Katy Perry and Future kicked off the United States’ World Cup 2026 opening ceremony in Los Angeles before the home team’s match with Paraguay, but the show began while SoFi Stadium was still only about half-full and apparently subject to restrictions on live singing.
Reporters at the venue described a pleasant afternoon—around 20+C with a Pacific breeze—and steady crowds moving through the turnstiles even as the ceremony was scheduled to begin roughly half an hour earlier. One correspondent said fans were streaming in, there was a nice buzz and the U.S. players were already out on the pitch warming up.
The staging in Los Angeles was the American contribution to opening-night festivities across North America: Shakira performed in Mexico City, and Michael Bublé and Alanis Morissette were on before Canada’s first match. But at SoFi the spectacle ran up against a practical problem: tens of thousands of seats remained empty as the headline acts took the stage.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino named an attacking XI for the USA, with Brady, Dest, Chris Richards, Tim Ream, Robinson, Adams, McKennie, Reyna, Pulisic, Balogun and Pepi starting. Chris Richards, recently recovered from an ankle injury, was judged fit to start and lined up alongside captain Tim Ream. Paraguay’s XI featured Gill, Cáceres, Gómez, Alderete, Júnior Alonso, Cubas, Bobadilla, Diego Gómez, Enciso, Almirón and Sanabria.
Tension on the night came not from tactics but from the clash between spectacle and circumstance. A live match blog noted that Katy Perry “won’t be happy performing to thousands of empty seats” and suggested there was visible lip-syncing, adding that the performers were not at fault if restrictions kept them from singing live. Those observations sit uneasily with the idea of an opening ceremony designed to dazzle before kickoff.
For fans at the stadium the experience mixed pageantry and patience: the temperature and breeze kept conditions comfortable, but the ceremony’s scheduled start time slipped and the crowd continued to fill in even as TV and stadium clocks counted down to the match. Organizers had to balance live television timing, security and event sequencing—factors that can leave performers and spectators caught in the same awkward pause.
There was one notable absence in the stands: Donald Trump was not in attendance for the opening match or the ceremony. That left the event to be carried by its performers and the buzz among supporters making their way to seats.
Practical takeaways for viewers and fans: the opening ceremony was the last pre-match public spectacle before the USA took the field, and the players’ lineups were posted and in place; the home side will now contest its first group game with expectations of progressing from a pool that also includes Paraguay, Australia and Turkey. What remains unclear from immediate reports is whether Perry and Future completed a full live set before kickoff or whether parts were cut or constrained by the timing and rules in place.
The next confirmed item on the schedule is straightforward—kickoff for the United States versus Paraguay opener—leaving the headline question resolved (who performed) but the finer one open: how much of the show was delivered live under the restrictions observers recorded. The match will be where the answers, and the tournament’s first real measure of the home team, arrive.
