The U.S. men’s national team is off to a winning start at the 2024 Copa América.
The host country got first-half goals from captain Christian Pulisic and striker Folarin Balogun and kept Bolivia off the scoreboard on the way to a 2-0 victory over their South American opponents in front of 47,873 fans at AT&T Stadium in suburban Dallas.
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“Happy with performance,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said afterward. “A lot of guys got their first Copa América game, first Copa América win, first Copa América shutout. The game was never in doubt. And I think it’s a good starting point on which to build throughout this tournament.”
In the days leading up to their Copa opener, members of the USMNT and Berhalter emphasized the importance of getting off to a good start against the Bolivians. They did even better than that, as Pulisic gave the home team a lead they’d never relinquish before the contest was even three minutes old.
Pulisic started and finished the play that gave the Americans the 1-0 advantage. Following a short corner kick to Tim Weah, Weah gave the ball back to Pulisic and the U.S. headliner did the rest. He danced past a Bolivian defender into the box and unleashed a curling shot that beat visiting keeper Guillermo Viscarra and ricocheted off the bottom of the crossbar before bouncing across the goal line.
It was Pulisic’s 30th international goal, pulling him even with Brian McBride for fifth on the Americans’ all-time scoring list.
“The early goal helps a lot, allowed us to settle into it,” Pulisic said. “To criticize anything, maybe we can put the game away, score a couple more for sure. But other than that, a pretty dominant performance it felt like.”
With the early goal secured, it felt like the floodgates could open for the U.S. Instead, they managed just one shot on target over the next 40 minutes, one that Viscarra saved. The lack of action took the air out of the pro-U.S. crowd. Going into halftime ahead by the slimmest possible margin despite controlling more than 60% of possession would’ve been disappointing. Fortunately for the home side, Balogun gave the Americans a cushion just before the break.
Pulisic took a pass from Reyna just inside the Bolivian half, raced forward and found Balogun to his left. The striker, who hadn’t scored for the U.S. since October, took a touch to open up space and calmly slotted the ball into the side-netting with his weaker left foot. It was a huge goal for both Balogun and the USMNT.
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