Yep. Total rout vibes even if not quite at the official four-goal threshold. For real that looked like us against a Concacaf minnow in the Gold Cup prelims. I am still not sure I won’t wake up to find that it was all a beautiful dream.
OK Been at it since the 80's, but first time I ever wore a US jersey today. Didn't know that was the key to everything.
Even the "Tillman is lazy crowd" has to admit he was moving all over the pitch. I'd love to see his heat map, but honestly I'd love to see everyone's heat map. Wes covered every blade of grass
Poch moved Tillman to Puli's attacking mid slot and Berhalter took Tillman's CM slot. Turned out to be a smart move. We got Seb's industry at CM and Tillman had more freedom to play as an attacker.
Beyond that, I'd imagine this will definitely put Australia and Türkiye on notice too. We might shiver some timbers
Gustavo Alfaro, the Paraguay coach, puts defeat down to the "complexity" of the US approach. "They dominated tactically, technically and physically... they create a pentagon in midfield... they have a solution to every problem".— Peter Rutzler (@peterrutzler) June 13, 2026
Tillman did everything to a 10 except in the box. 2-3 moments that he wants back from that game. Some of his passes were just unreal though.
Yeah that’s kind of my point. We often look elite against Barbados or Nicaragua. But to look that way against Paraguay—a team that qualified out of Conmebol direct, beat Brazil and Argentina, and conceded only ten goals over 18 qualifying matches—that’s just insane. Different era but same style, this Paraguay team regularly qualified for the R16 in the 1998-2010 WCs and in 1998 and 2002 winner France and finalist Germany squeaked by them 1-0. Maybe we’ll learn as the group progresses that they somehow suck in unpredictable ways but I htink it might just be that we played as well as we ever have.
He had a flick/first touch in the box that was just out of this world. I believe he jumped up and caught it with the back of his foot into the path of McKennie Joga bonito stuff really
A couple of posts above yours I owned that I simply was paying attention to his contributions to the attack and that's on me, for failing to notice the rest.
We have been building with a back 3 (Ream, Richards, + Freeman) for a bit now, with Jedi higher. So much so it looks like 343. But he was higher & wider often tonight with Pulisic coming deeper & inside a lot more. It flummoxed Paraguay something awful. And they are a VERY good defensive team.
My issue was there was a point where they were literally defending by kicking us, over and over and over, and he waived some on, and called some out, but didn't do enough to get that piece under control and the only reason he didn't lose control of the match at that point is probably the giant pile of reds we earned in June '23, Nov '23 NL and the '24 Copa America which finally got through our thick heads and lead us to prefer beating the hell out of them on the score board, rather than physically in revenge.
Far be it for me to question a man named Gustavo ... but I'm not sure you did your homework if you thought a Mauricio Pochettino team wasn't going to overload the midfield to create numbers. That's like ... his thing.
He said he was returning from the game, so my guess is that he didn't hear the story on why Pulisic was yanked.
I was with a bunch of neutrals at the bar I was watching the game at tonight... we made some new fans with that performance gentlemen... what a hell of a 1st game and opening to the '26 WC congrats to the staff and players and everyone involved.