The USA began their 2026 World Cup campaign by dominating Paraguay and securing a 4-1 win on the night.
The Group D opener was huge for the USMNT, who came into the tournament with the home-field advantage.
Traditionally, the USA are not one of the best football teams in the world, but the way they dispatched Paraguay with ease was impressive and caught the eye of former England women’s player Ellen White.
Ellen White praises USMNT after 4-1 win over Paraguay
White, who was covering the game in the UK as part of the BBC broadcast team, praised Mauricio Pochettino’s men for how they ‘grasped’ the pressure and put on an unbelievable display.
She even went as far as to claim the world will be shocked by what they saw from the USMNT during the Friday evening result.
When speaking live on the BBC, White said: “They were unbelievable, you talk about pressure, but they grasped it, they enjoyed it, they flew out the blocks, the intensity of that first half.
“They probably shocked the world with that performance. The football they played, the formation, the fluidity, the connections, the physicality, the athleticism of the team. Great performance.”
While the USMNT were in top form in their Group D opener, they still have a long way to go before they can really be considered favourites for the tournament.
They have two more group games to play against Australia and Turkey, and should be able to qualify from the group with relative ease.
After that is when the USMNT will really be tested, though. They are not facing a top, top team in their group and it remains to be seen how well this side will fare when they come up against one of the tournament’s big teams like France, Spain, Brazil and so on.
But if they are able to keep playing how they did on Friday night, who knows what could happen.
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