No Trump, stingy Paraguay defence & home fans outnumbering rivals’

The biggest anticlimax for co-hosts USA’s first game against Paraguay is the absence of its president Donald Trump. (AP)

The biggest anticlimax for co-hosts USA’s first game against Paraguay is the absence of its president Donald Trump. A central character in the country’s successful World Cup bid, the overbearing cynosure in the draw ceremony and the most ubiquitous headline stealer in the prelude to the tournament, he would be in Washington DC to attend walk-throughs of the weekend’s UFC event. Instead, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend the game.

But home support is expected to be tremendous—nearly 65,000 home supporters are projected to heave in the SoFI Stands in California. Usually, outnumbered by the adversary’s crowd even on home soil, American fans have flocked to watch their practice games as well as warm-up in the Irvine, about 50 miles north of the Inglewood Stadium before the Paraguay game. Nearly 33,000 applied for access to watch them train, and 5,500 procured it. “[The] environment was crazy. It’s more than we expect,” coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “We are so grateful.”

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