The United States’ emphatic 4-1 victory over Paraguay left several moments to talk about, but one of them happened away from the ball. At the end of one of the celebration sequences, the cameras caught head coach Mauricio Pochettino and forward Folarin Balogun sharing a celebration that quickly went viral.
The footage shows how, amid the euphoria of the win, Pochettino appears to give the striker a pat or briefly grab his buttock, a gesture that sparked all kinds of jokes and comments on social media. Many fans interpreted it simply as a spontaneous celebration brought on by the emotion of the moment.
The clip began circulating widely on digital platforms, where users shared memes and pointed out that, once again, a scene away from the action ended up stealing part of the spotlight from the match.
With the score already settled and the United States celebrating an important victory, the peculiar interaction between coach and player became one of the most talked-about images of the day.