World Cup Day 4: Türkiye Roo The Day
Saturday. The first day of the 2026 World Cup that delivered three games in a single day—unless you live west of the Mississippi—in which case it was four.
Australia v. Turkiye kicking off at midnight eastern, an hour after the end of the Haiti v. Scotland game in Foxboro meant two things for your increasingly exhausted friend the Soccer Eagle:
- I got a chance to watch the New York Knicks finish out their 4-1 series win over the San Antonio Spurs and win the first NBA championship for the franchise in 53 years. I'm 100% certain the last eight minutes of Game 5 were the only minutes of professional basketball I've watched all season. Bing bong? I'm choosing, very selfishly, to see the Knicks' run as connected to the fortunes of the USMNT in the home World Cup. If the Knicks can bucks the odds and win their first championship since 1973, the United States men's national team can do something truly remarkable on American soil this summer.
- I had more time to revel in the once-in-an-age USMNT obliteration of Paraguay on Friday night in Los Angeles. Eric Wynalda and I did three hours of radio on Saturday during the Brazil v. Morroco match (more on the this game later) and we were still buzzing after what our Yanks did at SoFi Stadium. The local news stories and candid goal reaction videos bouncing around the internet are worth a watch. Hell, let's have a selection:
Here's one from the Coliseum in LA:
And in the rain in Minnesota.
There's plenty more out there, but I trust you're capable of using a non-AI-ruined search engine to find the good ones. My preference is to avoid the fakey news anchor intro and hunt up the raw stuff when possible, but you do you.
I don't know how much time I want to spend on the first match of Day 3, the 1-1 draw between Switzerland and Qatar. The Swiss turned out to be a massive disappointment based on the balance of the match and ended the day with one point instead of a deserved three simply because they a) couldn't find the second goal and b) they had a defensive breakdown in the final moments of the game and conceded a cheap header.
I don't think Qatar is very good, but the draw with Switzerland means they have a real shot at upsetting the presumed balance of power in Group A. The Qatari-Swiss draw was a massive gift to Canada after the northern hosts opening match draw with Bosnia & Herzegovina on Friday.
I expect Canada will take a big step forward when Ali Ahmed is fit to start (which should be in match 2) and Alphonso Davies is back in the lineup.
Brazil v. Morroco wasn't exactly a dud, but two excellent goals is all we got from two top 10 teams with designs on a deep run at this tournament.
Brahim Diaz is the current holder of the "Pass of the Tournament". Vini Jr. did the thing, which is a good sign for Brazil. Neither team will be happy and it's now Scotland that leads the group thanks to a 1-0 win over Haiti in Foxboro.
I said this on Bluesky before the game...
I like Haiti and I like Scotland so I just want everyone to have fun out there
— Jason Davis (@davisjason.bsky.social) June 13, 2026 at 8:27 PM
...but it turns out my heart was with Haiti all along. Nothing against the Tartan Army, who is absolutely having the times of their lives, but man, I really want Haiti to get some joy in this tournament.
Scotland was just good enough to earn the win and I'm falling more on the side of "Haiti let Scotland off the hook" than "Scotland was the better team." It doesn't matter. The upshot is that Scotland took a big step towards and appearance in the knockout rounds (a level they've never reached) while Haiti now has to take points off Brazil and/or Morocco to have a chance of progressing.
The last game of the night/first game of the morning turned out to be the most entertaining of the bunch. Türkiye has the talent, but it was Australia that took a first half lead through a lightning run in behind by 20-year-old Watford man Nestory Irankunda.
After spending 45 minutes trying to watch the Socceroos and The Crescent-Stars as a fan of the FIFA World Cup brought to you by capitalism, I shifted at halftime into USMNT fan/soccer analyst.
Here's what I took away from the Australia 2-0 Türkiye result in Vancouver:
Australia's opener showed a quick attack ability that should concern the United States. Irakunda took his chance by running onto ball by Paul Okon-Engstler into the right channel and pushing the ball around a scrambling centerback—it's the kind of goal we've seen the USMNT give up before and one that brings to mind the issues of pace that afflict Tim Ream in particular (yes, Ream is used on the left, but we can expect Australia to identify him as the weak length and attack his side).
The truth is that both Australia and Türkiye are capable of beating the United States and it's incumbent on Mauricio Pochettino and his staff to have a plan going into each match if the USMNT wants to avoid a loss in the group stage/win the group.
Aussie manager Tony Popovic put together an excellent strategy that frustrated Turkey by slowing down their ball progression before they hit a wall of defenders in front of the Australia goal. It never felt secure for Australia, but the risk/reward balance made sense.
It wasn't until the last half hour that the lead Irankunda gave Australia nudged Popovic into setting his team up in a low block with the goal of mucking up Turkiye's ability to combine. Even then, Turkiye came close of leveling the match a handful of times.
Australia's second goal that put the game away came down to Türkiye getting too cute in midfield and Australia punishing a turnover through Connor Metcalfe's inch-perfect strike.
Note to the United States: Don't get too cute in midfield. Make runs out of midfield to shift Australia's lines and don't expect to break the Socceroos down with a string of intricate one and two-touch passes.
Australia's win means the group is right there for the United States to win. Beat Australia in Seattle with a 3-goal win already in the bag and it will be very tough for anyone to catch you for first place.
Day 4 is upon us. There are four (4!) games on the schedule today. My streak of watching every minute of the tournament so far might end. Apparently families want you to do other things with them?
Germany v. Curacao
Netherlands v. Japan
Côte d'Ivoire v. Ecuador
Sweden v. Tunisia
PROGRAMMING NOTES
I'm not on the radio today! I intend to hit DC to find a decent bar/watch party to enjoy some of the World Cup like a normal person.
See you tomorrow.
