Türkiye Stole the Last Kick. Kansas Still Got the Result That Mattered.
If you watched this one from a stool somewhere off Grand Boulevard, you saw a U.S. B-team trade punches with a side already on its way home — and lose it on the final touch of the night. Kaan Ayhan's kick made it Türkiye 3-2 at SoFi Stadium. Sting? Sure. But the standings never budged: the United States won Group D and books a Round of 32 date with Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1.
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Five goals, one loser who didn't really lose anything
This had the rhythm of a preseason scrimmage with the scoreboard cranked up. The U.S. went ahead inside three minutes, gave it back twice, clawed level twice, and then got caught flat on the very last play. None of it cost the Americans a thing in the table — they were already through as group winners before kickoff — but as a 90-minute watch it was a lot more fun than a dead rubber has any right to be.
Pochettino made ten changes to the side that handled Australia, resting the regulars he needs fresh and yellow-card-clean for the knockouts. Christian Pulisic didn't start; he came off the bench around the hour to get his legs moving. So what you watched late was a patched-together American group running on fumes against a Türkiye team with nothing to protect and a tournament to salvage one shred of. That combination wrote the ending.
How it unfolded, minute by minute
| Min | Goal | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3' | Auston Trusty heads home a Sebastian Berhalter corner | 1-0 USA |
| 10' | Arda Güler curls in the equalizer | 1-1 |
| 31' | Orkun Kökçü puts Türkiye in front | 2-1 TUR |
| 49' | Sebastian Berhalter levels it after the break | 2-2 |
| 90'+ | Kaan Ayhan wins it on the final kick | 3-2 TUR |
Trusty's early header off Berhalter's delivery was a tidy set-piece routine, and for a few minutes it looked like even the reserves would cruise. Then Güler reminded everyone why he is one of the most coveted young attackers on the planet, and Kökçü's strike on the half-hour exposed how loosely this makeshift back line was tracking runners. Berhalter's second-half equalizer — his goal and his assist on the day — felt like it might be enough to limp to a draw. Ayhan had other ideas at the death.
The betting recap: the underdog read was right
If you read our preview, the whole thesis was that a no-stakes game flips the math: you don't lay a price on a rotated favorite, you back the side with a reason to run. That aged well. FanDuel had it USA -110, Draw +300, Türkiye +260 before kickoff, and the Turks' moneyline at +260 cashed clean. A motivated, healthier-incentive underdog against a U.S. squad with ten fresh faces was live value, full stop.
- Türkiye +260 — WIN. The dead-rubber logic held. Türkiye wanted to leave with something, the rotated U.S. didn't have the cohesion to shut the door, and the underdog price paid out.
- Over 2.5 goals — WIN. Five goals blew the total apart. If you took the over, you were home well before stoppage time.
- Under 2.5 goals — LOSS. Worth owning honestly: the under was a popular lean and it got buried. The rotation made the U.S. leaky, not low-scoring — a real lesson for the next time a favorite shuffles the deck.
- Anytime scorer props. The U.S. goals came from Trusty and Berhalter, not the Pepi or Weah tickets a lot of people held. Türkiye's came from Güler, Kökçü and Ayhan. Set-piece and defender-scorer angles paid; the obvious forwards didn't.
The clean takeaway from the night: in a game nobody on the favored side needed to win, the over and the live underdog were the moneymakers. Laying a number on a B-team was the trap.
Where Kansas watched, and where it's going
This one hits a little different in our corner of the map, because the World Cup isn't an abstraction here — it's about to be parked in our backyard. Kansas City is a 2026 host, with matches coming to Arrowhead Stadium that will pull the planet into the metro this summer. That nod wasn't a fluke. Sporting KC has spent years as one of MLS's better-run clubs, the youth game runs deep on both sides of the state line, and this is a town that actually loves soccer instead of just enduring it until football season. A Thursday-night group-stage finale still drew a real crowd to bars from the Power & Light District to Lawrence.
On the wagering side, Kansas flipped on mobile sports betting in September 2022, with FanDuel one of the leading books live from day one. If you're 21 or older and standing in the state, you had this market open on your phone in a couple of taps. With the real thing landing at Arrowhead in a matter of weeks, a five-goal group-stage thriller was a decent warm-up for the soccer card that's coming.
What's next: USA vs Bosnia, Round of 32
Don't let the scoreline fool you about the bigger picture. The U.S. stayed on six points, finished first in Group D, and that result was locked before this match ever kicked off. Türkiye finished bottom and were eliminated coming in — Tuesday's win was their only one of the tournament, a pride result and nothing more.
The Americans now advance to the Round of 32 to face Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, July 1. That's a single-elimination game with everything on it, and Pochettino's first-choice XI — Pulisic included — will be back and rested, which was the entire point of the rotation. FanDuel hasn't posted lines for that one yet; expect them soon. When the number drops, we'll have the full Kansas breakdown.
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More on our World Cup 2026 betting hub and our USA-Australia coverage.