2026 FIFA World Cup: Live blog - Opening Ceremony and USA v Paraguay

0407 BST What a night of football. GRNDSTND will be back with countdown to Scotland's first game later today, and our next Live blog will cover England's first game on Wednesday. Good night, Good morning.

0404 BST The game heard around the world. The USA have battered Paraguay at SoFi Stadium. A 26-pass move for the fourth goal, absolutely sublime, and one of the best performances we have seen from a host nation in their opening game. Remarkable stuff.

FULL-TIME USA 4-1 PARAGUAY

GIO REYNA PUTS THE SEAL ON IT WITH A STUNNER!! A magnificent move from back to front and then a wonderful outside the right foot finish to secure a fourth goal for the USA. UNBELIEVABLE. WHAT A NIGHT FOR THE HOSTS!

7 added minutes to conclude this game

85 mins USA 3-1 Paraguay the USA could never keep the same level up for 90 minutes, but it appears that they will get over the line and record a convincing victory

73 mins USA 3-1 PARAGUAY WELL THEN, Enciso sets up Mauricio to slide in Paraguay's first goal. The USA will not want to concede another. USA then get given a gift of a chance to wrap it up and fluff their lines.

70 mins USA 3-0 Paraguay 20 minutes remaining in Los Angeles, and Balogun comes off for Timothy Weah. An outstanding night for the former Arsenal striker.

64 mins USA 3-0 Paraguay the visitors have got nothing going so far and Gomez shoots wildly over the bar after Enciso broke away

57 mins USA 3-0 Paraguay USA back on top after a sloppy start to the half

52 mins USA 3-0 Paraguay VAR and the Referee overturn Ream's yellow and give it to Almiron for diving, extraordinary but correct

49 mins USA 3-0 Paraguay sloppy start to the second half from the USA, booking for Tim Ream and a free kick to Paraguay almost on the by-line

HALF-TIME USA 3-0 PARAGUAY

50 mins USA 3-0 PARAGUAY FOLARIN BALOGUN CUTS INSIDE AND SLAMS THE BALL INTO THE TOP CORNER FOR A QUITE EXTRAORDINARY GOAL, this has been an awesome performance from the Americans. One of the great halves of football

46 mins USA 2-0 Paraguay USA are rampant, Paraguay cannot cope, and the game is there for the taking for the hosts

35 mins USA 2-0 Paraguay a few pundits might want to reassess their verdict on the USA if this carries on, they have produced the performance of the tournament so far and the way this is going it could be a hammering for Paraguay, a stunning performance

32 mins USA 2-0 Paraguay I want Mikel Arteta to call Monaco and bring Balogun home, he has been outstanding tonight

30 mins GOAAAALLLLL!!! USA 2-0 PARAGUAY Folarin Balogun buries the ball after a great assist from Pulisic, awesome goal from the USA, and this is a romp. A stunning first 30 minutes from the USA. Wow.

28 mins USA 1-0 Paraguay GOAL DISALLOWED, Folarin Balogun finishes neatly but Pulisic was offside in the build-up, the USA are absolutely dominant

16 mins USA 1-0 Paraguay USA open Paraguay up again and both Deste and Balogun could and should have made it number two for the hosts, they win a corner but nothing comes of it

10 mins USA 1-0 Paraguay Caceres fouls Pulisic on the left wing and his booked, suddenly the USA have all the momentum

7 mins USA 1-0 PARAGUAY GOAAAALLLL!! OWN GOAL by Paraguay after Pulisic danced through and MacKennie cuts it back and the defender Bobadilla cannot avoid putting it in his own goal. The USA lead!

0202 BST USA's World Cup is underway, but Paraguay start fastest and the hosts are under pressure inside the first two minutes

0157 BST And now, the Star Spangled Banner!

0156 BST Paraguay's National Anthem

0154 BST The SoFi Stadium looks packed, and wow what a setting, the final should be there, no doubt.

0151 BST Here come the teams, it will be interesting to see and hear the US National Anthem to get a sense of the passion ahead of this tournament

0149 BST Katy Perry performing to conclude the Opening Ceremony ahead of kick off

0115 BST Folarin Balogun will lead the attack for the USA, Balogun plays for Monaco but is an academy product of Hale End, and played for Arsenal from the age of 8 in 2009 through to the age of 21 in 2003. He was sold for £30million to Monaco in 2023, after playing 10 senior games. Balogun comes into this World Cup off the back of his best ever season, scoring 19 goals and was the leading goal scorer for Monaco, fourth best in Ligue 1 with 13 goals. I personally would love to see him come back to the Emirates, he has great potential, and in a better team he could set the world alight. He has scored 9 goals for the USA.

0100 BST The first portion of the ceremony is over, it has to be said the stadium was nowhere near full for that, I am not sure why the concerts take place so far removed from kick-off to be honest. Maybe FIFA can learn from UEFA when it comes to this. Anyway SoFi is filling up now as we move to within 1 hour of the USA kicking off their tournament. BBC ONE COVERAGE BEGINS IN 30 MINUTES

0050 BST Lisa, Anitta and Rema perform "Goals"

0046 BST Future and Tyla perform "Game Time" from the Official FIFA World Cup soundtrack

0043 BST "We celebrate in one language, the language of unity, the language of the world's game"

Profound words from the announcer given the current situation in this world

0040 BST The Opening Ceremony gets underway at Sofi Stadium

"We are 340 million fans, we are 400 languages" Not sure Donald J Trump will approve of that!

0020 BST Let's look back 32 years and see how BBC covered the World Cup second day in 1994

The Colombia v Romania game featured one of the iconic World Cup goals, from Gheorghe Hagi of Romania. The European underdogs beat the Colombians 3-1, and Colombia were one of the pre-tournament favourites at the time.

0000 BST The day is Saturday 18 June 1994 and the United States of America, and indeed much of the world, is still reeling from the night before when OJ Simpson was chased through Los Angeles after failing to turn himself in to the Sheriffs Office after being accused of the murder of his estranged wife Nicole Simpson. Thousands of onlookers stood in amazement on overpasses and millions more watched on TV. It would lead to one of the most high-profile trials in modern history. On that same day the USA 1994 FIFA World Cup got underway in Chicago, with defending World Champions Germany beating Bolivia 1-0 at Soldier Field.

That Saturday the USA played their first game of the tournament, in the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit in Michigan, against Switzerland. The Pontiac Silverdome was the first ever stadium with a roof to stage a FIFA World Cup finals match, and was one of the wonders of the world at the time. 73,425 fans watched on as Switzerland took the lead, but an Eric Wynalda free-kick equalised and was enough to get the Americans a draw in their opening game. They would go on to finish third in their group and progress to the last 16, where they played Brazil, on Independence Day (4 July) in the Stanford Stadium. A Bebeto goal was enough to see off the hosts and end the American dream.

Tonight, just shy of 32 years on, the USA will play their first game of the tournament which they are co-hosting, and they will do so in a stadium which can lay claim to being another wonder of the world. The SoFi Stadium (known as the Los Angeles Stadium for the tournament) is the world's most expensive stadium, costing up to $6billion. Saturday 18 June 1994 was highly anticipated, and Friday 12 June 2026 is also highly anticipated for the debut of the hosts in this historic tournament.

GRNDSTND, by Matt Hooper

Matt Hooper is an Associate Member of the Sports Journalists Association