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The group stage is closing in on the bell, and Thursday gave us the day this tournament has been building toward: meaningful results, meaningless results, and one massive comeback that put a country in the streets. The USA lost to Türkiye but is still through as Group D winners. Ecuador rose from the dead at MetLife. Ivory Coast made history in Philadelphia. And two coaches, in two different cities, spent their postmatch availability telling everyone to quiet down and trust what they were watching. Let's get into it.

The United States lost 3-2 to Türkiye on Thursday night at SoFi Stadium, conceded in the final seconds of stoppage time, and walked off the pitch as winners of Group D. Both of those things are true. The second one is the only one that matters.

Mauricio Pochettino made nine changes from the side that beat Australia last Friday. Mark McKenzie, Miles Robinson, and Alex Zendejas made their first World Cup appearances. Tim Weah got his first start of the tournament. Christian Pulisic, sidelined for the Australia match with a calf, played the final half hour and looked himself. Only three of the eleven on the team sheet had ever previously started a match at a World Cup. A lineup of largely unfamiliar combinations played the way unfamiliar combinations tend to play against a Türkiye side fighting for its tournament life.

A deeper dive into the statistics tell the story plainly. Türkiye generated 3.50 xG to the Americans' 2.50, won the ball ten times in high-recovery zones to the USA's three, and got 2.68 xG from the five seconds following crosses against just 1.01 for the USMNT. Roles flipped this week. Roles flipped this week. Türkiye, the team Paraguay had upset 1-0 to lock the Americans into first place, had already been eliminated before kickoff and played like a side with nothing to lose and pride to defend. The USA was already through. Performance followed stakes.

Pochettino had little patience for the framing of lost momentum after the match. "Making history is winning the World Cup. It's not winning three matches only within the World Cup," he told reporters, before pointing out that Germany made the same calculation and lost to Ecuador in their group stage finale. He had four starters carrying yellow cards he could not risk, a returning captain who needed minutes, and a roster he needed to lengthen before the knockouts. He used the night accordingly. He also reminded the room that no one in it had congratulated him on winning a difficult group, which was, by his telling, "a little bit sad."

He is right about all of it. There may even be a small benefit in not arriving at Levi's Stadium next Wednesday with the undefeated, three-wins-from-three feeling that breeds a different sort of pressure. Bosnia and Herzegovina, confirmed on Thursday as the third-place qualifier from Group F, is competent, organized, and confident enough after beating Qatar 3-1 to face anyone the bracket hands them. The USMNT now plays the version of the tournament that actually counts, with the first eleven available, Pulisic reintegrated, and a result on the books that should keep the conversation honest rather than coronation-flavored.

Germany scored inside two minutes at MetLife Stadium on Thursday night, and the math for Ecuador got close to impossible. A loss or draw meant going home. La Tri had taken one point from their first two group games, a 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast and a 0-0 draw with Curaçao that no one in Quito will be putting in a highlight reel. They needed to beat a Germany side that had already clinched first place in Group E, and they needed to do it from a goal down.

Nilson Angulo equalized to put the match back on a level. Then in the 77th minute, Pedro Vite swung in a corner, substitute Kevin Rodríguez rose for the header, and Gonzalo Plata finished left-footed to make it 2-1. Rodríguez had been on the field for thirteen minutes. Plata, who plays his club football at Flamengo, sent Ecuador into the round of 32 for the first time in twenty years.

Moisés Caicedo was the engine. The Chelsea midfielder completed 53 of 59 passes, broke up German attacks in his own half, and dropped between his center backs when the situation called for it. The numbers describe the volume. They do not quite capture the gravity. When Caicedo plays like that, Ecuador's midfield stops being a battleground and starts being a possession. Germany, with first place already secured and a knockout opponent on its mind, found that out the hard way.

Sebastián Beccacece had spent the week being asked whether he would still have a job by the weekend. The Argentine coach, who had told his players after the Curaçao draw that they had "one more life" left, was direct afterward about what the moment meant. "We came to life to feel," he said through an interpreter. "Sometimes we feel the pain of defeat but sometimes also the satisfaction of a victory. What is important is to strike a balance. This will not change my life. It will not. But we must indulge ourselves in this joy." He deflected credit to his players in nearly every answer. "I don't exist, I'm just a guide. This Ecuador team is captivating, then we'll see how far we can go. The players are the ones who change history."

Back home, President Daniel Noboa declared Friday a national holiday. Sebastián Beccacece's side finished as one of the eight best third-place teams in the tournament. The road continues, and the Argentine coach was already setting the bar higher in his post-match comments, noting that Ecuador has never reached a World Cup quarterfinal. For a team that needed everything to break right and then made it break right themselves, the next match is not the end of the story. It is the start of the part they did not get to write last time.

Sebastián Beccacece spent the week answering questions about whether he should still have his job. Then Gonzalo Plata scored, and the 45 year old coach took off down the touchline and climbed into the MetLife stands to embrace his family, blonde hair trailing behind him. Afterward he reached for a line from "Un Ángel para tu Soledad," a song written by Indio Solari for Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, the band he fronted and one of the defining acts in Argentine rock history. Solari died earlier this year. "The Angel of Solitude does not listen to what he hears, he keeps moving forward." For ricoteros, the famously devoted following Solari built across decades, that line is something close to a prayer, an article of faith in pushing on when the noise turns against you. Beccacece carried it through three weeks of being told this team was finished. Then he carried his country into the round of 32.

The biggest result outside of MetLife came in Philadelphia. Ivory Coast beat Curaçao 2-0 behind a Nicolas Pépé brace, finishing second in Group E and reaching the knockout rounds of a World Cup for the first time in their history. That is a milestone the Drogba and Yaya Touré sides never managed across three tournaments between 2006 and 2014. Emerse Faé's group will head to Dallas next Tuesday to face the Group I runner-up, either France or Norway.

Faé used his postmatch press conference to address comments Bastian Schweinsteiger made on German broadcaster ARD before the Ivory Coast versus Germany match, when the 2014 World Cup winner described African football as "a bit wild, a bit unorthodox and perhaps not so conditioned by tactics." The comments had already drawn criticism in Germany and from the anti-discrimination group Kick It Out. Faé called them racist and said he was disappointed in the man, noting that he had grown up admiring Schweinsteiger as a fellow midfielder. "African football isn't just physical," Faé said. "It's very technical, very tactical."

In Arlington, Japan and Sweden played to a 1-1 draw that sent both through. Daizen Maeda opened the scoring for Hajime Moriyasu's side in the 56th minute, and Anthony Elanga equalized six minutes later. The Samurai Blue finished second in Group F and will face Brazil in Houston in the round of 32, a rematch of the October friendly Japan won 3-2. The Netherlands routed Tunisia 3-1 in Kansas City behind a Brian Brobbey goal and two Tunisian own goals to take first place in the group. Ronald Koeman's side draws Morocco in Monterrey on Monday.

The all but meaningless finale at Levi's Stadium saw Australia and Paraguay grind out a 0-0 draw that secured the Socceroos second place in Group D and almost certainly puts Paraguay through as one of the eight best third-place sides. Tony Popovic's Australia plays the Group G runner-up in Arlington on July 3. Eighteen year old Lucas Herrington, who plays for the Colorado Rapids, came on as a substitute to become the youngest player ever to appear in a World Cup match for Australia.

Group stage closes Friday and Saturday with the math finally collapsing into something readable. Paraguay, Sweden, and Bosnia and Herzegovina look almost certain among the eight best third-place sides. Ecuador's win against Germany pushed the door close to shut behind them, and Algeria and Senegal are now reading scoreboards from other groups before they ever kick a ball. The last forty-eight hours of group play will sort the bracket the United States walks into next Wednesday.

On The Field

The headline match of the day is Spain against Uruguay in Guadalajara. Marcelo Bielsa told reporters Thursday that his side is treating it like a final after back to back draws against Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde, and that locking down Lamine Yamal will decide whether they get the result they need. He called the 18 year old "a destabilizing and decisive player," which is Bielsa-speak for "this is the man we have to plan around." Reports out of the Uruguay camp on Thursday suggested senior players including Federico Valverde, Rodrigo Bentancur, Manuel Ugarte, and Sergio Rochet held a meeting with Bielsa to push back on the training load and the tactical approach. Bielsa, asked about it, offered only that he had brought injured players to the World Cup and those players had been loyal to him. La Roja can clinch first in Group H with a win.

The other Friday story is in Vancouver, where Belgium needs a result against New Zealand to sort out a Group G that has refused to behave. The Red Devils sit third with two points behind Egypt and Iran. Coach Rudi Garcia confirmed Thursday that Jeremy Doku, just back after his son Praise was born on Monday, will not be available for 90 minutes, and that Romelu Lukaku is also not fit to go the distance. Egypt plays Iran in Seattle on Saturday with the chance to reach a World Cup knockout stage for the first time in their history, with Mohamed Salah one goal short of equaling Hossam Hassan's all-time national team scoring record. Hassan was direct in his presser about the matchups inside the matchup: "There are no longer weak teams. Even African teams have a large number of professionals in Europe."

Off The Field

The numbers coming out of Brazil are not really about Brazil. CazéTV, the YouTube-based broadcaster run by digital creator Casimiro, set three consecutive concurrent-viewer world records during Brazil's group stage matches. The peak so far is 18.3 million simultaneous devices for the 3-0 win over Scotland on Wednesday, breaking a record that had just been set days earlier against Haiti. CazéTV holds rights to all 104 matches of the tournament in Brazil and now has 35.4 million YouTube subscribers. The story is not the Seleção. The story is what watching looks like now, where it lives, and who builds the audience around it. The 2026 World Cup is the first global tournament where free streaming platforms have looked like primary infrastructure rather than supplementary distribution.

Saturday's Egypt versus Iran fixture in Seattle has been designated the tournament's "Pride Match" by local organizers, a move that has drawn objections from both federations given the legal status of homosexuality in both countries. Coach Hossam Hassan, asked about it directly on Friday, said the team's focus stays on football and that organizational matters are for the Egyptian FA and FIFA to handle. The match will be played as scheduled.

Quick Updates

Senegal in serious trouble: The Lions of Teranga play Iraq on Saturday needing a win that may still not be enough. Their third-place math depends on results across multiple other groups and they currently sit on the outside of the eight best third-place spots.

USA already eyeing 2038: Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House World Cup task force, told the BBC the United States is considering a bid for the 2038 World Cup, which FIFA is reportedly looking to expand to 64 teams. No formal bid has been submitted.

SDH AM with Jon Nelson is live right now on YouTube and Twitch. Today's lineup is built for this exact moment in the tournament: Atlanta United in-stadium host Joe Freihofer reporting from Guadalajara where he's been working the World Cup, MLS and NWSL commentator Kacey White, Apple TV commentator Nate Bukaty, and Jen Johns with the latest from Decatur Watchfest. If you want a smart, connected read on what just happened and what comes next, this is the room.

Atlanta Soccer Tonight is live at 10 PM on 92.9 The Game and the Audacy app. With group stage closing this weekend, we'll work through what the bracket actually looks like now, what the third-place picture means, and where the USMNT's path runs from here. Join the chat on the 92.9 YouTube channel and stick around for Stoppage Time after.

And one more from yesterday: WSB-TV's coverage of the SDH Network and the throughline between Atlanta United's arrival in 2017 and the city's role as a 2026 World Cup host. Worth a few minutes of your morning: https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/soccer-podcasters-say-fifas-success-atlanta-can-be-traced-back-atlanta-united/ZHKIWHK77JEVDJHWRDADK6VWQM/

Lewis Family Pumps Another £100M Into Tottenham: The Lewis family have injected £100 million of working capital into Tottenham Hotspur, their third cash infusion in the past 18 months and bringing total ownership investment above £300 million since 2023. The capital came via the purchase of new shares in ENIC, a structural detail worth noting given recent reporting around Brooklyn Earick's group and the status of Daniel Levy's roughly 29% stake.

Manchester City Land Elliot Anderson in Record British Deal: Manchester City have agreed a £116 million fixed-fee transfer for Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson, the most ever paid for a British player. Anderson, currently with England at the World Cup, has been given permission to complete his medical in New York on Friday. He joined Forest from Newcastle in 2023 for £35 million.

NYCFC Closing on Bénie Traoré from Basel: Multiple reports indicate FC Basel forward Bénie Traoré is close to signing with New York City FC after completing his medical, with a long-term Designated Player level contract expected. Basel had been seeking a €10 million fee, which would set a new club record for NYCFC. Traoré can play either wing or as a central attacker.

A World Cup is always loud, and on Thursday two coaches in two different cities answered the noise with the same posture: do not listen to what you hear, keep moving forward.

Sebastián Beccacece spent two weeks being told his Ecuador side was finished, then watched his players go down to Germany inside two minutes at MetLife and somehow find their way back into the tournament. He celebrated by climbing into the stands and quoting Solari. Three thousand miles west at SoFi, Mauricio Pochettino sat down for his postmatch press conference and asked, with real frustration, why anyone was treating a meaningless group stage finale like a referendum on a team that had already finished first in Group D. The USA lost. Ecuador won. Both coaches woke up Friday morning preparing for a round of 32, where the noise gets louder and the only sensible thing to do is the same thing Beccacece said out loud: keep going.

Song of the Day: "Un Ángel para tu Soledad" by Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota. The line Beccacece reached for at MetLife on Thursday fits both of yesterday's qualifying coaches, and probably a few more before this tournament is done.

Jason