Turkiye vs USA Bettings Tips and Stats

I think the USA’s clash with Turkey has all the ingredients for an entertaining encounter. With neither side playing for anything more than pride, there is plenty of scope for an end-to-end encounter.

Moreover, the USA have been involved in plenty of high-scoring matches in recent times, with 7 of their last 9 games producing over 2.5 goals. Looking a little closer, 4 of those fixtures broke the over 3.5 goal barrier, including the Stars and Stripes’ emphatic 4-1 victory over Paraguay on matchday one.

While Turkey have found themselves on the wrong end of a couple of low-scoring defeats in Group D, those results are very much the exception rather than the rule. During the group stage of qualification, 5 of the Crescent Stars’ 6 matches comfortably produced over 2.5 goals.

The case for this selection is strengthened further by the fact that these two nations met in a friendly just over 12 months ago, with Turkey running out 2-1 winners on that occasion.

Hakan Calhanoglu looks good value to register at least one shot on target against the USA on Friday. The Turkey captain has racked up a whopping 11 attempts on goal across his side’s opening two Group D fixtures, with 2 of those efforts finding the target in the same match against Australia.

Calhanoglu was also a reliable performer from a shots on target perspective during Turkey’s World Cup qualifying campaign, working the goalkeeper on 4 occasions across his 5 group stage starts, including in a home game against Spain.

His consistency in this department was also evident at club level last season for Inter, where he regularly hit the target, averaging 0.93 on-target efforts per game in Serie A.

Calhanoglu’s quality from set-piece situations, coupled with his role as Turkey’s designated penalty taker, only adds to the case for him to hit the target at least once against the USA.

The fact that the co-hosts are expected to field a makeshift starting XI and adopt a more attack-minded approach than either of Turkey’s previous two Group D opponents only adds to the appeal of backing Calhanoglu to register at least one shot on target.

Sebastian Berhalter could come into the USA side on Friday to face Turkey, which makes him an appealing option to be fouled at least twice. The USA midfielder was handed a 45-minute run-out against Paraguay and was fouled once during the second half of that game.

Looking further back, Berhalter was brought down on multiple occasions in 3 of the 4 friendly matches he started in the build-up to the World Cup. Further encouragement comes from the fact he has been fouled in 13 of his 14 MLS appearances this season, earning his side multiple free-kicks in 6 of those outings.

Berhalter is likely to operate in similar areas of the pitch to Turkish duo Hakan Calhanoglu and Ismail Yuksek, who have between them committed 4 fouls across the Crescent-Stars’ opening 2 Group D games. That only adds weight to backing Berhalter to be fouled at least twice during this contest.