With first place in Group D already confirmed before the ball was kicked, United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino made wholesale changes to his lineup for the final match of the group against Türkiye. With the Turks already eliminated, the match meant nothing aside from pride, but provided a rare chance to rest players in a World Cup match.
USA 🇺🇸 Starting XI vs Türkiye 🇹🇷 Turner; Trusty, M.Robinson, McKenzie, Scally; Berhalter, McKennie ©; Aaronson, Reyna, Weah; Pepi BENCH: Freese, Brady, Dest, Richards, Adams, A.Robinson, Pulisic, Reyna, Freeman, Tillman, Arfsten, Wright, Balogun, Zendejas
— SixOneFive Soccer (@sixonefivesoccer.com) June 25, 2026 at 7:48 PM
[image or embed]
The USMNT took the lead inside three minutes, with Auston Trusty finishing calmly from a corner kick after finding himself completely unmarked at the back post. Türkiye scored two goals unanswered before a Sebastian Berhalter rocket pulled the Americans level. With both sides pushing hard for a winner, Türkiye scored the game-winning goal in the 98th minute, finding the net with the last kick of the match.
Here are three takeaways from the match.
One big caveat
For starters, it's important to give this result some context. The US had nothing on the line. It's also really hard to be competitive with nine changes (10 changes from their World Cup-opening lineup, with Weston McKennie the lone holdover).
I fired off a post on Bluesky during the match poking holes in the USMNT's depth. I had meant to couch it with a note that wholesale changes make it harder to evaluate, and my friend Adam Snavely gave a helpful counter to my original post.
I’m not even sure our depth is all that suboptimal. Outside of the top-5ish teams in the world, if you play 10/11 second-choice players against another team playing their stars, it’s not going to look great
— Adam Whittaker Snavely (@snaves.bsky.social) June 25, 2026 at 9:59 PM
[image or embed]
Snaves is right. It was never going to look great. In retrospect, the fact that a rotated USMNT B-squad hung with a Türkiye side that absolutely dominated Australia and Paraguay (they would win both those matches 9/10 times if played again) is impressive in its own right.
Ultimately, I understand and agree with Pochettino's decision to fully rotate and protect his best players. Imagine the justified outrage if Tyler Adams or Folarin Balogun had started this match and picked up a yellow card, suspending them against Bosnia & Herzegovina in the Round of 32? Or what if Chris Richards played and re-injured his ankle?
Rotating was always the right choice. It also meant that there are no real overarching takeaways about the first-choice squad to be had here.
The World Cup is here, and we're running our biggest sale of the year! Sign up for a new annual membership and save 30%!
The flaws in the roster build are evident
Pochettino's roster selection for the tournament had one major flaw: the lack of midfielders, particularly No. 6s. Here's what I wrote about the roster after the announcement:
Bringing only four central midfielders is a major risk. Especially considering Tyler Adams' injury history, as well as the ridiculously low threshold for yellow-card suspensions (two yellows in two different matches equals a one-match suspension), there's not much cover. An early injury to Adams and a pair of cards to Weston McKennie would force Cristian Roldan and Sebastian Berhalter to be the only available central midfielders. Leaving off players like Tanner Tessmann, who had a generally solid season with Lyon in France and was expected by many to be a starter, or Aidan Morris, who starred for Middlesbrough in the Championship, is a huge risk that could look extremely foolish in hindsight.
On Thursday night, that decision hit the spotlight. With Adams on yellow card watch and Roldan injured, Pochettino started Berhalter and McKennie together in midfield. Neither are No. 6s. Berhalter is a high-energy, box-to-box No. 8. His passing range is one of the best in the pool, he strikes a wicked shot, and he's genuinely elite from set pieces. All of this was on display against Türkiye.
His limitations out of possession were also on display. His workrate is second only to maybe Adams, but his primary defensive attribute is his insatiable desire to hunt the ball. This is great with a stay-at-home No. 6 next to you. It's not great when paired with McKennie, who's closer to a No. 10 than a No. 8.
Roldan is absolutely not going to give up the runner and get drawn to the ball like that. He knows exactly where that goal's coming from three passes before it happens. I also think Aidan Morris makes that play. James Sands for sure, too.
— Matthew Doyle (@mattdoyle.bsky.social) June 25, 2026 at 9:59 PM
[image or embed]
The choice to bring so many center backs came at the cost of midfield depth. Even in the squad that was fielded against Türkiye, Trusty could have played in the center instead of Miles Robinson or Mark McKenzie, with Max Arfsten playing left back. This would leave room for a player like Tanner Tessman or Aidan Morris to play the crucial No. 6 role, which would in turn put Berhalter and McKennie in better positions.
It hopefully won't matter for the rest of the tournament. Adams will start the Round of 32 match, and Roldan is close to being healthy. But if one of them goes down, we're right back here at this discussion. It's a self-inflicted vulnerability in the squad.
A lot of stock drops
Several players saw their stock drop in this match. Even considering the fact that they were playing in a heavily rotated squad, and acknowledging that they would probably look better dropped into a more full-strength squad.
Mark McKenzie was burned twice on Arda Güler's opening goal. He completely lost track of his man and looked fully lost, and wasn't much better on Barış Yılmaz's goal shortly after. My confidence in throwing him on as a late-game sub to close out a tight lead has fully evaporated.
Brenden Aaronson's struggles maybe shouldn't be a surprise – he's never been a technician, per se, with his workrate and pressing ability by far his biggest strengths. But his second-half missed chance was shocking. It's the type of misshit strike you rarely see from a professional at any level, and ultimately cost the United States the win. Ultimately inconsequential, but inexcusable in any other match at this tournament. Where does he even fit with the full-strength team?
I just don't understand how you become a professional soccer player without once looking like you're comfortable kicking a ball.
— Matthew Doyle (@mattdoyle.bsky.social) June 25, 2026 at 10:30 PM
[image or embed]
Gio Reyna? Well, he showed a lot of people why he's nowhere close to a 90-minute player.
Gio Reyna's 76 minute start tonight was his longest appearance since March 7, 2023 when he played 85 minutes in Dortmund's 0-2 loss to Chelsea.
— Justin Horneker (@hornekerjustin.bsky.social) June 25, 2026 at 10:50 PM
And Timothy Weah? He was a write-in-pen starter at the 2022 World Cup, and should be pushing for a starting spot in this squad. He was awful against Türkiye. He was constantly caught offside trying to run in behind. On the rare occasions he did time his runs correctly, his touch was consistently poor, and he seemed scared to drive at his defender and go to goal. He slowed the game down far too often, and looked completely out of sync with the rest of the team. This showing should drop him down the pecking order for substitutes later in the tournament.
The World Cup is coming to the United States this summer, and more people than ever are curious about soccer in this country!
If you know someone who might be interested, consider sending them a gift subscription to SixOneFive Soccer, where we'll be covering the USMNT and the tournament at large. They might even get hooked and stick around for the MLS season!
