{"id":671247,"date":"2026-06-23T13:06:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=671247"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:06:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:06:46","slug":"united-states-vs-turkiye-team-news-and-predicted-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/23\/united-states-vs-turkiye-team-news-and-predicted-lineups\/","title":{"rendered":"United States vs Turkiye: Team News and Predicted Lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a perfect start to the 2026 FIFA World Cup for US Men&#8217;s National Team. Six points through two games, and the winner of Group D. Now it&#8217;s the United States vs Turkiye. A Turkiye side that are without points, and have yet to score a goal, for the finale of group stage play. The United States is expected to heavily rotate it&#8217;s XI for this &#8220;dead rubber&#8221; of a clash.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/23\/mexico-vs-czechia-team-news-and-predicted-lineups-a-farewell-game-for-guillermo-ochoa\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Mexico vs Czechia: Team News and Predicted Lineups, A Farewell Game for Guillermo Ochoa?<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>United States vs Turkiye<\/h2>\n<p>Date: Thursday, June 25th, 2026<br \/>\nVenue: Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles<br \/>\nKick Off: 22:00 in USA East Coast Time<br \/>\nReferee: Mustapha Ghorbal<br \/>\nCurrent Odds: United States 1.91, Draw 4.10, Turkiye 3.50<\/p>\n<h3>United States Team News<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"a61405551f80e72f675225f083759bb9\" image-id=\"fwuQrc3Sl3bT\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3500px; aspect-ratio: 3500\/2333;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>The USA has scored six goals and conceded just one in matches against Paraguay and Australia. Mauricio Pochettino&#8217;s men return to the scene of their rampant victory over Paraguay, Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles for a game with far lower stakes. Much like Mexico, team USA has the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/49140112\/usmnt-faces-world-cup-dilemma-vs-turkiye-rotate-squad-keep-same-xi\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">option<\/a> to heavily rotate their XI for this game, with group leadership secured.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN notes that Tyler Adams, Folarin Balogun, Chris Richards and Antonee Robinson, four key players for the USA, are on yellow cards. Christian Pulisic was injured against Australia, and may see minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n<p>In short, we should see a heavily rotated Stars and Stripes XI, expect Alejandro Zendejas and Giovanni Reyna to get midfield minutes, Ricardo Pepi could be the starter at the striker role, and Auston Trusty would get minutes in the back.<\/p>\n<h3>Turkiye Team News<\/h3>\n<p>Turkiye are playing only for pride here after they were stifled offensively by both Australia and Paraguay and left without a point, or a goal, after two games. It&#8217;s been bad luck, and poor finishing for Turkiye, a side that entered with high expectations but has crashed out of the tournament under Vincenzo Montella. On the plus side, they did win a friendly against the US last year, and if they avoid being too demoralized, they do have enough talent in the XI to compete with the stars and stripes.<\/p>\n<p>There are not likely to be drastic changes to this Turkiye XI, despite the offensive struggles, Kenan Yildiz has seemingly recovered from any lingering concerns about a calf strain.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/20\/with-flair-and-consistency-the-2026-world-cup-host-nations-usa-mexico-and-canada-reach-the-world-cup-knockout-phase\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">With Flair and Consistency, The 2026 World Cup Host Nations USA, Mexico, and Canada Reach the World Cup Knockout Phase<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>United States Predicted Lineup (4-2-3-1)<\/h3>\n<p>GK: Matt Freese<\/p>\n<p>Defenders: Max Arsften, Auston Trusty, Mark McKenzie, Joe Scally<\/p>\n<p>Midfield: Sebastian Berhalter, Cristian Roldan, Alejandro Zendejas, Giovanni Reyna<\/p>\n<p>Forwards: Ricardo Pepi, Timothy Weah<\/p>\n<h3>Turkiye Predicted Lineup (4-2-3-1)<\/h3>\n<p>GK: Ugurcan Cakir<\/p>\n<p>Defenders: Mert Muldur, Merih Demiral, Abdulkerim Bardakci. Ferdi Kadioglu<\/p>\n<p>Midfield: Hakan Calhanoglu, Ismail Yuksek, Yunus Akgun,<\/p>\n<p>Forwards: Kerem Akturkoglu, Arda Guler, Kenan Yildiz<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Smartframe Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a perfect start to the 2026 FIFA World Cup for US Men&#8217;s National Team. Six points through two games, and the winner of Group D. Now it&#8217;s the United States vs Turkiye. A Turkiye side that are without points, and have yet to score a goal, for the finale of group stage play. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":671252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<smartframe-embed customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBWNKaYLR9\" style=\"width: 100%;max-width: 6075px;aspect-ratio: 6075\/4052\"><\/smartframe-embed><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support -->","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,161,1831,2204,2132],"tags":[798,32075,314,32867,7092,867,9300,258,9004,32814,32866,32460],"class_list":["post-671247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international-football","category-starting-line-up","category-usmnt","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-arda-guler","tag-christian-pulisic","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-giovanni-reyna","tag-hakan-calhanoglu","tag-kenan-yildiz","tag-mauricio-pochettino","tag-ricardo-pepi","tag-turkiye","tag-united-states","tag-us-mens-national-team"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671247"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671253,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671247\/revisions\/671253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}