John O’Brien, Landon Donovan and Brian McBride were the all-American heroes in an astonishing first 45 minutes which saw the highly-rated Portuguese embarrassed on three occasions.

Inevitably, Portugal fought back and breached the American defences twice to get within a goal of their opponents but the USA held out for a fully-deserved victory.

The Americans’ World Cup performances in the past have registered barely a flicker of interest back home, and with the time difference and the States focused on the NBA basketball play-offs there might have been less than usual, but this result will have put football - sorry, soccer - on the map.

Portugal, the team that finished third in the European Championships only two years ago, and with a host of stars from top continental sides, self-destructed.

And as they melted in the heat of sultry Suwon the USA - who lost all three matches and scored just goal at France 98 - warmed to their task.

They struck first after only three minutes. Earnie Stewart whipped in a corner from the left, McBride thumped an excellent header goalwards and when keeper Vitor Baia could only parry his effort, Ajax midfielder O’Brien slammed in the loose ball gleefully.

Two minutes later and Baia, often prone to blunders, nearly handed the USA a second. Stewart’s direct free-kick should have been dealt with easily by the Porto keeper, but he merely blocked the shot and Eddie Pope struck the side-netting from a tight angle.

USA continued to look dangerous on the break, and Donovan’s penetrating runs worried Portugal on two occasions, before he was not too far off the mark with a volley from the edge of the area.

Portugal looked half asleep and Pauleta should have done much better than flick a header wide from a promising position after he connected with Luis Figo’s free-kick.

There was doziness in defence too, and it took a timely challenge by Jorge Costa to halt Donovan after Fernando Couto’s appalling pass across the defence.

The punishment which Portugal had been inviting finally came after 28 minutes, even if there was a freakish element to the goal.

Another terrible pass allowed Stewart to intercept, Donovan picked up the pieces and his cross deflected off Costa’s back and past the wrong-footed and despairing Baia.

Ten minutes before the break, Stewart could have made it three but Baia managed to get a hand to his volley.

Seconds later, and it really was 3-0. Anthony Sanneh surged down the left flank and produced a cross from the by-line that could not have been bettered. It curved away from Baia and McBride’s diving header was simply awesome.

Portugal finally jolted awake and their reply came when Figo’s corner caused chaos in the USA defence.

Beto won the header, it struck an American leg and the Portuguese defender rifled the ball past Friedel.

After half-time, the Americans were handed an opportunity to dampen down any comeback when Couto fouled McBride right on the edge of the box. Jeff Agoos took the free-kick but it was a disappointing effort and well off-target.

Figo’s only influence had come from corners and another flag-kick dropped at Jorge Costa’s feet, but with his back to goal Friedel did enough to force him to shoot wide.

Donovan kept up the pressure with a decent strike on the run after McBride had flicked on a header, before Beto was way off-target with a 30-yard free-kick.

Portugal launched into a series of raids as Figo finally started to look like the current world player of the year, but Friedel and some last-ditch defending kept the Portuguese at bay.

Pauleta wasted a good through-ball from Figo, before with 20 minutes left he helped pull Portugal back to within a goal of the USA.

Pauleta swung in a cross from wide on the left and Agoos sliced a volley straight past Friedel for the second own goal of the game.

Portuguese thoughts must have gone back to 1966, when they were losing 3-0 to North Korea but came back to win 5-3 thanks to a Eusebio hat-trick. But there was no Eusebio this time.

The Americans put up the barricades and try as they might, Portugal could find no way through.