United States and Turkey play meaningless match to everyone but the players
The World Cup can elevate and devastate, sometimes in the space of 180 minutes.
Both will be on display Thursday night at SoFi Stadium when the United States plays Turkey in what was supposed to dramatically decide Group D and instead will decide absolutely nothing because of what happened in their first two matches.
The U.S. is flying. Turkey is flying home.
It presents a brief respite from the omnipresent tension of a World Cup: The Yanks will finish atop Group D and advance to the knockout stage, most likely against Bosnia and Herzegovina, even if they lose 10-0 in Thursday night’s 7 p.m. kickoff, and the Turks will be one of the 16 teams eliminated even if they win 10-0.
Meaningless to everyone except the players.
The Yanks are playing to maintain the good vibes from 4-1 and 2-0 wins against Paraguay and Australia, and to achieve the historic milestone of prevailing in all three group matches for the first time in World Cup history.
The Turks are playing for pride, to avoid the ignominy of exiting the group stage without a goal or a point after reaching the semifinals in their last World Cup appearance — and after an expectant send-off in which hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Istanbul on their way to the airport.
“You don’t want to go into a knockout round having, like, a bad feeling how the last game went,” U.S. midfielder Max Arfsten said. “Expectations are high. We won the first two games. Everyone is expecting us to keep going. That’s what we want to do.
“Even though they’ve lost their first two games, nobody wants to go out of a World Cup on a disappointment. I think we’re all aware it’s not going to be an easy game.”
Arfsten didn’t feature in either U.S. game but could Thursday as coach Mauricio Pochettino is faced with one of those good problems to have. With nothing materially at stake, does he rotate his lineup ahead of the July 1 round of 32 in Santa Clara?
Or does he, with six days since the last match and six before the next one, preserve continuity at the risk of suspension for four key starters if they get another yellow card?
Or does he find some balance in between?
It’s the old rest-or-rust conundrum faced by U.S. pro sports teams in their final regular-season game having already clinched a playoff spot.
“The most important thing is to go out there and win, regardless of whatever team the coach decides to play,” forward Folarin Balogun said. “Three wins from three games is an opportunity to create history, to put a positive message out there not only for ourselves but towards other teams.
“I want to play every game. It’s the sort of player I am, being available. … But it’s also important to be smart. I don’t want to pick up a yellow card and miss the round of 32.”
Balogun, midfielder Tyler Adams and defenders Chris Richards and Antonee Robinson are all on yellows, meaning they’d sit out July 1 if they get another Thursday. (Yellow cards reset after the group stage.) But that represents the spine of the team — forward, central mid, center back — and replacing them risks losing the rhythm and connectivity that defined their first two matches.
The other lineup question involves Christian Pulisic, who was the best player on the field against Paraguay before subbing out at halftime with a left calf injury and not playing against Australia last Friday. He returned to training this week and proclaimed himself “healthy and ready to go,” but do you get his legs moving again or do you err on the side of caution knowing how fussy calves can be?
Or what about 38-year-old center back Tim Ream, the oldest U.S. World Cup field player in history? Do you rest him knowing the gaps between games get shorter now — five before the round of 16, four before the quarterfinals?
Coach Mauricio Pochettino said Wednesday afternoon that he won’t make final lineup decisions until Thursday morning, but he hinted that the four players on yellows won’t suit up along with some others who started the first two games after logging heavy minutes in their club seasons.
“To be perfectly honest with you, I’m not really interested in thinking about any personal record that I can have as a head coach,” Pochettino replied when asked about the prospect of becoming the first U.S. coach to go 3-0 in a World Cup group stage. “Because if I were thinking about that, that would mean I would be making selfish decisions.
“I strike a good balance between my ego and what I need to do, and to focus on the organization and country I represent. Whatever is best for the team, that is what we’re going to do.”
Sitting Adams, Richards, Robinson and Ream would leave an already shaky back line even shakier against a Turkey team that figures to surge forward to prove to themselves (and 88 million people back home) that, yes, they can actually score goals. The Yanks controlled possession in their first two World Cup matches and goalkeeper Matt Freese was rarely tested; that probably won’t be the case Thursday.
When they met in a friendly last June in East Hartford, Conn., the U.S. got an early goal, then surrendered two in three minutes and lost 2-1.
With Real Madrid’s Arda Guler and several other rising stars at big European clubs, Turkey reached the quarterfinals of the 2024 European Championships and led the Netherlands 1-0 before losing 2-1.
They’ve shown similar flashes of attacking flair here.
They just haven’t scored.
Their combined 61 shots are the most in a World Cup without a goal since they began tracking the stat in 1966. They’ve had more than 100 touches in the opponent’s penalty area, and an expected goals figure of 3.43, compared to 1.57 for the U.S. over its two matches. They had 63% possession and 28 shot against Australia, 78% and 33 against Paraguay while playing the second half up a man.
“Football is not logical,” Vincenzo Montella, Turkey’s Italian coach, said after the Paraguay loss. “We have to accept the result. That is why people dream. Not every time the team that plays better wins the game. That’s the sport we’re playing. That’s football.
“I don’t know what more I can add to that.”
Guler offered an emotional apology to a nation.
“We’re very sorry, we’re ashamed,” he said. “We apologize to all our people. ZzThroughout my national team career, I’ll do everything I can to make them forget this moment.”
It’s not exactly what fans shelling out $1,000 for tickets quite had in mind for the Group D finale. Then again, there are no guarantees in the World Cup.
“It’s going to be an opportunity for them to play for pride and defend their jersey and their country,” Pochettino said. “And for us, it’s an opportunity to win. I think it’s going to be very competitive.”