Galarza’s 65-Second Strike Kills Türkiye Dream As World Cup Exit Confirmed

“We Feel Ashamed”: Arda Güler Apologizes As Türkiye Crash Out Of World Cup

Türkiye’s World Cup dream is over after just two games. Zero points. Zero goals. Two straight losses.

They fired 62 shots across the group stage but couldn’t find the net once. The killer blow came early against Paraguay — Matias Galarza scored after just 65 seconds, the fastest goal of the tournament. That broke the record set only hours earlier by Saibari in the 71st minute vs Scotland.

The night descended into chaos when Paraguay’s Miguel Almirón became the first player sent off at the 2026 World Cup. The new “Gianluca Prestianni Rule” saw him shown red for covering his mouth while speaking to Türkiye’s Mert Müldür. Türkiye players swarmed the referee demanding a VAR review.

Captain Arda Güler fronted up after the defeat:
“Honestly, there isn’t much to say. We’re very disappointed, and we feel ashamed. We apologize to all our people. Maybe we gave them too much hope, but we couldn’t deliver.”
“We play for big clubs, so we should have shown that on the pitch. We failed to score in two matches when we needed to win.”
“Inshallah, in future tournaments we’ll do much better. I’ll do everything in my national team career to make people forget this one.”

USA topped Group D as winners, leaving Türkiye bottom and heading home.

Zlatan Ibrahimović Reacts
🗣️ “It’s crazy to lose as the better team. I have huge respect for coach Vincenzo Montella — he always has a good game plan and plays beautiful football.”
“They dominated from the first match but lacked the mentality for victory. I expected Arda Güler and Kenan Yildiz to make them more dangerous, but they were wasteful. Demiral was unlucky not to equalize late.”
“Congratulations to Paraguay and Gustavo Alfaro for defending with 10 men. Football is wonderful because the best team can lose to the worst team. That’s why we love the beautiful game.”

Türkiye exit with questions, but Güler’s words show what a captain does — speak up, take responsibility, and apologize when it hurts most.