Read 6 minutes26 Jun 2026 11:05 AM IST
Crucially saved by the twist of the knife for the last minute of the game. The contest remained tied at 2-2, a fitting end to a frantic and error-filled game, with Kan Ayhan slotting the ball into the net. A collective pause rocked the stadium. The co-hosts USMNT lost a game for the first time in a World Cup. Suddenly, the sold-out crowd, half of them Hollywood celebrities, stopped reacting. The illusion and illusion of the country as a trophy came tumbling down like a castle of dreams built in a Hollywood basement.
The team lingered and clapped, reassuring the crowd not to worry. After all, it was an inconsistent game, more fraught with risk than reward. Manager Mauricio Pochettino is a wise man, having dealt with losses due to yellow cards that have caused some of his regulars to miss round-of-32 games or a senior player injured or tired.
He was willing to gamble on momentum, and the brilliant bounce could inject winning streaks. The margin was slim — if they hadn’t conceded a last-minute goal, or if one of Christian Pulisic’s shots hadn’t hit the woodwork and crashed, his tactics would have been hailed as a masterstroke.
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But only time will tell if this defeat will be for good or not. Last-minute goals leave more mental scars than routine, because they’re not so much about skill and strategy as they are about mindset. Will the USMNT recover from the setback? Weston McKenney, their captain for the night, is confident that his team’s momentum will not be broken. “I think the momentum will definitely be there. Everybody wants to go into the game having won the previous game. Obviously we didn’t do that tonight, but I think that will motivate us even more.”
But the game eased the hosts’ insecurities. The confusion of temporary defenses can trouble a manager. All the back four plus the goalkeeper were second or third options. Pochettino did not want the men in yellow to collect another card and be benched from the round-of-32 fixture. He wanted some old veterans to rest and recover for the next crisis. But the product he saw, even if it was his back-up squad, scared him.
Defense structures shut down, mostly resulting from their severe infections. He covered the defensive line more than usual, dropping the mid-block adopted so far in the competition to limit the opposition’s final-third touches. He avoided the double-pivot move that had worked so well, as he had no options on the bench. The result was a structural disaster as the hosts took little control of the game. Buoyed by the second minute goal, they lifted too high, moved too aggressively for the second goal and left little cover at the back. Perhaps, it was the over-enthusiasm of those bench-warmed for most of the tournament.
Turkey’s Kan Ayhan, second from right, scored the third goal against the US. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Both of Turkey’s goals were easy. Get the ball into the box, find space and shoot. The dialogue between Miles Robinson and Mark McKenzie was like two strangers walking in opposite directions on a New York subway, their vibe cold and frosty. When lper Yılmaz waltzed through and Arda Güler equalized, it looked like each other would be tidy. Orkun Koku scored Turkey’s second goal when Joe Scully and Robinson combined on another miscued pass. Guler took on four of our defenders with a simple slide-rule pass. Scully completely unmarks Elmali and cuts his cut back past a terrified Robinson.
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They were thrilling when they attacked, harrying the Turkish defence, picking up the ball with maddening fervor and unrelenting energy. When the Turks made a quick and uninterrupted transition, they were caught napping while defending. There was a larger area to attack than the Gulf of Izmir. The high-pressure response, an ideal Pochettino left with a lack of drains, was intense.
It was Pochettino’s worst fear that turned into a nightmare. His lack of defensive depth. And his only prayer was that his first-choice backline could play all the minutes in every game (or games). He ran a tight route while sacrificing pace for the freshness of his players.
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But there were moments they would love. This was one. Sebastian Berhalter rocketed through the narrow space between himself and his opponents body. Strangely, she crossed a near-straight line and got caught in the net. Fury tackled Berhalter, son or former coach Greg, who was watching from the stands. He sprinted with the ball and placed it in the center circle, prompting his opponents to restart play. The crowd, which had been muted by the second goal, erupted again. The intensity of the USMNT in the dead-rubber revealed the confidence they were riding.
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The biggest, and perhaps the only meaningful, takeaway from this match was the supreme dynamic of Christian Pulisic’s return from injury that ruled him out of the Australia match. The jewel in the USMNT’s crown, its undisputed talisman, he hit the crossbar and the curling brute kissed the post. His movements showed little restlessness or fatigue, but a quickness to land a winner. It didn’t come, they lost in the final seconds of the game. The night ended with heartbreak. But the question is whether it is the last or the first.