![\"Kaan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SUT-L-USA-World-Cup-047.jpg\")
Kaan Ayhan #22 of Turkiye celebrates a goal against the United States during a FIFA World Cup 2026 match at Los Angeles Stadium on June 25, 2026 in Inglewood, California. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nINGLEWOOD \u2014 The U.S. men\u2019s national team returned to SoFi Stadium \u2014 sorry, Los Angeles Stadium \u2014 for the second time in this World Cup, to play Turkey in the finale of the three-match group stage.<\/p>\n
And SoFi Stadium indeed will serve as a barometer of success for the hosts.<\/p>\n
Just not Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The 3-2 loss to Turkey (Turkiye in official FIFA parlance that the Associated Press and other U.S. media outlets refuse to acknowledge) was utterly meaningless, so much that United States coach Mauricio Pochettino rotated nine of 11 starters from the previous game, including the entire back line and backup goalkeeper Matt Turner.<\/p>\n
The Yanks still advance as group champions to the knockout stage, beginning with the round of 32 on Tuesday in Santa Clara. The Turks still fly home.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s not meaningless is the next time the hosts can play at SoFi, a July 10 quarterfinal looming through the smog like the San Gabriel Mountains abutting this metropolis. That\u2019s when we finally get answers. That\u2019s when perception intersects with reality.<\/p>\n
Perception: The U.S. men are having a historic World Cup.<\/p>\n
Reality: They haven\u2019t done anything yet.<\/p>\n
The old adage in sports is you need to be good and lucky, not necessarily in that order, and the Yanks have been both. They\u2019ve looked fluid, dynamic, energetic, confident, imposing, even dominant at times, while getting a pair of early own goals in a 4-1 win against Paraguay and a 2-0 win against Australia.<\/p>\n
But that was Paraguay and Australia, 41st\u00a0and 27th\u00a0in the FIFA world rankings, bereft of World Cup pedigree, gifts from a tournament that expanded from 32 to 48 teams in the name of selling more $1,000 nosebleed tickets.<\/p>\n
Turkey, ranked 22nd, was considered the toughest assignment in the group and the only European foe, which is U.S. kryptonite. (The U.S. men have now lost nine straight games against European teams in all competitions and won only one of 21 meetings in World Cups since 1990.) They struggled once again, trailing 2-1 at halftime and surrendering a last-second winner, but it didn\u2019t matter if they lost 30-2.<\/p>\n
Next up?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a 99% chance Tuesday\u2019s round of 32 opponent will be No. 64 Bosnia and Herzegovina, which squeaked through a last-chance playoff by beating Wales in a penalty shootout and then Italy, also in a penalty shootout, despite playing the final 75-plus minutes with a man advantage.<\/p>\n
And the round of 16?<\/p>\n
It was supposed to be No. 9 Belgium, the overwhelming favorite to win Group G that embarrassed the U.S. 5-2 in a March friendly. But the talented Red Devils have continued their World Cup tradition of underachievement and have only a slim chance of landing in the U.S. side of the bracket by finishing atop the group.<\/p>\n
That leaves No. 29 Egypt or No. 25 South Korea, teams with aging superstars who don\u2019t present the same kind of technical challenge and will be clear underdogs against the U.S. on U.S. soil.<\/p>\n
Which means: If form holds, if they don\u2019t choke, if they dispatch inferior opposition, if they don\u2019t stub their toe walking to the kitchen, the Yanks are in the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time since 2002.<\/p>\n
Kaan Ayhan #22 of Turkiye celebrates a goal against the United States during a FIFA World Cup 2026 match at Los Angeles Stadium on June 25, 2026 in Inglewood, California. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
That year, they won the opener 3-2 against a Portugal team ranked No. 5 at the time, drew against a South Korea team that would reach the semifinals as hosts, then won 2-0 against No. 7 Mexico in the round of 16.<\/p>\n
Their road this summer is nothing like that. In fact, it is statistically the smoothest to the final eight since the FIFA world rankings were instituted before the 1994 World Cup and would be the first time in 24 years that a quarterfinalist wouldn\u2019t have faced a top-20 team.<\/p>\n
That all changes at SoFi on July 10, when No. 3 Spain or No. 8 Portugal await.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when we get answers. That\u2019s when we find out how good this team really is, or isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
In the last World Cup here, in 1994, the U.S. men received a pair of gifts \u2014 an own-goal by Colombia that put them through to the knockout phase and a 43rd-minute red card against Brazil in the round of 16 that had the hosts still tied with the eventual champions and up a man deep into the second half before a partisan red, white and blue crowd celebrating the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n
That U.S. team, formed without a domestic pro league and only a handful of players on small European clubs, didn\u2019t have the depth or quality to convert opportunity into achievement.<\/p>\n
This one might.<\/p>\n
It has nine of 11 first-choice starters playing for European clubs, a respected Argentine coach, a roster full of World Cup experience from 2022 and a tactical system with a pentagon midfield that gives opponents fits.<\/p>\n
It also has the intangible absent from a country that has won only one World Cup knockout match in its history: swagger.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not us?\u201d has been Pochettino\u2019s mantra that is beginning to gain traction, valid or not.<\/p>\n
Explained Pochettino: \u201cIt was like a motto for us to say, \u2018We can. If we believe we can, we can do. If we work hard, we can do. If we change our mindset, we can do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Ozan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SUT-L-USA-World-Cup-045.jpg\")
Ozan Kabak #15 of Turkiye and Christian Pulisic #10 off the United States are separated during a FIFA World Cup 2026 match at Los Angeles Stadium on June 25, 2026 in Inglewood, California. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where the luck of the draw matters, where a bad Paraguay team, a bad Australia team, a loss against Turkey that doesn\u2019t matter, Bosnia and Herzegovina with a population (3.1 million) smaller than San Diego County, Egypt that last reached the knockout stage in 1934 matters. Confidence becomes competence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to move on, of course,\u201d midfielder Brenden Aaronson said after the 3-2 defeat. \u201cBut we\u2019re full of confidence. I\u2019m not worried about it. I\u2019m not worried at all. I think the team is in a great spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely belief,\u201d forward Folarin Balogun said earlier this week. \u201cWhether I\u2019d call it magic, I\u2019m not sure. There\u2019s definitely a belief we have. There are 15 or 20 guys who would put their life on the line for a win, for a result, to block a goal. When you have that sort of mentality, you\u2019re always going to give yourself the best chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The World Cup is 14 days old. We\u2019ll have to wait another 15 to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD \u2014 The U.S. men\u2019s national team returned to SoFi Stadium \u2014 sorry, Los Angeles Stadium \u2014 for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,2558,3,403,99,2557,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-726669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}