The beautiful new Marilyn Monroe exhibition here, marking the centenary of her birth, provides a reminder of how other sports, not soccer, have entranced and beguiled this nation through decades. It was baseball’s Joe DiMaggio she married and, after their split, maintained a friendship with until her desperately early death.
The Academy Museum shows footage of DiMaggio emerging with Monroe from their registry office wedding and driving off with her in his sports car: two superstars in their pomp. The clamour for the Yankees star is a reminder of how much ground soccer must make up if it is become anything approaching a national obsession in a country where so many other sports crowd in.
But what happened in the 4-1 evisceration of Paraguay on Friday night here was so transparently magical that the American nation did not need to appreciate the sport’s finer points to fall in love with it. Part of the narrative in the build-up had been about Mauricio Pochettino watching the 2004 film ‘Miracle’, depicting the US hockey team’s legendary defeat of the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, and there really was something miraculous about what played out.
Not the defeat of a benign Paraguay, so much as the brio and self-belief with which the win was accomplished at the end of eight years of immense national expectation of the team. It was freestyle football at times in the emphatic first half as Weston McKennie and Folarin Balogun and Christian Pulisic and Malik Tillman instinctively threaded moves together. Giovanni Reyna’s goal, bent with his outstep, could be on the best-of-tournament reel.
Though each had his story, Balogun’s is the most compelling. That of the Brooklyn-born boy who made it to Arsenal’s Hale End academy and could have played for England yet selected the USA – in part because of clamour on social media. There was spatial awareness and ice-cold thought when Balogun scored the US’s third, guiding the ball across the box beyond two defenders and not even casting his eyes up before despatching the ball left-footed into the top left hand corner.
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Folarin Balogun (bottom) scored twice as the United States thrashed Paraguay 4-1 in Los Angeles
‘Captain America’ Christian Pulisic was on song and largely caused Paraguay’s own goal
Giovanni Reyna sealed the victory with a beautiful trivela, capping off a dominant performance
Pulisic was the Captain America; on a higher plane of anticipation and bisecting two defenders to provoke Paraguayan panic and an own-goal. His removal at half-time because of what he and Pochettino described as a kick to the calf, which tightened, is a worry. Pulisic has sustained a number of soft tissue injuries in his three influential years with AC Milan. But the US camp insist it was only a precaution.
The 23-year-old German born midfielder Tilman displayed the uncluttered audacity of youth, surging forward from midfield with a samba touch at times early on. But McKennie was the one who had the fans at the Memorial Coliseum Watch Party here in a state of delirium, with his attacking combinations.
‘We knew he was coming here in form and that he’s world class,’ said Sophie Salvador. ‘He’s got better and better,’ said her father David.
‘He had a loan spell at Leeds which didn’t help him but he’s proof that players can blossom with time. He doesn’t divide opinion as he once did.’
There was also some satisfaction being taken last night among Americans, given the chance to gloat about the English champions’ decision to sell Balogun to Monaco for £35million, only for him to display the kind of finishing which has often been absent in Viktor Gyokeres.
Several cited the 24-year-old’s two first half goals against PSG in the Champions League knockout round playoff in February. He was an asset Arsenal could have used in the final against the same opposition.
Arsenal had three established strikers at the time and Balogun, who was brought up in London, wanted more minutes. His second half here was less emphatic. Further evidence is required before concluding that Arsenal sold a future superstar. But Balogun is clearly a dangerous World Cup focal point for America’s attacks.
The US team are ten ranking places above Australia, who they meet next in Seattle, but only five above Turkey, a well organised-side under Italian Vincenzo Montella who will present the greatest group challenge. If they do win the group, the USA could face one of Canada, Ivory Coast, Sweden, Norway or Austria with Belgium potentially beyond that. None of whom look impregnable.
‘Factor in the home support, too, and the fact Pochettino has clearly removed the fear,’ said Ms Salvador. ‘The semi-finals have never looked impossible Now we can say that.’
World Cup fever truly hit at the Los Angeles Stadium – fans hope they’re watching another great American sporting team
Celebrations erupted around the nation after an intro to the tournament fit for Hollywood
While some have evidently caught the football bug, others in Los Angeles just aren’t interested
Pochettino won’t relish that kind of talk, though the benefits of a US journey deep into the tournament would be seismic in a place which simply doesn’t feel like a soccer city.
There is an astonishing invisibility to the tournament on the LA Metro and road network. One of the few prominent World Cup ads on the subway system has Harry Kane promoting training shoes. David Beckham was in the SoFi stadium providing stardust for Friday’s game, collecting a star on the Hollywood Hall of Fame for his trouble. He also appears in a ubiquitous nationwide ad for a popular brand of crisps, which riffs off US scepticism about soccer. The Brits are evidently needed for the hard sell.
The New York Times captured the mood of national exuberance about the opening win in Saturday’s paper, extolling the virtues of a ‘thundering, near-flawless start.’ It was, the paper said, ‘a long-awaited coming-out party that will send hype into overdrive heading into next Friday’s match against Australia.’
If, by any chance, this turns out to be a story fit for Hollywood, then the glories of the opening scene in Los Angeles will feature very prominently.
Which England star has 7 GCSEs? Who has lost half of his finger? Test your knowledge of Thomas Tuchel’s squad with our exclusive quiz HERE
