’t be as special. But at least it reminds us of the days when it became cool to support soccer.
(Yes, soccer. We’re going for a non-pedantic stance at the moment.)
What to expect from Paraguay
Paraguay earned their place on football’s greatest stage by going back to their roots: defensive strength and collective intensity. For years the team tried to play a possession-based game without succeeding in either defence or attack. Then, in August 2024, Gustavo Alfaro arrived with a clear message from day one: “Paraguayan DNA, intensity and clean sheets. That’s what will take us to the World Cup.” He was not wrong.
More from Christian Pérez and Óscar Gómez:
There will be no rousing Hollywood pep talk from Mauricio Pochettino ahead of today’s USMNT World Cup opener. He and his players are trusting nearly two years of work since he took the helm – plus all of the reasons that got them into the sport in the first place.
“The most important [thing] is not to be disconnected with your emotional relationship with the game,” Pochettino said. “They need to think tomorrow and play like they are a child – with no pressure, with no responsibility.”
Folarin the focal point
The likely starter at striker for the United States will be key to how the team builds up in attack. Jeff Rueter on what we saw from Balogun in the pre-World Cup friendlies:
Will Chris Richards play?
Most of the conversation surrounding the United States’ buildup to this tournament centered on the health of Chris Richards. The center-back has proven to be an anchor for the US, and the team has looked defensively shaky without him.
He is back in full training and available for selection, but will he play? He spoke about his chances this week:
Pochettino’s message: Relax
“I was talking with a good friend that won the World Cup in 1986 with Argentina,” said Mauricio Pochettino yesterday. “He said to me, ‘in relaxation, you become concentrated and focused.’ I think we try to be very professional in every single aspect of our preparation by creating a very good atmosphere where the player can feel comfortable and to embrace and, not to learn, but to understand what we expect”
Read more:
Alexander Abnos
We are here at SoFi Los Angeles Stadium, at long last.
Not that anyone cares about journalist’s struggled getting into games, but the security situation outside is leaving a lot to be desired. There is one working x-ray machine for the entire media contingent, and security staff are individually inspecting every bag that goes through. It’s taking a while, and it’s hot. And there is no water in the media workroom.
….But we’re here now! And that’s all that matters.
We’ll be here for live coverage soon. In the meantime, here’s Alex Abnos on the buildup to today’s game:
Mauricio Pochettino paused. The microphone signal flickered. He tried, for a second time, to say a few things to the 5,500 fans who had gathered in the sun Monday at Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine, California – the United States’ World Cup home base – for an open training session. Nothing. Then something. More choppy audio. By the time things came back online, he had developed a quip.
“We are in the greatest country in the world,” he said in his Rioplatense-accented English. “But the technology does not work.”
Pochettino’s adaptation to the US soccer scene has not been without hiccups. The Argentinian arrived on a $6m-per-year contract (the largest outlay for a coach in US Soccer history) with a résumé featuring some of the most famous clubs and players in the world. His job: to lead a nation more known for excellence in other sports to a historic finish at a World Cup they would co-host.
You can read the full report below:
