The United States have already won Group D at the 2026 World Cup. Thursday night's match against Turkiye is the last scheduled game before the knockout rounds begin, and it carries almost no consequence for the Americans in the standings.
The central question, according to CBS Sports, is how aggressively coach Mauricio Pochettino will manage his roster. Christian Pulisic, the AC Milan forward, is back in full team training after missing the Australia match with a calf injury. Pochettino must decide whether the risk of playing him again is worth the minutes heading into the knockout stage, especially given that Pulisic has played just half a game since the tournament opened.
Four other players face a different kind of risk. Tyler Adams, Folarin Balogun, Chris Richards, and Antonee Robinson have each picked up yellow cards across the first two matches. A second yellow against Turkiye would suspend any one of them for the Round of 32. Pochettino has strong incentive to limit their minutes or leave them on the bench entirely.
Turkiye's situation is its own kind of story. The team has taken 62 shots across two matches against Australia and Paraguay and has not scored a single goal. Arda Guler and Kenan Yildiz, both expected to lead the Turkish attack, have been largely ineffective. A win is not impossible, particularly if Pochettino fields a heavily rotated lineup, but Turkiye enters the match under real psychological weight after failing to convert at any point in the group stage.
The FanDuel money line lists the USA as -110 favorites, with Turkiye at +260 and a draw at +300. The over/under for total goals is set at 2.5.
For individual player props, CBS Sports identified Ricardo Pepi as a notable option at +165 on FanDuel. The 23-year-old forward has a chance for extended minutes with the group already decided. Netherlands forward Donyell Malen was listed at -120 in the Group F match against Tunisia, where the Dutch have scored seven goals across their first two games while Tunisia have allowed nine.
Japan's Junya Ito was another prop pick flagged at +270 ahead of Japan's match against Sweden. The 33-year-old has 16 international goals, second on Japan's roster only to Ayase Ueda, who scored twice in a 4-0 win over Tunisia last week.
Thursday's World Cup schedule also includes Curacao vs. Ivory Coast and Ecuador vs. Germany at 4 p.m. ET, and Japan vs. Sweden and Tunisia vs. Netherlands at 7 p.m. ET, before the USA and Turkiye kick off at 10 p.m. in Inglewood.
