What a party! U.S. dominates Australia 2-0 in 1st USA Seattle World Cup match
The hosts are taking over this World Cup. The rest of the soccer globe is noticing.
Barely 10 minutes in, the Americans’ latest soccer party was raging.
Folarin Balogun, the Americans’ goal machine early in their homebound World Cup, ran down the left side past an Australian defense that deployed five men in the back to stop exactly that. Balogun, who scored two goals in a Cup opener last week, turned with the ball down the end line toward goal. He flicked a cross in front. It went off Australia defender Cameron Burgess into the net. The 11th-minute own-goal put the United States ahead 1-0.
And it put Friday’s party in Seattle on tilt.
The packed, rollicking crowd of 66,925 inside sold-out Lumen Fiel...er, “Seattle Stadium” (per FIFA) watching the first U.S. World Cup game ever in the Pacific Northwest roared. The stadium basking in sun shook from the cheers.
And the chants.
“USA! USA!”
“It was special. So special,” Balogun said later. “It’s tough to put into words.”
“Intense,” U.S. midfielder Malik Tillman said.
“It’s been amazing...We had our fans to push us,” American defender Chris Richards said.
Thing is, Seattle had been absolutely off the hook for five hours before that.
The U.S. fans, including their rabid American Outlaws group, began lining up at Pier 58 along Waterfront Park and Elliott Bay at 7 a.m., five hours before kickoff. They celebrated with Marshawn Lynch. The Seahawks legend was appearing live on an online podcast pregame show from the pier using his, uh, colorful language to get the fans roaring.
This was big. This was Seattle. So of course Lynch was there.
“They caused an earthquake already,” Lynch told the crowd at Pier 58, referring his “Beast Quake” run for the Seahawks in their 2011 NFL playoff upset win over the New Orleans Saints. “We just want to make sure that the building stays together. I think if they get loud enough, I think they can bring that mother (blank) down.”
Those fans marched from Marshawn and the pier in a mass through downtown to the stadium.
At the same time, from Mariners owned Victory Hall across from the baseball team’s T-Mobile Park, 3,000 Australian fans came out of the bar party that had started at 7 a.m. They met thousands more Aussies for their march into the stadium, from the south opposite the Americans’.
They sang Waltzing Matilda as they marched.
Once inside, the Americans and the Australians produced noise that shook the field and its stands like only the best Seahawks games do. Coach Mike Macdonald and safety Nick Emmanwori from the Super Bowl-champion Seahawks of this past season were in the stadium to watch this spectacle and match. Cliff Avril, Russell Wilson and others from the previous Super Bowl-champion team 12 years ago were in the house, too.
The building shook most in the 43rd minute.
With the Aussie team continually defending the Americans’ attacks into their own third of the field, a long U.S. shot from the top of the penalty area by Sergio Dest deflected off the leg of an Australian center back. The ball caromed high in the air toward goal. U.S. outside back Alex Freeman out-jumped Australia defender Alessandro Circati and goalkeeper Patrick Beach for the ball.
Freeman, who a few minutes earlier had banged heads with an Aussie player vying for a ball in the air at midfield and passed an on-field concussion check from a team doctor, glanced the ball off his head into the goal.
“For me, it was to get the rebound any way I can,” Freeman said. “I was able to put it in the back of the net.
“I thought it was offside.”
It was originally ruled that by the linesman. But a VAR (video assisted replay) review overturned that decision. It was a goal.
The entire U.S. team — the other 10 players on the pitch, plus all the 14 substitutes including Seattle Sounder Christian Roldan — sprinted onto the field. They chased the spooked Freeman to the opposite goal.
“I looked back and saw my teammates running at me. And I was like, ‘Oh, Lord1,’” Freeman said, grinning.
The U.S. led 2-0. They won 2-0 — even without injured superstar Christian Pulisic. Pulisic missed the match with a calf strain he got in the first half of the U.S.’ wowing, 4-1 victory over Paraguay in Los Angeles seven days earlier to begin the tournament.
“We didn’t have him today,” Balogun said. “But I think you saw we are still capable of getting a result and putting up a performance.”
This is the first time in 96 years, since the first World Cup in 1930, the United States has won consecutive games in the world’s biggest sporting event.
“I am confident. Two games into the World Cup, our fans are helping us be confident. Not just me, but the whole team,” Balogun said.
“I’m delighted.”
The Australians’ desire to stay back with their five defenders, plus their four-man midfield block, empowered the Americans to execute coach Mauricio Pochettino’s mentality to constantly attack.
To do that, and with Pulisic out, Pochettino employed an offense with two strikers at the top rather than the customary one. Ricardo Pepi played the first 73 minutes at striker for Pulisic, next to Balogun up front.
Pepi and Balogun kept attacking pressure on the Australians so constant, the visitors’ chances to counter stayed, well, Down Under.
After the Americans’ two first-half goals, the match was over. The second half was 45 minutes of the U.S. keeping keeper Matt Freese’s sheet clean.
The Aussies’ only threat to score came off a corner kick in the 85th minutes, and a resulting scramble in the penalty area. The U.S.’ Tyler Adams slid to block a threatening shot from about 15 yards from the center of the goal, and the shutout stayed intact.
Last week in their World Cup opener against Paraguay the Americans used finesse, speed and play-making.
Friday against rugged Australian the U.S. showed it can play a physical, attacking, forceful style, too.
“It should how versatile the team is,” Richards said. “I think when we played Pepe and then Falogin at the top (as dual strikers), we gave them a different challenge than what we gave Paraguay.”
It ended with the packed house roaring, again, “USA! USA!”
Then, as the U.S. players knelt together joined in a circle in the middle of the pitch, the crowd serenaded them with Bon Jovi’s “Livin on a Prayer” then John Denver’s “Country Roads.”
In an early-tournament surge that is captivating soccer diehards and casual sports fans alike, the renewed Americans have outscored their first two World Cup foes 6-1. The two victories have clinched for the U.S. a place in the knockout round of 32, with one match still remaining in group play.
U.S. vs. Turkey in Los Angeles Thursday could be to win the group and a more favorable draw for the USA against a third-place team in the round of 32. A Paraguay win over Turkey later Friday night would do the same for suddenly soaring U.S. Soccer.
The Americans have won only two knockout-round games in their 96-year history in the World Cup. That was in the first one, in 1930, and in 2002.
Seattle will host two more group-stage matches: Wednesday between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Qatar, and next Friday, June 26, between Egypt and Iran. Seattle will also host a round-of-32 knockout game July 1, plus a round-of-16 elimination game July 6.
The U.S.’ dominant performance Friday puts them on the inside track to win its Group D. The Group D winner is on the side of the bracket where a win in the first knockout round could put the U.S. in the Seattle round-of-16 Seattle.
So this star-spangled World Cup party may be back soon.
“Today was an example of one of the biggest games that Seattle will ever have,” Roldan said.
“And, you know, I think there might be a chance that we could come back here. I think that the boys are really excited about that.”
This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 2:03 PM with the headline "What a party! U.S. dominates Australia 2-0 in 1st USA Seattle World Cup match."
