Türkiye stuns United States with stoppage-time winner in World Cup group finale

Kaan Ayhan ended the U.S. unbeaten group run with a 98th-minute winner in Los Angeles, lifting Türkiye to a 3-2 victory in the final Group D match and leaving the Americans with a clear warning before the round of 32.

The game swung from the opening minutes. Auston Trusty put the United States ahead in the third minute, but Arda Güler answered in the 10th and Barış Alper Yılmaz pushed Türkiye in front again in the 31st. Sebastian Berhalter pulled the U.S. level in the 49th, only for Ayhan to settle the match on the final kick and deliver Türkiye its first victory of the 2026 World Cup. The Americans finished first in Group D with six points; Türkiye closed with three.

Mauricio Pochettino used the match to rotate heavily, making nine changes to the starting lineup and leaving Christian Pulisic on the bench until the 58th minute. Pulisic had been limited by a calf issue during the tournament, and the altered XI was enough to preserve group position but not enough to protect a result once Türkiye kept pressing into stoppage time. The loss did not change the U.S. path to the round of 32, where Bosnia and Herzegovina awaits, but it did show how vulnerable a second unit can be when a match becomes disjointed late.

That matters because the 2026 tournament is the first World Cup with 48 teams and 12 groups, which has made group-stage seeding and third-place qualification more consequential across the field. For the United States, already assured of advancement before kickoff, the final minutes were less about standings than about whether a rotated roster could manage pressure after letting a lead slip twice.

The matchup also fit a short but competitive recent history between the sides. In June 2025 at East Hartford, Connecticut, the United States lost 2-1 to Türkiye in a friendly ahead of the Gold Cup, with Jack McGlynn scoring in the first minute before Türkiye came back in front of 34,023 fans. That earlier result and the stoppage-time finish in Los Angeles now bookend a tense stretch in which Türkiye has repeatedly found ways to punish the Americans when control has wavered.