USMNT Finishes First Despite Loss to Turkey
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The questions kept coming, sharp and skeptical. Mauricio Pochettino finally snapped.
“It cannot be possible that Turkey celebrates three points, Australia celebrates getting through, Paraguay celebrates getting through… for you to not say congratulations for winning the group, it’s a little bit sad,” he fired back.
Seconds later, the U.S. men’s national team coach pushed back his chair, reminded the room one last time that his team had finished first — “sorry guys, we won” — and walked out.
A 3-2 defeat to Turkey at SoFi Stadium is what sent him into that mood. Not the performance alone, not the late collapse, but the feeling that the night’s story was being written as a crisis instead of a calculated gamble.
Top of the group, bottom of the mood
The USMNT had already done the hard work. First place in Group D was locked up after two games, which gave Pochettino license to tear up his teamsheet and protect his stars. He did exactly that.
Tyler Adams, Folarin Balogun, Chris Richards and Antonee Robinson never left the bench, their yellow-card risks wiped clean for the round of 32. Only Ricardo Pepi and Weston McKennie kept their spots from the win over Australia. It was, by design, a different team.
It also looked like one.
Auston Trusty opened the scoring, Sebastian Berhalter dragged the U.S. level early in the second half, but Turkey — led by a brilliant, slippery Arda Guler — always seemed to have another gear. Guler scored, dictated attacks, and in the eighth minute of stoppage time, helped carve out the winner with the final kick of the game.
The goal stung. The stakes did not.
Pochettino kept circling back to that point.
“I’m happy, maybe I’m not showing because your questions are a little bit weird,” he said earlier in the press conference. “But I’m happy, the players are happy because we are first. I’m confused, maybe the vibes are like we go home tonight and Turkey stays (in the World Cup), no?”
Rotation, risk and a challenge on “momentum”
The defeat immediately sparked the familiar World Cup talking point: momentum. Had the U.S. just thrown it away?
Pochettino bristled.
“Explain what you mean in momentum — I don’t understand,” he said. “To play with the same team we played against Australia to take a risk? To receive a yellow card (suspension)? To risk players who maybe have problems? I don’t understand. Germany lost momentum too and they played with (mostly) the same team (in their loss to Ecuador on Thursday).”
For him, this was a calculated trade-off. Rest legs. Reset cards. Accept whatever came with a rotated XI in a game that no longer changed the table.
The cost was a first loss of the tournament and a slightly darker cloud over what, statistically, is one of the strongest group-stage showings in U.S. World Cup history. Six points match the 1930 team’s haul, achieved in a different era and under a two-points-for-a-win system.
That context, Pochettino felt, was missing.
“No one congratulated us for finishing first in a very difficult group,” he said later. “I congratulate the players, staff and fans. Now I’ll answer your question. You always learn when you are in a World Cup.”
Pulisic returns, Guler shines
For all the noise around the result, one development will matter far more in the coming days: Christian Pulisic is back.
The U.S. star, who left the opening match against Paraguay at halftime with a calf issue, stepped onto the pitch in the 58th minute. He replaced Tim Weah on the left and instantly changed the temperature of the game. He moved freely, drove at defenders, and looked like himself again.
“The objective was not just to win, but to get Christian 30-40 minutes,” Pochettino said. “He finished well and he made an impact on the pitch.”
There was one sour note. In the buildup to Turkey’s winner, Pulisic was nutmegged by Guler, the Turkish playmaker who owned the night. It was a small detail in a move that summed up Turkey’s persistence and Guler’s swagger.
But for the U.S., the bigger takeaway is clear: Pulisic’s calf held. He will go into the knockout rounds with minutes in his legs, not rust.
Bosnia and Herzegovina await
The path now is simple. Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, Santa Clara, next Wednesday. A clean slate on bookings, a rested core, and a coach who believes his side has already grown into the tournament.
“We’re a much better team now than we were before,” Pochettino said. “That will be put to the test next game.”
The questions about momentum, rotation and late-game lapses will linger until then. The table, though, is unarguable: the U.S. won the group.
The next 90 minutes in California will decide whether this night in Inglewood was a harmless stumble on the way to something bigger, or the first warning sign that the edge Pochettino defends so fiercely is starting to fray.
