Türkiye Steal One on the Last Kick — and North Carolina's +260 Ticket Cashed
If you laid off the rotated favorite and took the live dog Thursday night, congratulations — you read SoFi Stadium correctly. Kaan Ayhan buried the final kick of the match to give Türkiye a 3-2 win over a deeply rotated United States, a wild, five-goal swing of a game that meant absolutely nothing for the bottom-placed Turks and even less for the Americans. The result did not move the table one inch: the USA still won Group D and now turns toward a Round of 32 date with Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1.
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How a meaningless game turned into a thriller
For a dead rubber, this one had no business being as entertaining as it was. The USA jumped in front inside three minutes when Auston Trusty rose to meet a Sebastian Berhalter corner and headed it home. That early lead lasted all of seven minutes. Arda Güler, Türkiye's brightest light all tournament, answered in the 10th to level it, and by the half-hour mark Orkun Kökçü had flipped the scoreline entirely with a finish that put the eliminated side ahead 2-1.
The second half opened with Berhalter dragging the Americans back into it. Four minutes after the restart he equalized for 2-2, and from there the game settled into the kind of loose, end-to-end rhythm you only get when neither team is playing for anything on the standings. It stayed knotted until the very last action of the night, when Kaan Ayhan got on the end of a final delivery and won it 3-2. Last kick of the match. No time to respond. Türkiye walked off with their only victory of a tournament they had already exited.
The goal timeline
| Minute | Scorer | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3' | Auston Trusty (USA), off a Berhalter corner | 1-0 USA |
| 10' | Arda Güler (TUR) | 1-1 |
| 31' | Orkun Kökçü (TUR) | 2-1 TUR |
| 49' | Sebastian Berhalter (USA) | 2-2 |
| Final kick | Kaan Ayhan (TUR) | 3-2 TUR |
Five goals, four lead changes or equalizers, and a winner that arrived after the 90 were effectively done. Notice the scorers, too. The Americans got theirs from a center back and a defensive midfielder, not the strikers most prop tickets were chasing.
What it actually cost the USA: nothing
Mauricio Pochettino made 10 changes to his starting XI and never blinked. With Group D already wrapped, this was a fitness run and a look at the depth chart, not a result to protect. Christian Pulisic watched from the bench until coming on around the hour, well after the urgency had drained out of the night. A loss in a game like this carries no real weight, and the standings proved it.
- The USA still won Group D. They held first place on six points. Thursday's defeat did not change a thing at the top of the table.
- Türkiye finished bottom. They were already mathematically out before kickoff. The win was pride, nothing more.
- The knockout draw is set. The USA advance to the Round of 32 and meet Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, July 1.
The betting recap: dog and over both delivered
Let's be honest about the card, because the honest version is a good night for anyone who trusted the situation over the badge. The pre-match FanDuel board had USA -110, the draw +300 and Türkiye +260. The underdog moneyline cashed. The read that a USA B-team in a no-stakes match was vulnerable, and that a free-rolling Türkiye side was live value, played out exactly as drawn up.
The over 2.5 goals hit, and it hit comfortably — five goals in a 3-2 final. If you leaned under on the old "dead rubbers go quiet" instinct, that one stung, so own it: rotation made the USA leaky, not low-scoring. A patched-up back line and a flat, low-intensity match produced chances at both ends rather than a tidy 1-0.
The anytime-scorer market is where the night got slippery. The popular USA names did not deliver; Trusty and Berhalter did the scoring instead. Türkiye's goals came from Güler, Kökçü and Ayhan. The takeaway worth filing away for the next dead rubber: back the side with the cleaner incentive and lean over on totals, rather than laying a short price on a rotated favorite or guessing which forward stays on the pitch.
How North Carolina watched it
Soccer is not a fringe interest in this state anymore, and a U.S. team in a home World Cup only sharpens the appetite. Charlotte FC has built one of the loudest atmospheres in MLS, regularly drawing huge crowds to Bank of America Stadium — the kind of turnout that turns a soccer night downtown into a genuine event. An hour up the road in Cary, the NC Courage have flown the NWSL flag for years and given women's soccer here a real home. The fans were always there. The market just had to catch up.
It did in March 2024, when legal mobile sports betting went live across North Carolina and FanDuel was among the operators ready on day one. That meant Tar Heel fans could follow the late SoFi kickoff from a couch in Raleigh or a barstool in Asheville and have a few dollars riding on it. Plenty did — and the ones who sided with the +260 dog and the over woke up Friday a little richer.
Next up: USA vs Bosnia, July 1
The group stage is in the rear-view, and the part that counts starts now. The Americans get Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 on Wednesday, July 1, with the full first-choice group expected back and Pulisic presumably restored to the lineup. This is single-elimination from here, so the rotation games are over and the calculus flips entirely.
FanDuel has not posted a price on the Bosnia match yet, so we are not going to invent one. Lines should be up soon — when they land, that is the number North Carolina bettors will want to study. For now, bank the result, learn from the dead-rubber read that paid, and get ready for a knockout where the USA will not be resting anyone.
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