Sacramento soccer fans still fired up for US match in Santa Clara despite loss
Red, white and blue peppered downtown Sacramento on Thursday evening as the U.S. men’s national soccer team revved up for its final game of the World Cup group stage.
Team USA fans were cool, calm and collected at the Sacramento Republic FC block party in downtown Sacramento, knowing their team had already punched its ticket to the Round of 32 next week in the Bay Area.
The host team’s final game of the group stage was against Turkey, which appeared to offer an easy win opportunity, as the team had yet to score a single goal against the two other members of Group D, Australia and Paraguay.
Reid and Melody Root, longtime U.S. soccer fans from the Sacramento area, said before the game they felt glad this was the team’s final match-up before the knockout round, as it could give injured players an opportunity to heal up and avoid yellow-carded players from potentially facing a game ban.
“It’s great to be in a position where we’re at, but we don’t want to lose our momentum either,” said Reid Root. “How do you find that balance as a coach? Above my pay grade.”
The U.S. men are slated to play next against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the knockout round on Wednesday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, for the Northern California stadium’s final appearance in this year’s World Cup.
This year’s World Cup is being hosted jointly by Canada, Mexico and the United States, with the San Francisco 49ers’ home stadium as one of two California venues. The other, SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, hosted the U.S. group stage opener (a 4-1 win over Paraguay) as well as the Group D finale between the U.S. and Turkey.
Mexico, like the U.S., clinched its group early and made its final group stage match effectively meaningless, with no bearing on its knockout round scenario. But Mexico nonetheless managed a 3-0 win Wednesday over Czechia, to the delight of fans who showed up to that evening’s block party at the plaza across from Sacramento City Hall.
Sacramento Republic FC will once again host free block parties for the Mexico and U.S. knockout games on June 30 and July 1, respectively, though they will be hosted at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium.
The underdog strikes back
Upon the half-time whistle, star-spangled fans migrated en masse to the event’s bar area, refilling their cups after a stressful first 45 minutes that saw Turkey leading 2-1.
Attendees donning only red and white were the happiest in the park, dancing along to the DJ’s half-time playlist.
American supporters were tense through the second half, in which both teams were tied until the final play, when Türkiye tipped in a buzzer-beating goal to win the match 3-2. Though most fans packed up and left the park within minutes, many of the Turkish supporters stuck around.
“Türkiye’s really good, so I had high expectations” said fan Kaan Sesen. “Even though we were eliminated, this was a fun game ... It was a nice goodbye to the World Cup.”
Home team redemption
The U.S. men are not yet bidding the tournament farewell, with their next game coming up in less than a week. For the first and only time in this World Cup, the San Francisco Bay Area will host USMNT for a match.
The Roots said they did not manage to get tickets — which quickly shot into quadruple digits on resale markets once the U.S. secured their appearance in the elimination game — but they love knowing that the team will be playing just two hours down the road.
“My friends, they kind of predicted it and got tickets early for like $600,” Reid Root said. “Now, they’re like $4,000. So it’s great for them but bad for us.”
One young fan, Ayaan Shah, said he was “excited” after managing to snag tickets to the upcoming Santa Clara match. Shah said he’s been a fan of soccer since he started playing six years ago, though he didn’t follow the U.S. team until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“It feels good because USA never really made it far in the World Cup before, and seeing them make it far and still doing really good feels good,” Shah said. “Go Team USA!”
This story was originally published June 26, 2026 at 2:45 PM.
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