Published on 6/26/2026
The Turkish national team achieved a moral victory over the United States 3-2 on Thursday at Sofai Stadium in Los Angeles, in the third and final round of the Group D competitions of the 2026 World Cup.
Kan Ayhan has scored the second-most late winners in a World Cup match since statistics began in 1966, after Iran’s Roozbeh Chesmi’s goal against Wales in 2022 (97:56), not including extra time.
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This is the second time that America’s national team has lost a match in a World Cup after scoring the opening goal, and this previously happened against Spain in 1950 (leading 1-0, then losing 1-3).
Turkish goals were delayed
The Turkish national team succeeded in coming back and avoiding defeat in a World Cup match for the first time, after losing the first six times it trailed during the tournament matches.
Turkey also scored with its first two shots in the America match, after failing to score with any of its 62 shots in its first two World Cup matches this year.
The US national team has scored two or more goals in all three of its group stage matches at this year’s World Cup, marking the first time it has scored more than one goal in three consecutive World Cup matches.
The American team became the fifth team in World Cup history to score in the first four minutes of the first and second halves in a single match, the first since Nigeria against Argentina in 2014.
Sebastian Berhalter is the first American player on record (since 1966) to score a goal and provide an assist in a single World Cup match.
The US national team used 21 different players in the starting lineup during the group stage of the World Cup this year, becoming the seventh team in history to use 21 or more players as starters in the group stage of the World Cup.
At the age of 21 years and 120 days, Arda Guler became the youngest player to score a goal in the history of the Turkish national team in the World Cup.
Auston Trosti’s goal is the 173rd goal in this year’s World Cup, surpassing the 2022 edition (172 goals) as the most-scored edition in the history of the tournament, and it is the second-fastest goal scored by the American national team in the World Cup (at 2 minutes and 13 seconds), after Clint Dempsey’s goal in the 30th second against Ghana in 2014.
