The USMNT kicked off its Copa America 2024 journey on a high note. Gregg Berhalter and Co. clinched an emphatic 2-0 victory over Group C rivals Bolivia. But it wasn’t the Yanks alone as even the crowd at AT&T stadium proved all the naysayers wrong, especially Weston McKennie. The midfielder, who had earlier questioned the spectator’s atmosphere in the stadium, is now ‘happy‘ with the fact that the people of his hometown turned up for the clash.  

Speaking to Fox Sports, he said, “Honestly, I spoke in earlier interviews about having big stadiums and not feeling it out. But I was on the bench with Tim [Weah] and I said, ‘I’m proud of my hometown.’ Dallas really showed up tonight and I’m really happy about that. It’s always good to be home and playing in front of friends and family.” This, however, wasn’t his spirit earlier when talking about the support from his nation’s spectators.

The Juventus star also doubled down on the criticism made by Argentina’s Emiliano Martinez and Cristian Romero earlier regarding the turf conditions. McKennie said, “You know, whenever you do come here to America you play in a stadium that can fit 70,000 people but 25,000 show up. You don’t really have an atmosphere. And then you’re playing on a football field, with laid grass that’s all patchy and it breaks up every step you take. It’s frustrating.”

But now it seems, the midfielder is quite happy with the crowd response, even though a few on the internet were rather bemused by today’s attendance of 47,873 in an 80,000-seater AT&T Stadium. Speaking about the team’s performance, Gregg Berhalter and Co. did well on the pitch, generating decent numbers. Yet, this didn’t please their star player, who once again wrote his name in the history books.

Christian Pulisic warns USMNT over ‘tougher’ Copa America clashes

Christian Pulisic was still not fully satisfied with the team’s 2-0 victory. He claimed that despite the team was ‘flying with a lot of intensity,’ an early goal which he scored under three minutes via an assist from Timothy Weah should have seen the attack generate more goals. Yet, he was proud of the challenge that Stars and Stripes managed to carry out. Additionally, Pulisic advised his teammates that the opening win doesn’t mean much, as there’s a long journey ahead.

The AC Milan star insisted that the games will only get tougher as the tournament progresses and rather emphasized the need to carry the momentum into further games. Notably, Pulisic assisted Florian Balugon to help him add a second. Furthermore, Pulisic also achieved a significant milestone by becoming the fastest USMNT player to score 30 goals, which he did in over 69 games. In a nutshell, it was a good day at the office for Gregg Berhalter and Co.