Türkiye 3-2 USA - the free hit still left a bruise
Türkiye beat a heavily rotated USA 3-2 with Kaan Ayhan's 98th-minute winner, leaving the co-hosts top of Group D but not exactly cruising into the knockouts.
USA had already banked the group. Türkiye had already been told to pack. Then the supposed low-stakes game turned into the kind of 3-2 mess that coaches pretend not to hate and fans absolutely remember. 1
Timeline
- 3' — USA 1-0: Auston Trusty brought down Sebastian Berhalter's deep corner and smashed in the opener. 1
- 10' — 1-1: Arda Guler traded passes with Baris Alper Yilmaz and finished calmly, becoming Türkiye's youngest World Cup scorer. 1
- 31' — Türkiye 2-1: Baris Alper Yilmaz put Türkiye ahead after Eren Elmali squared the ball from the left. 2
- 49' — 2-2: Berhalter answered with a hard strike from the edge of the box. 1
- 90+8' — Türkiye 3-2: Kaan Ayhan poked in the winner after Can Uzun forced the ball across the six-yard area. 3
What actually mattered
Mauricio Pochettino made nine changes because the USA had already secured Group D. That context matters, but it does not erase the warning: the second unit gave Türkiye too many clean looks and needed Christian Pulisic's second-half entrance just to tilt the game back toward danger. 4
The stat line was almost rude. USA had 18 attempts, seven on target and nine corners; Türkiye had eight attempts, two officially on target and still scored three. That is not a domination problem. It is a punishment problem. 2
One-line verdict: the USA won the group, but Türkiye made sure the co-hosts enter the knockouts with a bruise instead of a strut. The next stop is Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium on Wednesday, July 1. 5
Quote of the day
"Everyone wants to go into the next game having won the previous game, but I think it's going to motivate us even more." — Weston McKennie. 1
References
- 1
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- 3Turkey 3-2 USA: World Cup 2026 - as it happened
theguardian.com
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