Gabriele Marcotti

They had no control against Turkey.

Too many difference makers for Turkey.

In Arda Guler, of course, they have that sort of special sauce, if you want to call it that.

But Turkey exposed that with dynamic movement, the United States can get stretched defensively.

We saw individual mistakes in that game.

So if you go by that game and that experience, you would have to say that the last team that you want to see if the United States in the group play would be Turkey.

You would take Kosovo all day, every day.

Yeah, it's been a while since Turkey were there themselves, Gab.

It is.

I mean, obviously, their coach happens to be Italian, Vincenzo Montella, so I've got a soft spot for the little airplane.

It's not an easy job, and in some ways, especially in this game, I think there was a parallel with Italy's game against Northern Ireland in the sense that you are favoured, you have the better players, you have the skilled players, and

Turkey probably has better attacking players, to be fair, than Italy in Guler, in Yildiz, in the options.

But you also have so much pressure, and you've got an opponent that kind of can absorb that pressure.

It's almost like a psychological test, and we've seen Turkey fail psychological tests in the past, but...

You know, I think they've built something good for themselves.

And yeah, this is not the kind of team, I think, as Ali said, that the U.S.

want to face.

It's not a good matchup for them.

To be honest, I'm not sure Paraguay is either, frankly.

So, yeah, so I think it's pitfalls all around if it does end up being Turkey who qualifies.