USA stuffed by Turkey

Or Türkiye or however they say it now

Thursday 25th June 2026, 22 weeks before Thanksgiving, and the US national soccer team faced off against the nation of Turkey in the final group match in group D of the Soccer World Cup. The US team had already qualified as group winner, thanks 2 to previous wins in the group against soccer giants, Australia and Paraguay and did not need to win this match to proceed. Just as well, the Turks were playing for national pride as they had already been called out as one of the worst teams ever, having taken 70+ shots on goal and scored with none of them, so they had something to prove. They also had nothing to lose with no mathematical way of proceeding to the next round and were already booked on a plane home.

The score is now embroidered in history

Basically the Turks had more to play for than the US team and the score reflects it. The US scored first after just 3 minutes and the entire nation briefly thought, “We are going to win the World Cup”. Then the Turks equalized and then went a goal ahead, only for the US team to come out after the half time break to bring it level again. Then we had an entire second half of tense end to end chances and then in the 8th minute of injury time the Turks scored the winning goal and the game was pretty much done.

The Turkish team were delighted with the result

Turkey have announced that they wish to be disassociated from the bird of the same name, and have asked to be known internationally by their traditional Turkish name of Türkiye, pronounced turkeyay, like you are excited for turkey. “It’s thanksgiving I get to eat turkey, yay!” The only difference is that Turkey stuffed America, and there was no green bean casserole or cheesy potatoes.

Now that the US team have qualified for the knockout phase of the contest they have to take on both Bosnia AND Herzegovina in the next round while all the other teams just play one opponent. How is that fair?

Did you watch the game? Do you think the result was a fair reflection of the mindset of the teams? Will the US team get past B&H and get to the round of 16? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section.