World Cup 2026 live updates: Bay Area hosts 1st World Cup match at Levi's Stadium

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

Christian Pulisic had an assist in a stellar first-half playmaking performance for the Americans, who enthralled their Southern California fans with an aggressive attack while streaking to a 3-0 halftime lead - the team's largest in any World Cup game.

Gio Reyna ripped another goal in the dying moments of second-half injury time, 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 matches at the Qatar World Cup four years ago, and it had never scored more than three in a World Cup match. But the Americans were a team transformed while playing in new coach Mauricio Pochettino's more creative system in front of a passionate, star-studded Los Angeles crowd of 70,492.

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

After the U.S. 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 from a U.S. player in the tournament since 1930. Balogun chose to represent the U.S. three years ago instead of staying in the English system, where he likely would have struggled to make the Three Lions' roster - and the 24-year-old Monaco professional has swiftly provided the top-level striker play historically lacking on U.S. rosters.

Pulisic was replaced by Sebastian Berhalter at halftime, but the U.S. didn't immediately indicate whether the AC Milan standout was injured. Pulisic appeared to signal to family in the stands that he was fine.

Pulisic created the first two U.S. goals with exceptional runs down the left side. In the seventh minute, he cleverly split two defenders and passed to Weston McKennie, whose centering touch hit Paraguay midfielder Damián Bobadilla's outstretched foot and went in, setting off pandemonium in the SoFi Stadium stands.

The Americans gradually amplified their attack centered around Pulisic's runs - and three minutes after an apparent goal from Balogun was erased by an offside call, Pulisic again drove the left side and got a deflected pass to the trailing Balogun, who banged it home.

With first-half injury time winding down, Malik Tillman weighted a long pass to a streaking Balogun, who held up to create space and fired a brilliant shot into the far top corner.

The Americans were less cohesive without Pulisic in the second half, but Reyna still added the finishing touch by gliding into the box and toe-flicking home his first World Cup goal. The moment was sweet for Reyna, who barely played at the Qatar World Cup amid a messy family dispute with former U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter.

Dozens of American celebrities and cultural icons turned out for the match 10 miles south of Hollywood, including Tom Cruise, George Lucas, Bill Gates, Halle Berry, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Iran's World Cup campaign is set to begin Monday in Inglewood against New Zealand, but visa denials affecting members of the country's soccer federation have become a central issue surrounding the team's arrival in the United States.

According to officials, 15 Iranian soccer federation members were denied U.S. visas ahead of the tournament.

Players and coaching staff were not impacted by the visa denials.

The U.S. State Department cited security concerns, alleging abuse of the visa system to "sneak terrorists in the United States under false pretenses." No further details about those allegations have been released.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio had indicated that the Trump administration had "no problem" with providing visas to Iran's team during his testimony on Capitol Hill earlier this month- but he said the administration would not allow the regime to use the event to bring in IRGC-affiliates.

"What we're not going to allow is for them to embed in their delegation a bunch of people that we know have nothing to do with athletics and have ties to the IRGC or things of that nature, so we were going to watch that very closely," he said.

Iran is the only World Cup team whose federation has faced such a large number of denied entries, adding complications to its tournament preparations. As a result of the visa issues, the team made last-minute changes, moving its training base from Arizona to Tijuana.

Despite those challenges, Iran is scheduled to open play Monday at the SoFi Stadium (renamed Los Angeles Stadium by FIFA) against New Zealand. The match, set for 6 p.m., is one of two games Iran will play in the Los Angeles area.

Southern California is home to the largest Iranian population outside Iran. Hundreds of thousands of people of Iranian descent live in the region, making the team's presence a significant cultural moment for many supporters.

However, excitement around the match is tempered by what's become a very complicated situation. Fans are grappling with mixed emotions tied to the ongoing war in Iran, which has added a layer of complexity to what might otherwise be a celebratory occasion.

For the players and coaching staff, the focus remains on competition. Iran enters the match as the favored team against New Zealand.

As for the war, it appears an agreement to end it is near.

Pakistan's prime minister said Friday that mediators are working with both sides in the conflict to finalize an agreement, adding that "peace has never been this close."

ABC News contributed to this report.

A special agent of the FBI talked about the agency's security plans ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches in the Bay Area.

The FBI's San Francisco Field Office is ramping up security preparations ahead of the first FIFA World Cup match in the Bay Area on June 13, when Qatar takes on Switzerland.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post Wednesday that preventing terrorist attacks is the agency's top priority during the tournament.

"For the FBI and its partners, preventing terrorist attacks is job #1 during the upcoming 2026 @FIFAWorldCup. Extremists have used major global sporting events in the past to do harm and spread their twisted ideologies. We are totally determined to head off any potential incidents and ensure the safety of players, fans, and all Americans and visitors during the tournament," Patel wrote.

Matt Cobo, the acting special agent in charge of the FBI's San Francisco Field Office, said the effort -- dubbed "Operation Goal Kick" -- is a coordinated, multi-agency approach to keeping fans and participants safe.

"Safety and security is everything to us. There are a lot of international matters going on in the Middle East and other parts of the world, and so we're very focused in on just the safety. And we're also leveraging intelligence centers back in Washington, D.C.," Cobo said. "So we have the International Police Cooperation Center that is based out in Virginia, and those bring in some of our international police units that are able to really understand what those threats are in those particular countries, and then help us to action that here in the U.S."

The U.S. has opened its first home World Cup in 32 years with a dynamic 4-1 victory over Paraguay.

Folarin Balogun scored twice in the Americans' historic three-goal first half.

Christian Pulisic had an assist in a stellar first-half playmaking performance for the Americans, who enthralled their Southern California fans with an aggressive attack while streaking to a 3-0 halftime lead.

Gio Reyna ripped another goal in the dying moments of second-half injury time, giving the Americans four goals in a World Cup match for the first time.

The U.S. scored only three goals combined in Qatar four years ago.

Here's a recap from the first match:

The final kick of the game is one of the best goals of Gio Reyna's career.

Maurício cuts the American lead to two with Paraguay's first goal of the World Cup.

A great ball by Malik Tillman and an even better finish by Folarin Balogun, whose second goal of the game gave the USMNT a 3-0 lead just before halftime.

Folarin Balogun does what he does best, as he found space in the box and poked home a cross from Christian Pulisic to put the USMNT up 2-0.

Damián Bobadilla's own goal puts the U.S. ahead in the opening 10 minutes against Paraguay.

Here's the reaction from fans in Philadelphia after going up 1-0.