USMNT player ratings versus Turkiye — Who took their World Cup chance before Round of 32?

“The U.S. just went 29 minutes in a game against a decent European side where I forgot these was a chance they could lose.”

That was a text I sent to a friend after Turkiye nearly re-found their lead late in Thursday’s 2026 World Cup group stage finale for Group D in California. Wow, how far the USMNT have come in the last 6-8 months. This was a team that changed 10 starters and still hung with a team originally favored to win the group.

We’ve buried the lede here, though, as the Yanks depth wasn’t good enough to get a point against Turkiye and did, in fact, lose this game 3-2 despite an early 1-0 lead and control of the game for much of a 2-2 second half.

MORE — USMNT vs Turkiye recap, video highlights

No one rational is calling Mauricio Pochettino’s Yanks the favorites to win the tournament but anyone with a heart and the time to watch their three games so far will say that they’re showing as well as they have since their run through the Group of Death in 2014.

Their much-changed XI was poor in the first half but they rallied in the second. Most of the players didn’t do enough to threaten anyone’s job, but they did enough to underline the USMNT’s status as one of the stories of this tournament. And this 3-2 loss was earned as the keeper was a bystander, their center backs made big mistakes, one wing was poor, and their center forward might as well have taken the night off.

But you know who is going to get a good grade after this tournament? Mauricio Pochettino. The former Spurs and Chelsea boss has a few strokes of genius in painting the portrait of this team through 270 minutes: Sergino Dest as a winger and Auston Trusty as a left back chief among them.

He’s leaving the program after this tournament and he’s impressed so much that it’s easy to see him becoming the No. 1 name on the club job market.

USMNT player ratings versus Turkiye — Who took their World Cup chance before Round of 32?

Matt Turner: 4.5 — Wasn’t doing anything on either goal, though he nearly got a piece of the opener. Looked rusty, which is understandable, and didn’t do anything to take the gig off Freese (if that was even more than a remote possibility). Faced 2.3 xG and allowed three goals.

Auston Trusty: 8 — Scored the early goal and was a monstrous left back, marauding forward and leading the game in shot attempts.

Mark McKenzie: 5 — Awkward like a pony’s first steps on the opening goal, a truly eyecatching mistake

Miles Robinson: 5.5 — Some substandard moments and couldn’t rescue McKenzie’s error on the first goal, but rebounded nicely.

Joe Scally: 6 — Certainly wasn’t poor and fought through an injury.

Sebastian Berhalter: 9 — Passed the ball well, walked the yellow card tight rope (even if he was maybe a little lucky that it was yellow), delivered the corner for 1-0 and launched a rocket for 2-2. Honestly if you gave him a 10, I’d forgive you.

Weston McKennie (Off for Tillman, 86′): 6.5 — Loved the energy but he seems to have a dicey moment in every game. This time it was losing track of Guler on Turkiye’s equalizer.

Gio Reyna (Off for Zendejas, 77′): 7 — It did a lot of good to see him fit and flying.

Brenden Aaronson (Off for Dest, 77′): 5 — Butchered a prime chance to make it 3-2 and that pretty much sums up the day for the Leeds United energy man.

Timothy Weah (Off for Pulisic, 58′): 5 — Sometimes your best players aren’t so good, and maybe Weah’s just out-of-form which would explain a lot.

Ricardo Pepi: 4.5 — Not his day. Never looked confident despite putting in the industry.

Subs
Christian Pulisic (On for Weah, 58′): 7 — Turns out he’s truly an exceptional footballer and pretty healthy to boot.
Sergino Dest (On for Aaronson, 77′): 5 — Left the back post unattended on the winner.
Alex Freeman (On for Scally, 77′): N/A
Alejandro Zendejas (On for Reyna, 77′): N/A
Malik Tillman (On for McKennie, 86′): N/A