Kaan Ayhan scored on the final kick of the match, and Türkiye beat the United States 3-2 on June 25 night at the Los Angeles Stadium for its only win of the World Cup.
Auston Trusty scored in the third minute and Sebastian Berhalter got a tying goal early in the second half for the Americans, who had already won Group D with victories over Paraguay and Australia.
Arda Güler and Orkun Kökçü scored in the first half of a resilient performance by Türkiye, which had already been eliminated with two losses in its first two matches.
Türkiye won in the eighth minute of stoppage time when Can Uzun got the ball in space on the back post and pushed it past sprawling goalkeeper Matt Turner to Ayhan, who slid to knock it home.
Coach Vincenzo Montella was defiant of his team’s performances in spite of criticism at home.
“The joy of Kaan and all of us in the 98th minute shows the sadness we have been preparing with for a week,” Montella said.
“Our national team did not deserve this. Our players and our president did not deserve this. We played for our honor, and the victory was important. We succeeded, and we are happy.”
Montella lashed out at the intense scrutiny his team faced back home after dropping their first two group-stage matches, which doomed their knockout round hopes.
“Our players did not deserve such specific attacks,” the Italian coach said. “Today is the day to stand back up.”
Montella pointed to his players’ response to the goal conceded in the third minute as proof of their tactical maturity and underlying character.
“If we weren’t a team that knew what it was doing, we couldn’t have turned this match around,” he said. “We showed this to everyone. We showed this spirit in the first two matches as well, but in football, sometimes it just doesn’t happen.”
Young star Arda Güler, who became the youngest Turkish player to score in a World Cup, offered a starkly contrastive, self-critical perspective on the team’s early exit.
“The criticisms are justified, whatever they say, they are right,” said the 21-year-old Real Madrid player. “I didn’t play well. None of us played well. I hope we can make up for it in the matches ahead.”
In Group D’s other match, Australia qualified for the knockout rounds after battling to a 0-0 draw with Paraguay to claim second place.
Also on June 25 at the World Cup, Ecuador upset Germany to squeeze into the last 32, while the Netherlands, Japan and the Ivory Coast advanced safely.
The Netherlands wrapped up its first round campaign with a 3-1 victory over Tunisia to top Group F, just ahead of Japan, which drew 1-1 with Sweden to finish in second place.
Sweden also advanced as one of the best third-place finishers.
The Dutch will now face 2022 World Cup semifinalist Morocco in the last 32, while Japan will take on Group C winner Brazil for a place in the last 16.
