The Türkiye USA World Cup result that nobody saw coming arrived on Thursday night at Los Angeles Stadium, as already-eliminated Türkiye produced the performance of their tournament to beat a heavily rotated United States side 3-2 in a breathless five-goal dead-rubber that had the capacity crowd in Inglewood on its feet from the first minute to the very last kick of the match. Kaan Ayhan scored the winner deep in stoppage time as Türkiye handed the US their first defeat of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a result that sent the eliminated Turks home with their pride restored after two goalless and pointless opening games. For the USA, already crowned Group D winners before a ball was kicked on Thursday, the defeat matters less in terms of standings and more in terms of the hard lessons a patched-up lineup were forced to learn the brutal way in front of their home fans.
Güler And Yilmaz Turn The Game On Its Head
One of nine changes, backup centre-back Auston Trusty was unmarked at the far post from a US corner, given time to cushion the ball with his left foot then blast it home inside three minutes — a dream start for Pochettino’s reserve side. Türkiye, though, were in no mood to be rolled over. Having not scored in 62 efforts across their first two games, it was the 63rd time lucky for the Turks and their star man Arda Güler, who duped Mark McKenzie with a clever dummy allowing the ball to run to Baris Alper Yilmaz before crossing back for Güler to smash past Matt Turner to equalise in the 10th minute. The Real Madrid forward was everywhere. In the 31st minute, Güler spotted Eren Elmali’s overlapping run, feeding it to the wing-back who cut the ball back from the left byline to Yilmaz, who steered it beyond the keeper to put Türkiye ahead at the break. Pochettino’s team went into halftime trailing, with Güler and 21-year-old Real Madrid playmaker finishing well-worked plays that left the US defenders chasing shadows.
Berhalter Levels But Ayhan Breaks American Hearts
The USA responded like a team with something to prove. In the 49th minute they were back level from a long throw by McKenzie, with the ball cleared by Türkiye only as far as Berhalter, who did well to smash his shot low into the bottom corner. The crowd erupted moments later as Pochettino sent on Christian Pulisic just before the hour mark — undoubtedly the USA’s most important player, making his return from the injury that had kept him out of the Australia win. With the score level at 2-2 and the game seemingly drifting toward a respectable draw, Güler opened up space and allowed possession to roll to Ozcan 25 yards from goal, the midfielder scooping a cross to the far post for Uzun, whose pass back across the face of goal was turned over the line by Ayhan in the 98th minute — a dramatic, chaotic and utterly fitting end to the most entertaining Türkiye USA World Cup encounter in recent memory.
What The Türkiye USA World Cup Result Means For Both Sides
The defeat changes very little for the United States in the grand scheme of things. Coach Mauricio Pochettino brushed off the defeat, saying winning the group was the main goal and that remains exactly what they achieved. The USMNT head into their Round of 32 match against Bosnia-Herzegovina on July 1 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara having already recorded their best-ever group stage finish with six points from three matches. For Türkiye, the win is bittersweet — a statement of what they are capable of that came two games too late. Combined with their 30 shot attempts against Australia in their opening match, they now hold the record for the most shots without a goal across two consecutive World Cup matches with 62 attempts, a painful statistic that explains precisely why they were eliminated before this game even kicked off. They go home with three points, one stunning performance and the lingering feeling that things could have been very different.