Mauricio Pochettino’s World Cup lineup gamble doesn’t pay off in U.S. loss to Turkey
U.S. forward Christian Pulisic, right, plays the ball in front of midfielder Oguz Aydin during the second half of a World Cup Group D match at SoFi Stadium on Thursday night.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
Mauricio Pochettino has made the unconventional conventional since taking over as coach of the national team 18 months ago. He’s experimented with formations and tactics, shaken up his roster and motivated players by demanding to know why they can’t make a deep run into this World Cup.
On Thursday he may have pushed that contempt for convention a little too far, with Kaan Ayhan goal’s deep in stoppage time giving Turkey a 3-2 win and spoiling the Americans’ unbeaten start.
With the U.S. having already locked down a spot in the knockout stages of the tournament, Pochettino emptied his bench, making nine changes to his lineup for the group-stage finale with Turkey and giving 21 players a start in the first round. And this time the roll of the dice didn’t work, with Turkey getting its only win of the tournament on its last touch of the World Cup.
U.S. surrenders late goal, drops group stage finale
U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner holds his head after giving up a third goal during a World Cup match against Turkey at SoFi Stadium on Thursday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Turkey 3, U.S. 2, final
Despite a spark provided by super sub Christian Pulisic, the U.S. could not score during numerous chances on goal.
Then in the sixth minute of stoppage time, a Turkey shot was deflected by the U.S. and fell to Kaan Ayhan, who scored the game winner.
The U.S. still won its group and finished with six points, advancing to the round of 32.
Turkey previously had been eliminated, but it salvaged its World Cup with a win.
Christian Pulisic fires narrowly off target and more subs check in
U.S. defender Mark McKenzie and Turkey midfielder Baris Alper Yilmaz vie for the ball during a World Cup match at SoFi Stadium on Thursday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
U.S. 2, Turkey 2, 81st minute
The game officially drew an announced crowd of 70,492.
In the 72nd minute, Christian Pulisic whipped the ball toward goal but narrowly hit the post.
And in the 76th minute, Alejandro Zendejas, Sergiño Dest and Alex Freeman checked in as subs, replacing Brenden Aaronson, Gio Reyna and Joe Scally.
Christian Pulisic bring spark to U.S. attack
U.S. 2, Turkey 2, 67th minute
Christian Pulisic has electrified the U.S attack since checking into the game.
In the 63rd minute, Sebastian Berhalter lofted the ball ahead to Pulisic, who raced up the left sideline and fired a shot that was blocked. Brenden Aaronson couldn’t put away the rebound, with the ball sailing wide right of goal.
In the 64th minute, Ricardo Pepi’s shot was off target and fell to Pulisic, whose volley was narrowly deflected by Turkish goalkeeper Uğurcan Çakır and hit the post.
The teams entered the hydration break tied, but with the momentum favoring the U.S.
Crowd roars as Christian Pulisic subs into the game
U.S. forward Christian Pulisic warms up before the second half of a World Cup match against Turkey Thursday at SoFi Stadium.
(Kelvin Kuo/Los Angeles Times)
U.S. 2, Turkey 2, 58th minute
The crowd at SoFi Stadium roared as Christian Pulisic replaced Tim Weah in the lineup.
Pulisic left the U.S. World Cup opener at halftime after a calf injury flared up and missed the Americans’ second win recovering. He has been training with the team ahead of the Turkey matchup.
Sebastian Berhalter deliver equalizer for U.S.
U.S. midfielder Sebastian Berhalter blows a kiss after scoring during a World Cup match against Turkey Thursday at SoFi Stadium.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
U.S. 2, Turkey 2, 49th minute
An sideline overhead throw was deflected in the box before landing in front of Sebastian Berhalter, who rocketed a shot from the top of the box in to tie the game.
U.S. trails Turkey 2-1 at halftime
Turkiye midfielder Orkun Kokcu and U.S. midfielder Gio Reyna vie to head the ball during a World Cup match at SoFi Stadium on Thursday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Turkey 2, U.S. 0, halftime
The U.S. mounted promising runs in the final five minutes of the first half, but they could not score an equalizer.
The U.S. controlled possession 58% of the time and outshot Turkey 4-2.
The game has incredibly low stakes for a World Cup match, with the U.S. starting almost all reserves after previously winning its group and clinching a spot in the knockout round. Turkey, meanwhile, already has been eliminated.
Turkey carves up U.S. defense, takes lead
Turkiye midfielder Orkun Kökçü scores while U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner looks on during a World Cup match Thursday at SoFi Stadium.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Turkey 2, U.S. 1, 31st minute
The U.S. earned its third corner of the match. The U.S. pass in was deflected and fell to Mark McKenzie, who appeared to score on the rebound, but Ricardo Pepi was ruled offside.
Two minutes later, Turkey charged up field and developed strong give-and-go passing before Eren Elmali crossed the ball into the box and Orkun Kökçü scored at close range.
U.S., Turkey still tied at first half hydration break
U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner talks with teammates during a World Cup match against Turkey at SoFi Stadium on Thursday.
(Kelvin Kuo/Los Angeles Times)
U.S. 1, Turkey 1, 23rd minute
The referees seem to be calling contact a little more aggressively this match, with fouls called early on collisions that were previously ignored.
The U.S. controlled possession 60% of the team, but the teams remained tied entering the hydration break.
Turkey weaves through U.S. defense, scores
Turkey’s Arda Güler (8) celebrates with teammate Ozan Kabak after scoring against the U.S. during a World Cup match at SoFi Stadium on Thursday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
U.S. 1, Turkey 1, 10th minute
The U.S. defense struggled to execute tackles and cut off a Turkish run. Baris Alper Yilmaz fed Arda Güler in the box and he buried a shot past goalkeeper Matt Turner’s extended right arm.
Auston Trusty scores in third minute to give U.S. early lead over Turkey
U.S. players congratulate Auston Trusty after he scored against Turkey during a World Cup match at SoFi Stadium on Thursday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
U.S. 1, Turkey 0, 3rd minute
The U.S. moved the ball into the box a few times and took one shot on goal before Sebastian Berhalter delivered a cross off a corner to Auston Trusty, who gathered the ball to the right side of the penalty area and buried a shot just under Turkey goalkeeper Uğurcan Çakır.
U.S. coach shakes up lineup for group stage finale against Turkey
U.S. midfielder Weston McKennie is the only American who will start all three group stage matches.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino made bold changes with his lineup. Weston McKennie and Ricardo Pepi are the only two players who started the previous match who are in the lineup against Turkey. McKennie, who will wear the captain’s armband, is the only U.S. player to start all three U.S. matches.
The lineup adjustments include a change in goal, with Matt Turner starting against Turkey after Matt Freese started the previous two matches.
Christian Pulisic will open the game on the bench after recovering from a calf injury and Cristian Roldan (muscle strain) did not dress for the match, a tough break for the Pico Rivera native whose best chance to play this World Cup was tonight’s match.
Pico Rivera’s Cristian Roldan may be last made-in-high-school U.S. World Cup star
U.S. men’s national team player Cristian Roldan, center, and his teammates arrive at SoFi Stadium before the World Cup group stage match between the United States and Paraguay on June 12 in Inglewood.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
SEATTLE — Cristian Roldan and Haji Wright grew up less than three years and 30 miles apart, Roldan in Pico Rivera and Wright in Culver City. The odds that they would go on to become teammates on not one, but two, U.S. World Cup teams seem astronomical.
Yet despite starting at the same time and place and arriving together at the same destination, the two players followed completely different paths to get there.
Wright joined the Galaxy’s academy at 14 and signed with Schalke of the top tier German Bundesliga days after his 18th birthday. Roldan was still playing for El Rancho, when he was 17, making him the only member of the U.S. World Cup team to play four years at a public high school.
Fans show up in droves outside SoFi Stadium ahead of U.S. vs. Turkey
U.S. fans march outside SoFi Stadium before Thursday’s World Cup match between the U.S. and Turkey.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
U.S. fans showed up in force outside SoFi Stadium ahead of Thursday’s World Cup Group D showdown between the U.S. and Turkey.
U.S. fans march outside SoFi Stadium before Thursday’s World Cup match between the U.S. and Turkey.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
U.S. fans march outside SoFi Stadium before Thursday’s World Cup match between the U.S. and Turkey.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
U.S. fans march outside SoFi Stadium before Thursday’s World Cup match between the U.S. and Turkey.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
U.S. fans march outside SoFi Stadium before Thursday’s World Cup match between the U.S. and Turkey.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
U.S. fans march outside SoFi Stadium ahead of the U.S.-Turkey World Cup match on Thursday.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
U.S. fans march outside SoFi Stadium before Thursday’s World Cup match between the U.S. and Turkey.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
U.S. fans march outside SoFi Stadium before Thursday’s World Cup match between the U.S. and Turkey.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
U.S. fans march outside SoFi Stadium before Thursday’s World Cup match between the U.S. and Turkey.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
U.S. fans march outside SoFi Stadium before Thursday’s World Cup match between the U.S. and Turkey.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
‘The clear choice by far.’ Why rising U.S. star Alex Freeman chose soccer over the NFL
U.S. defender Alex Freeman, left, and Paraguay forward Julio Enciso battle for control of the ball during the United States’ 4-1 win in its World Cup opener on June 12.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
SEATTLE — Growing up the son of an NFL wide receiver, Alex Freeman said he felt a lot of pressure to play the American version of football, not the one the rest of the world plays.
“I always got asked if football was the path,” he said last summer. “But I always had a secret love for soccer.”
And he had to keep it a secret because he wasn’t sure his father Antonio, a Super Bowl winner with the Green Bay Packers, would understand.
But his stepfather did. Jake Hinkle introduced Alex to the sport and served as his first coach while his mother Rochelle urged him on.
Harvard alum Matt Freese took an unusual path to starting in goal for U.S. at World Cup
U.S. goalkeeper Matt Freese directs his teammates before Paraguay takes a free kick during a World Cup match at SoFi Stadium on June 12.
(Kelvin Kuo/Los Angeles Times)
Playing in goal for the U.S. men’s national soccer team is a little like playing right field for the Yankees. You’re following a long line of great players, making the comparisons — and the high expectations — unavoidable.
Matt Freese is the latest to be thrown into that crucible. But he considers that pressure to be a privilege, not a problem.
“I wouldn’t say it’s intimidating, I would say it’s inspiring,” he said before the U.S. training session Tuesday morning in Irvine. “It’s a long line of goalkeepers that I’ve looked up to for my whole life — and there were some before my life as well.”
‘Why not us?’ How Mauricio Pochettino taught the U.S. to believe it could win a World Cup
Mauricio Pochettino is the first U.S. men’s coach to win the group stage of a World Cup in 96 years.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
A bowl of lemons sits on a table in the conference room Mauricio Pochettino has turned into an office at the U.S. men’s soccer team’s beachfront resort in south Orange County. The citrus fruit, the coach believes, has the spiritual ability to absorb negative energy. On the corner of another table, the flame from a candle flickers.
“I like candles,” says Pochettino, who believes they release therapeutic fragrances and create a calming environment.
But it is the massive, blood-red mural covering the entire south side of the room that truly reveals what Pochettino believes. In the center of the wall, just behind the coach’s desk, white block letters spell out “Why Not” above a script “U.S.,” which, despite the periods, is meant to be read as “us.”
‘A great vibe.’ Pacific Northwest joins Los Angeles in an embrace of World Cup fever
U.S. fans march outside Lumen Field in Seattle before the U.S.-Australia World Cup game on June 19, 2026.
(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
SEATTLE — Jaysen Dickinson flew to Seattle from Vermont to cross an item off his lengthy bucket list.
“To see the World Cup and the U.S. play in the World Cup,” he said.
Kim Fletcher and her 17-year-old son Kelan caught a 5 a.m. flight from Sacramento last week for the same reason.
“It’s a must-do right now,” she said.
They weren’t alone. Tens of thousands of people poured into Seattle on Friday morning for the U.S. team’s group-stage game with Australia, turning the Emerald City into a sea of red, white and blue. Some had tickets, most did not.
These visitors’ viral World Cup videos are showing what really makes America great
Team USA and Team Paraguay fans parade to the venue to watch the first World Cup group stage match at SoFi Stadium on Friday.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
There’s the Scottish soccer fan who marveled at our wildly varied landscape and welcoming communities as he walked from L.A. to Boston, arriving in time to see Scotland play Haiti on Saturday. There’s the German traveling in the opposite direction from Atlanta who could not get over the wonders of the hospitable South, from Stone Mountain to Buc-ees. There’s the Swede promoting the power of ranch dressing, the Italians marveling at fountain drinks with ice and free refills, the English rhapsodizing over chicken parm and just about everyone shouting out the friendliness of the businesses that served them. Even the “beauty” of American trucks, big yellow school buses and eight-lane freeways have gotten their fair share of shout-outs.
Just in time for the semiquincentennial, the churning waves of social media discontent have parted and given us a glimpse of how these United States look (and taste) to wide-eyed World Cup attendees. And it is glorious.
L.A. defies the skeptics for a World Cup marked by unity, mutual respect, fearlessness
Fans participate in the wave during the first half of a World Cup group stage match between Iran and New Zealand.
(Kelvin Kuo/Los Angeles Times)
The run-up to the World Cup in Los Angeles was marked by anxiety over how immigration enforcement, travel restrictions and anti-Trump backlash would affect the spirit and attendance of the games.
But on the streets of L.A. over the last week, something very different has happened.
Fans from a kaleidoscope of cultural backgrounds have come together to act out the kind of world — and city — they want to live in.
Recap: U.S. makes history in win over Australia
U.S. defender Alex Freeman (16) celebrates with teammates after scoring in a 2-0 win over Australia in World Cup Group D play Friday in Seattle.
(Manu Fernandez / Associated Press)
SEATTLE — The World Cup is only a little more than a week old, but it’s already a historic one for the U.S.
With Friday’s 2-0 win over Australia, the U.S. matched its best World Cup performance ever with two victories. Their six goals match the most the U.S. has ever scored in the group stage and its goal differential of plus-five is also its best ever in the tournament. The U.S. also clinched a spot in the round of 32.
Most impressive of all, however, is how the U.S. achieved most of that without their best player, Christian Pulisic, who had an electric first half in the U.S. opener against Paraguay but hasn’t seen the field since.
‘I love America!’: With the World Cup, Inglewood becomes an international hub
Bartender Elijah Gonzalez mixes a drink at the Nile Bar in Inglewood while customers watch Croatia play England as businesses and locals embrace the World Cup soccer tournament.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Daiki Kaneko had only 24 hours before his World Cup journey took him to Dallas, where his home country’s squad will take on Sweden.
The Japanese soccer fan was making the most of it on Tuesday in Inglewood, snapping pictures of SoFi Stadium before taking in a different kind of monument: a space-age, two-story branch of the chicken chain Raising Cane’s, complete with a 308-square-foot screen, a mirrored dog sculpture and a massive halo hovering around the exterior.
For Kaneko, 25, who lives in the Tokyo suburbs, it was the perfect encapsulation of American grandeur.
“All this for chicken,” he said. “I love America.”
2026 FIFA World Cup group play results
Here are the results of every game played at the 2026 FIFA World Cup so far.
Born in Brooklyn, raised in London, Folarin Balogun lights up the World Cup for the U.S.
U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, left, scored twice against Paraguy during the USMNT’s World Cup group stage opener on Friday, the first American player to score multiple goals in a World Cup match in 96 years.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
SEATTLE — If a pregnant Nigerian woman had been allowed to board a plane 25 years ago, the U.S. team’s path through this summer’s World Cup may have unfolded much differently. Instead, a gate agent turned her away, insisting it wasn’t safe for her to fly from New York to London.
So Florence Balogun returned to Brooklyn, where she had been visiting relatives, and waited for her second son to be born. And when Folarin arrived a few weeks later, entering the world just hours before Independence Day dawned, he did so as an American citizen.
Skip $300 parking. How to get to the World Cup at SoFi Stadium on $1.75 Metro shuttles
(Photo illustration by Jim Cooke / Los Angeles Times; photos by Getty Images)
In a perfect world, you’d be able to take a helicopter from your home straight to Sofi Stadium during the World Cup. But unfortunately, we do not live in that world, so you’ll probably need to find a reliable and cheap way to get to the World Cup.
Fans from all around will flock to the Los Angeles area for the biggest sport event in the world, meaning that traffic will be worse (if you can imagine), buses will be fuller and Metro stops will drown in the flags and jerseys of all competing nations.
Latest updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup
For all of the latest news and results from Thursday, be sure to check out our FIFA World Cup live updates.
2026 World Cup guide: Full TV schedule, game previews, results and standings
U.S. midfielder Gio Reyna, center, celebrates with teammates Antonee Robinson, left, and Sebastian Berhalter after scoring against Paraguay in the World Cup at SoFi Stadium on June 12.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
It’s crunch time at the 2026 FIFA World Cup with teams throughout the 48-strong field looking to stay in contention for the knockout stage or improve their placing in the round of 32.
The U.S., Mexico, Argentina, Germany, Brazil and Switzerland have already clinched spots in the round of 32 by winning their respective groups. France, Norway, Canada, Colombia, Morocco, Bosnia-Herzegovina and South Africa also are advancing. Haiti, Tunisia, Turkey, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Panama and Czechia, however, have been eliminated from knockout-round contention.
Here’s everything you need to know about World Cup matches being played Thursday and Friday across the U.S., Mexico and Canada (all times Pacific).
