CHESTER, Pa. — For Gio Reyna, Saturday was the hard launch of his campaign to make the U.S. squad for the 2026 World Cup.

For Folarin Balogun, it was a chance to continue the hot streak he had been on with his club team.

And for the U.S. men’s national team, it was a chance to show that the program is headed in the right direction less than eight months out from the World Cup.

A 2-1 win Saturday in a friendly against Paraguay helped show all of that just south of the City of Brotherly Love.

“You can see today all the players that were on the pitch, how they show the quality, the capacity to play football,” USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “I think we create chances. We were a better team that I think is very competitive and difficult to beat. Great, but it’s not enough. We’re happy, but we have to keep going because we need to improve, improve, improve and arrive at the World Cup at our best.”

Reyna did something that was 600 days in the making: score with the American crest on his chest, heading the game’s opening goal in the fourth minute.

He also sent the ball into the attacking zone, where Balogun scored.

Balogun fired a loose ball in the box past Paraguay keeper Orlando Gill to break a 1-1 tie in the 71st minute.

The USMNT hung with Paraguay, controlling possession 54 percent of the time in the first half while getting two of its four shots on target through the first 45 minutes.

Reyna, along with Sergiño Dest, proved to be a nuisance for the Paraguayan defense for the better part of the night.

And he was the player — once believed to be the future of the United States men’s program, but who hadn’t had a call-up in eight months — who opened the scoring.

The 23-year-old has been one of the main storylines this camp after drama followed him throughout the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and he entered the November break not having scored a goal yet with his Bundesliga club, Borussia Mönchengladbach.

He shot down the idea that he was struggling with his club team and acknowledged that time to make an impression with the USMNT coaching staff was dwindling.

However, he said there was a bigger picture at play.

“I think in the end, it’s performances like this that can help everybody here,” Reyna said. “But I want to have, more importantly, seven or eight good months in the rest of the season with Gladbach. Then I believe if I keep performing like I did tonight, and then I’ll have a good chance to make the [national team] and have an impact there too.”

Reyna’s first-half goal helped him surpass his father, Claudio Reyna, on the USMNT goal rankings with the ninth of his career, and recorded his first headed tally in either a club or national team match.

“I told you guys yesterday, Gio wanted to come into camp and do his thing. Wanted to put the noise behind him and I felt like he did that today,” Balogun said. “It was a really, really strong performance in a difficult game.”

Alex Arce scored Paraguay’s only goal in the 10th minute after a defensive breakdown.

Saturday’s match was a physical one at times and things intensified in the final minutes of the match when Gustavo Gómez and Alex Freeman tussled over the ball near the touchline, leading to a shoving match and both teams running out to confront one another.

Six yellow cards were issued related to the fracas and Paraguay’s Omar Alderete was issued a red card for the incident.