Folarin Balogun scored twice in the first half of the Americans’ historic three-goal haul, and the U.S. opened its first home World Cup in 32 years with its biggest win at the tournament, a dynamic 4-1 win over Paraguay on Friday night.

Christian Pulisic capped a stellar first half for the Americans, who wowed their Southern California fans with their explosive attack and took a 3–0 lead at halftime – the team’s largest lead in any World Cup game.

Gio Reyna scored another goal in the final minutes of injury time of the second half, giving the Americans four goals in a World Cup match for the first time.

The U.S. scored only three goals combined in its four games at the Qatar World Cup four years ago, and has never scored more than three goals in a World Cup match.

But the Americans were transformed when playing new coach Mauricio Pochettino’s more creative system in front of an enthusiastic, star-studded Los Angeles crowd of 70,492.

Mauricio scored for Paraguay in the second half, but La Albirroja fell behind early in their first World Cup match in 16 years.

After the United States went ahead on an early own goal created by Pulisic’s playmaking, Balogun scored in the 31st minute and again in the fifth minute of first-half injury time.

The New York-born, London-raised striker made his World Cup debut with the first multigoal performance by an American player in the tournament since 1930. Balogun decided to represent the U.S. three years ago rather than remain in the English system, where he would likely have struggled to make the Three Lions’ roster — and the 24-year-old Monaco professional has provided the speedy top-level striker that U.S. rosters have historically lacked.

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