Turkey 2026 Schedule & Game Calendar

Turkey face a Group D reset after the opening night

Turkey arrived at the 2026 World Cup in a Group D that asks three different questions on three matchdays. An AFC side, a CONMEBOL side, and a CONCACAF host nation, all packed into a run of fixtures between June 14 and June 25. The games begin in Canada and finish on the West Coast of the United States, so Turkey cover plenty of ground even as the kickoffs sit late on the Eastern clock.

The opener went against them. Turkey lost 2-0 to Australia at BC Place in Vancouver on June 14, and a defeat in the first game of a four-team group puts the pressure on early. It means the next two fixtures, at home to Paraguay in San Francisco on June 19 and against the United States in Los Angeles on June 25, become close to must-win territory rather than free hits.

The structure is straightforward, the task less so. Two teams from each group go through automatically, and the eight best third-placed sides across the 12 groups also reach the Round of 32. After losing to Australia, Turkey need points from the Paraguay and United States games to stay in contention, and probably a positive goal difference to back it up. The opening result narrowed the margin. What is left is a campaign that has to start winning now.

The good news for Turkey is that two of three games remain, and six points are still on the table. A four-team group can turn quickly, and a side that loses its opener can still finish second if it wins the next two. That is the version of Group D that Turkey are chasing, and the Paraguay match in San Francisco is where it has to begin.

The three Group D games that decide Turkey’s tournament

The first one is done. Turkey played Australia at 12:00 AM ET on June 14 at BC Place in Vancouver and lost 2-0, the only one of their three group matches staged in Canada. A quiet night in front of goal, and the kind of start that turns the rest of the group into a chase.

Game two brings Paraguay to the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium on June 19 for an 11:00 PM ET kickoff, with Turkey at home. This is the game Turkey have to win. Both sides come in looking to recover from their openers, so the loser is left needing results elsewhere in Group D to survive. A Turkey win resets the group and drops them right back into the fight for a top-two place.

The group ends in Los Angeles on June 25, when Turkey meet the United States at the Los Angeles Stadium at 10:00 PM ET. Turkey are listed as the home side, though the host nation will bring the louder crowd. By the time it kicks off the Group D table may be set, or it may turn on this result and on goal difference. It is the fixture to keep free, because where Turkey finish decides which half of the knockout bracket they would drop into.

Set the three dates side by side and the shape of Turkey’s group reads plainly. A defeat to open in Canada, a home game in San Francisco that has become must-win, then a closing night in Los Angeles against the host nation that could decide qualification. The sequencing is unforgiving. Because the loss came first, Turkey have no margin to ease into the tournament, and both remaining matchdays now carry the campaign. The one piece of help in the layout is that the last two games sit on the West Coast within six days of each other, so Turkey are not crossing the continent between fixtures. The football is the hard part, and there is plenty of it left to sort out in Group D.

The standings math Turkey now have to solve

A 2-0 opening loss does not end Turkey’s group, but it does narrow it. Two teams go through automatically from every group, and the eight best third-placed teams from the 12 groups also advance, so two routes remain open. Both demand points. With zero on the board after one game, Turkey almost certainly need to win against Paraguay in San Francisco and then take something from the United States in Los Angeles to climb into the top two. Anything less and they are leaning on the third-place route, which is decided by how every other group settles, not by Turkey alone.

Goal difference is the other lever. The 2-0 defeat to Australia leaves Turkey on minus two, and when teams finish level on points that figure is the first tiebreaker FIFA applies. A clear win over Paraguay would repair it; a tight one keeps it fragile. That is why the scoreline in the next two games could matter as much as the result, especially if third place comes down to fine margins across the groups. For Turkey, the message from the opening night is blunt: start winning, and win by enough to undo the early damage.

The schedule keeps the logistics manageable for anyone following along. After the midnight Eastern kickoff in Vancouver, Turkey’s last two games sit on the West Coast, an 11:00 PM ET start against Paraguay in San Francisco and a 10:00 PM ET start against the United States in Los Angeles. Two late nights, two host cities, after the opener up in Canada. Mapping those slots out ahead of time is exactly what the calendar download below is for.

Turkey’s possible route through the 48-team knockouts

Get through Group D and the expanded format takes over. The 2026 World Cup runs to 104 matches and brings in a Round of 32 that the old 32-team format never had, which means one more knockout round to clear than at any previous World Cup. Group winners, runners-up, and the eight best third-placed teams all feed into that Round of 32, and from there it is pure elimination: Round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final on July 19.

The team Turkey would meet first is not set, and it will not be until every group has played its final round. The bracket fills from the top as placings lock in, so any knockout opponent for Turkey only becomes clear in the closing days of the group stage. You can follow how every group is breaking, and see the bracket form, on the 2026 World Cup overview.

For Turkey, after an opening defeat, just reaching the knockout rounds would mark a strong recovery. The bigger bracket gives a side a longer route to run, but it also adds an extra round to get past. That is the backdrop to every remaining group result. Each point now is about earning a place in the bracket at all.

Getting Turkey’s World Cup schedule onto your devices

Every Turkey fixture on this page can be added to your calendar in seconds. Use the download button on the schedule above to take the full campaign as an ICS file, a CSV spreadsheet, or a printable PDF, and pick either the whole set of matches or a single game on its own.

The ICS file gets it done for most. Drop it into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook and Turkey’s group games appear with the kickoff times already converted to your local zone, along with the venue and host city for each one. Because the schedule draws on live tournament data, it keeps itself right: a moved kickoff time, or a confirmed knockout opponent for Turkey, updates in place with nothing for you to do.

Tracking another team through the tournament too? The same downloads are available for every nation at the 2026 World Cup, so you can set Turkey’s fixtures beside a second side and watch the whole thing on one calendar. Pencil in June 14, June 19, and June 25 for the Group D matches first, then let any knockout dates arrive behind them as the bracket takes shape.