USMNT victorious over Paraguay, 2-1

November 15, 2025

Chester, PA

The Unites States Men’s National Team (USMNT) took on Paraguay in an international play in front of a full house on Saturday evening at Subaru Park.  While the venue was friendly to the USMNT, there also were plenty of Paraguay supporters in the stands.  The USMNT nipped the lead from a leveled half-time score midway through the second half to emerge with the win, 2-1.

The United States garnered a lot of possession in the game.  Indeed in the first half, the United States had 54% of possession and 56% for the full game.  Other than possession, the teams seemed fairly evenly matched.

It did not take long for the United States to get on the board.  In the 4th minute, Max Arfsten lofted a lovely pass directly at the head of Gio Reyna.  Being close to the Paraguay goal, Reyna aimed high and there was little that Paraguay’s keeper, Orlando Gil, could do to stop the shot.

With the United States holding onto possession, Paraguay just needed a fast break to even up the score, and that is exactly what happened almost immediately following Reyna’s goal.  In the 10th minute, Paraguay’s Júnior Alonso punted the ball from the Paraguay half down the left wing to the speedy Miguel Almirón.  Almirón received the pass well down the wing and crossed right close to the United States’ goal.  Paraguay’s Alex Arce, cutting toward goal, headed the ball in.  On the counter, the USMNT defense was disorganized and showed very little in the way of resistance.  The score stayed 1-1 throughout the first half.

The scoreline tilted into the USMNT’s favor in the 71st minute.  On the left wing, Cristian Roldan jousted for possession with Paraguay’s Juan José Cáceres.  The ball made its way to USMNT’s Folarin Balogun, who tapped the ball to Reyna on the left.  Reyna was wide enough for a flat pass in front of goal, but instead to angled it backward.  Paraguay’s Damián Bobadilla got a foot on the ball, but Balogun – having moved to the center – was able to draw the deflected ball in and send a hard shot through to the empty right side of the Paraguay goal.

With the lead of 2-1, the USMNT needed just to bear down on defense to maintain the scoreline.  While the USMNT did that, the game could not escape a fight during stoppage time over which team was entitled to the throw in from an out of bounds ball.  The melee resulted in a red card to Paraguay’s bench player Omar Alderete and a yellow to Alonso, with a yellow also being shown to the USMNT’s Cristian Roldan.

Photographs of the game appear below:

 

Gio Reyna’s 4th minute header that started the game off well for the United States.

Tim Ream, anchoring the defense for the USMNT.

Reyna maintaining United States’ possession. Sergino Dest being impeded by Julio Enciso’s thigh. Paraguay double-teamed the hometown favorite, Brendon Aaronson.Dest going down for the foul.Balogun celebrating his goal with the bench.