Turkiye seals World Cup berth, sets up group-stage date with USMNT

Türkiye beat Kosovo 1-0 in Pristina to seal its first World Cup berth since its shock semifinal finish at the 2002 edition.

The victory slots Türkiye into the World Cup’s Group D alongside the U.S. Men’s National Team, Australia and Paraguay. 

The USMNT and Türkiye will meet on Thursday, June 25 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., in the third and final match of the World Cup's group stage.

A friendly competition … until it wasn’t

Türkiye and Kosovo entered this World Cup playoff in good spirits. The two nations have shared positive relations for decades thanks to Türkiye welcoming Kosovan refugees during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Türkiye also welcomed the Kosovan national soccer team before it was an accepted international entity, playing friendly matches against it to help it improve before its official global debut.

"Back in 2014, when no one would face us, Türkiye showed up. They played Kosovo away before we were even recognized by FIFA—a gesture of respect and love we will never, ever forget," the Kosovan Football Association said before the match.

But as the rain came down in Pristina and the stakes grew higher and higher, all that camaraderie flipped on its head. It was Türkiye who had the better of the opening minutes, but Kosovo fought back, driving shot after shot at goalkeeper Uğurcan Çakır. Türkiye seemed overawed by both the atmosphere and the weather — attacker Arda Guler slipped several times in the first half while lining up crucial shots.

Eventually, though, Türkiye pulled itself together. It put together a simple counterattack at the start of the second half that saw striker Kerem Aktürkoğlu slot the ball past Kosovo's keeper for a 1-0 lead. The goal was hotly contested — Aktürkoğlu was clearly offside when the ball was passed to him — but referee Michael Oliver deemed it legitimate on the argument that the ball was heading into the net regardless of Aktürkoğlu's intervention.

Kosovo was incensed, and rightfully so. It attacked with abandon to pull itself back into the match, but it wasn't able to find the back of the net. At the end of the match, the stats made for sobering reading: Türkiye created just one big chance in 90 minutes, but one big chance was all it needed to seal its World Cup berth.