CHICKENPIE.Auston Trusty scored in the third minute. He should not have needed to. The USMNT were already through, had nothing to play for, rotated a starting XI that included four Premier-League-and-below players who had barely trained with the first team this week. They were home, in the building, on the field they call SoFi. Seventy thousand four hundred and ninety-two people had filed into the parking lots in Inglewood on a Thursday night and paid to watch a dead rubber. They were loud anyway. Trusty made them louder. A bouncing set-piece header at the far post, the kind of goal that an aging centre-back turns into a personal milestone, and the United States were in front. SoFi exhaled. The co-hosts were going to finish Group D unbeaten. This was the easy night.
Arda Güler equalised seven minutes later. A ball into the box, a half-step of space between a USMNT centre-back and his marker, and a shot from the edge of the area that flicked off a red shirt and rolled into the corner. The Real Madrid twenty-one-year-old did not celebrate. He stood still, both arms at his sides, and watched the ball hit the net. He has been doing this for three years now. He did it again on Thursday. Barış Alper Yılmaz put Türkiye in front in the thirty-first minute — a back-post run, a low cross, a finish from six yards, the kind of goal that a wide forward scores on autopilot. SoFi went quiet. The dead-rubber script had flipped.
Sebastian Berhalter, son of the head coach, equalised in the forty-ninth minute. A half-cleared corner, a calm first-time strike from just inside the box, the kind of goal that a defensive midfielder will remember for the rest of his career. SoFi exhaled again. The United States had eighteen shots, seven on target, fifty-two-point-six percent of the ball, ninety minutes of pressure, and a half-fit squad. They could not finish. Türkiye could. They had three shots on target all night. They had three goals.
We came to play. We came to win. We did. — Vincenzo Montella, Türkiye head coach
In the ninety-eighth minute — the eighth added minute, the last kick of the match, the very last meaningful touch of the group stage for both teams — a Türkiye corner came in from the right. Kaan Ayhan, a thirty-one-year-old centre-back on loan at Galatasaray from Roma, lost his marker at the far post, met the ball with a left-footed volley, and steered it past the USMNT goalkeeper from six yards. The whole Türkiye bench emptied. The whole Türkiye bench ran to the corner flag. The whole Türkiye bench slid on its knees into the advertising boards. SoFi, which had been the loudest building in North America six times in the last hour, was the quietest it had been all night. The co-host had lost. In their own stadium. On the last kick.
Türkiye had come into the match having lost their first two games — three-nil to Portugal, two-nil to Switzerland, both by clean sheets, both by halftime. They had nothing. They were playing for a goal difference, for pride, for a manager in Vincenzo Montella who has spent the last year saying his team is better than the form line suggests. The form line on Friday morning says one thing. The scoreboard at SoFi says another. The United States still top Group D and travel to Kansas City on Tuesday for their first knockout match. Mauricio Pochettino has a real squad at full strength. Christian Pulisic, Folarin Balogun, Antonee Robinson — none of them played on Thursday. None of them needed to. They were already through. But a co-host losing at home, in their own building, on the last kick of the match, the last meaningful touch of the group stage — that is the kind of loss that resurfaces in October when the United States look back and try to figure out what worked and what did not.
The round of 32 starts Tuesday. The United States have a knockout game. Türkiye do not. The Türkiye players are going home. Kaan Ayhan is going home. But not before he had his moment — the last kick of a tournament that has had too many of them, on the field of a co-host that did not see this one coming. SoFi will be quiet for a few days. The knockout round brings the noise back. But for one match in June, the team that did not need to play beat the team that did not need to win. The scoreboard was the only thing that mattered. The scoreboard said 3-2. The scoreboard said Türkiye.
Daily Art Caricature by Chickenpie — World Cup 2026.
