In a USA win for the history books, what stood out most was the ‘fun’ and free nature of it

The United States are no longer a workmanlike outfit built on grit and grind – and Mauricio Pochettino says they are ‘winning a lot of fans’

To find a precedent for the United States’ win over Paraguay, one must return to a time when World Cup teams were forced to drop out due to the Great Depression, and the ones who did make it arrived via ship, playing with a leather ball held together by seam and laces.

The dominant 4-1 win matched a 96-year-old landmark – the largest margin of victory for the USA in a men’s World Cup game (they won 3-0 twice in the inaugural 1930 tournament, against Belgium and, in a neat bit of symmetry, Paraguay).