Video: America makes history with four goals…and VAR steals the spotlight

The United States got off to the best possible start to their 2026 World Cup campaign with a big 4-1 win at Sophie Stadium in the first round of the group stage.

The American team came into the game strongly and opened the scoring in the eighth minute after Paraguay’s Damian Bobadilla made a mistake in his team’s goal to give the hosts an early lead.

The American team continued to impose their control throughout the match, and Folarin Balogun scored the second goal in the 31st minute after a special pass by Christian Pulisic.

A few minutes before the end of the first half, Balogun came back and scored again, scoring the third goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time, taking advantage of Malik Tillman’s pass.

In the second half, Paraguay managed to reduce the deficit through Julio Mauricio Magalhes, who scored his team’s only goal in the 73rd minute to restore some hope to his team.

However, Giovani Reyna ended those hopes once and for all after scoring the United States’ fourth goal in the eighth minute of stoppage time off an assist from Alex Freeman.

With this victory, the American team earned its first three points in the tournament, while the Paraguayan team began their journey with a painful defeat in their first appearance at the World Cup in 16 years.

Man of the match and first double player of the tournament

USA striker Folarin Balogun won the Man of the Month award after his outstanding performance against Paraguay.

Balogun played 72 minutes, scored two goals, had five shots on goal, made 10 successful passes out of 16 attempts and won five fights.

Balogun made his name in the history of the tournament after becoming the first player to score a brace at the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Historical figures for the American team

The American team repeated its historic superiority over Paraguay in the opening game of the World Cup after 96 years, having previously beaten the same team 3-0 in the 1930 opener.

The match also saw a new historic achievement for the American team as they achieved their biggest win in the history of their participation in the World Cup and became the first to score four goals in one World Cup match, surpassing their previous best, which was in 1930.

On the other hand, Paraguay failed to win in their return to the World Cup finals after a 16-year absence.

First application of the “Identification” rule

At the refereeing level, the encounter witnessed the first actual application of the “Identification” rule in World Cup history through Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology.

The incident took place in the 49th minute, when Dutch referee Dani Makele fouled the Paraguay national team and awarded American defender Tim Reim a yellow card for interfering with Miguel Almiron.

After taking the free kick, the referee received an alert from the video technology room to watch the kick, so he went to the viewing screen and watched the replay from several different angles.

Video technology exposes Almiron’s fraud

Television footage showed that Tim Reim had committed no fouls and that Miguel Almiron had landed without actual contact in an attempt to draw a foul for his national team.

After the inspection, Makele decided to cancel the yellow card given to Rim and show a yellow card to Almiron for fraud. He also canceled the penalty kick assigned to the Paraguayan national team in order to resume his performances in the American national team.

The incident marked the first time in World Cup history that the “identification” rule, a modern refereeing change that allows video technology to correct disciplinary penalties when it turns out that the penalized player was not actually responsible for the offense or that the referee’s original decision was wrong, was applied during the tournament.