The USA faced Japan today and once again came from behind to tie forcing the match into overtime. Japan scored within the first minute and again in the eleventh putting the US in a dire situation. Nicolai scored to bring the game back into reach and Japan responded with a third first-half goal. Things looked bleak at half-time with a 3-1 deficit to overcome but the team battled back. Nico had an assist and the match equalizing goal to force overtime despite the fact that he was often double or triple marked by Japan whenever he was within striking range. Unfortunately, Japan scored once more handing us our second overtime loss in as many days. Nicolai and most of the team is pretty beat up and their match against Poland, third ranked in Europe, tomorrow will not be an easy one.

Each day we spend about an hour and a half traveling from the heart of Istanbul to the Turkey Football Federation Training Grounds where most of the World Cup matches are being held. The trip involves a combination of metro trains and a taxi van ride. On the metro today, I took this picture of brother and sister sitting side by side and realized I was doing the same with my sister. It has been great having her join us on this trip to share in Nicolai’s exploits, support team USA, and enjoy Turkey together with our family.

We returned from today’s game in time for some golden hour photography and I chose the ancient Yeni Cami Mosque as my subject for the evening.