In the presence of a multitide of A-listers, VIPs and Hollywood stars, Folarin Balogun played the role of USA's leading man perfectly in Los Angeles Stadium.
The forward scored a brilliant brace in in their opener to bring the likes of Tom Cruise, David Beckham, George Lucas and Halle Berry to their feet.
After having an effort disallowed for offside, Balogun doubled the Stars and Stripes' lead by slotting home a neat cross from Christian Pulisic before smashing the ball into the top corner in first-half stoppage time.
"It's an amazing occasion. It's an amazing night and something I dreamed of for a long time. I committed to the US and a part of it was wanting to play on the biggest stages and repay the fans," the Monaco forward told FIFA.
"It means everything to me to play in front of the home fans.... a World Cup on our home soil... I'm very happy and very proud of everyone. It means the world to get the first-game nerves out of the way and the way we did. I'm sure it will do us a lot of good."
It was a neat case of déjà vu for Balogun, who scored the winner for USA in their 2-1 friendly victory against Paraguay in November.
"It's just how the cherries fell... I know I scored against them before and to do it again on a bigger stage is a dream come true," added Balogun, who was named the
It was also an incredible start for Mauricio Pochettino's men, who sealed victory thanks to an an early own goal and an exquisite late strike from substitute Gio Reyna.
They now go into their second group-stage match against Australia in Seattle full of confidence.
"It puts us in a good spot, of course. It shows the amount of chemistry we have as a team and we're prepared for the next one and all good vibes here," added USA forward Ricardo Pepi. "Being here at home I thought it was a fantastic atmosphere to open up our World Cup."
Sources: FIFA Official
