A rare spot to be for the United States men's national team, so successful through the opening two matches of a World Cup that it now gets to play a completely meaningless match against Türkiye to close out Group D.
It will be Dead Rubber Night in Los Angeles, with nothing but pride and tournament stat-keeping at stake at SoFi Stadium at 10:00 pm ET when the US and Türkiye meet. It's a heavy indictment of Türkiye, a squad that entered the World Cup with expectations and hype that turned out to be far greater than their on-field results, with back-to-back losses featuring 62 shot attempts and zero goals dooming them to a last-place group finish.
While the result won't do anything for the USMNT's tournament path, nor will it do anything to change Türkiye's already-sealed fate, there are still things to be accomplished by the US before the focus fully shifts to the Round of 32 and an almost-certain meeting with Bosnia and Herzegovina in Santa Clara, California.
John Baney
Maintain momentum without continuity
During a Tuesday media availability, USMNT midfielder Sebastian Berhalter said of the Türkiye match, "It's still an important game, a game that we want to keep seeing things we've been seeing the first two games, having a good start and performing and playing well," while also mentioning that the US wants to have "good momentum" heading into its first knockout game.
"Momentum" is a tricky concept to apply to the United States right now, because the nature of the next two matches they'll play in a span of six days could not be more different. US coach Mauricio Pochettino told members of the press on Wednesday that his Starting XI vs Türkiye wouldn't include any of his four players carrying yellow cards and at risk of a Round of 32 suspension by picking up another, a group consisting of Folarin Balogun, Tyler Adams, Antonee Robinson, and Chris Richards.
Right away, that's got the makings of a very different-looking defensive team against a Türkiye side that had no trouble creating chances through two matches, albeit without any goals and against the two other weaker-than-the-USMNT teams in the group.
There's always the possibility a returned-to-health replacement like Christian Pulisic, current star of an ongoing and likely futile New York City FC transfer intrigue, might slide into the lineup and offset some of the attacking threat lost with Balogun on the bench. It's also easy to see Pochettino only wanting to ease Pulisic back into action following the calf injury that's kept him out since the second half against Paraguay. A substitute's appearance later in the second half, or a start and a quick hook after hitting a minutes cap? Either seems possible, so again the door might open for somebody else on the bench to get a longer look.
A player like Berhalter, who has entered as a substitute in the second half of both USMNT wins to date, could be poised for a first World Cup start. While he didn't give any indication whether he knew he'd be starting or not, Berhalter still acknowledged the opportunity and the platform that comes with seeing more and more World Cup minutes. "It's a chance for me to represent Vancouver, represent MLS in a positive way, to show that MLS guys can step up and are ready for the challenge, playing against some of the best players in the world," he said.
Berhalter of the Whitecaps, Columbus Crew midfielder Max Arfsten, even FC Cincinnati center-back Miles Robinson, opportunities for minutes might be there for each against Türkiye. Maintaining the level the USMNT reached while comfortably winning their first two matches will fall on a different, possibly more MLS-flavored set of players, so it becomes hard to draw a straight "momentum" line from this weird, slightly experimental one-off to the first knockout round.
A loss or draw against Türkiye might dim some of the glow surrounding the US squad after the back-to-back wins, but it won't undo the fact that they won their group and put themselves on the best possible path through the early knockout rounds, especially since it's a given that a number of the players central to those opening two wins won't be in the starting lineup for this group finale.
More Freese tests?
Türkiye kept opposing goalkeepers busy while losing twice, with Australia's Patrick Beach forced to make eight saves and Paraguay's Orlando Gill making five saves in their respective shutout wins.
The "62 shot attempts, zero goals" stat really defines Türkiye's brief time at this World Cup, and if that trend holds, USMNT and New York City FC (for now?) goalkeeper Matt Freese, possibly playing behind a revamped defense, would be busier than he's been to date at this World Cup.
Freese said this week in an interview from USMNT camp that, "The less action I have in a game means the better we're playing and the more likely we are to win," and also that he's "...typically more focused on preventing shots rather than just being only ready to save them." Those two things could each be put to the test, that is, if Freese isn't one of the players rotated out for Türkiye.
Even if it's not a game of tournament significance, swapping out a keeper who hasn't put a foot wrong in two consecutive victories feels too chaotic and disruptive to consider, and without obvious upsides to the move, aside from potentially sparing Freese the complications that could come from playing behind a very different-looking back line.
For Pochettino, it would seem easier to give your chosen goalkeeper another chance to perform, rotated squad or not, rather than introduce doubt or mess with what's been working at a position that was already shrouded in uncertainty pre-World Cup, seemingly by Pochettino's design.
History Watch
The motivation to beat Türkiye is inherent given it's another World Cup game and even meaningless ones are important. Doing so would also be historic for the United States, the first time since 1930 they won every one of their group-stage matches at a World Cup, though in 1930, teams only played two group matches.
Three group wins from three has never been done by any prior USMNT World Cup squad, the simplest bit of history to possibly get made in Los Angeles. There's also the fact that the United States rarely beats teams from Europe at World Cups, not happening since 2002 when they beat Portugal 3-2 in their tournament opener. There have been draws and narrow defeats mixed in, but you can count the all-time US World Cup wins over European nations on one hand: Belgium in 1930, England in 1950, and Portugal in 2002.
It's more an interesting random footnote than something likely to be on the mind of any player on the US squad, but this tournament has already been ripe with history-making stuff on the American side, whether it was scoring more than three goals at a World Cup for the first time ever against Paraguay, or just that an MLS goalkeeper starts for the USMNT now.
When the result on the field doesn't actually matter in the grand scheme of the World Cup, the objectives get more intangible, but they can still get checked off.
