Turkey national football team: Difference between revisions

Turkey
	Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)	Ay-Yıldızlılar (Crescent Stars)
Association	Turkish Football Federation
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Fatih Terim, (2005-)
Captain	Nihat Kahveci
Most caps	Rüştü Reçber (117)
Top scorer	Hakan Şükür (51)
FIFA code	TUR
First colours	Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	20
Highest	5 (June 2004)
Lowest	67 (October 1993)
First international
	Turkey 2 - 2 Romania ; (Istanbul, Turkey; October 26, 1923)
Biggest win
	Turkey 7 - 0 Syria ; (Ankara, Turkey; November 20, 1949); Turkey 7 - 0 South Korea ; (Geneva, Switzerland; June 20, 1954); Turkey 7 - 0 San Marino ; (Istanbul, Turkey; November 10, 1996)
Biggest defeat
	Poland 8 - 0 Turkey ; (Chorzow, Poland; April 24 1968); Turkey 0 - 8 England ; (Istanbul, Turkey; November 14, 1984) ; England 8 - 0 Turkey ; (London, England; October 14, 1987)
World Cup
Appearances	2 (first in 1954)
Best result	Third place, 2002
European Championship
Appearances	3 (first in 1996)
Best result	Semifinals, 2008
Confederations Cup
Appearances	1 (first in 2003)
Best result	3rd, 2003

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Revision as of 11:26, 21 June 2008

The Turkish national football team is the national football team of Republic of Turkey and is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation. They are affiliated with UEFA.

Turkey has a footballing tradition that features both highs and lows. In World Cup competition Turkey has qualified three times for the 1950, 1954, and 2002 editions. Turkey failed to make an appearance for the 1950 World Cup due to a withdrawal.

The team's highest achievement was reaching 3rd place at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Turkey also reached the quarter-finals at Euro 2000 and reached 3rd place at the 2003 Confederations Cup.

Currently, Turkey are competing in Euro 2008. After eliminating tournament co-hosts Switzerland ^[1] , they went on to defeat Croatia on penalties after equalising with seconds to go in their quarter-final tie in Vienna, Austria. They will face Germany in the semi-finals.

History

World Cups 1950 and 1954

Turkey qualified for the 1950 World Cup beating Syria 7-0 but they withdrew due to financial problems.

Turkey then qualified for the 1954 World Cup after a play-off with Spain. The Turkish team first lost 4-1 to Spain but a 1-0 win a few days later initiated a replay. On that occasion they tied 2-2 after, booking their place after a coin toss. Turkey was put in a group along with Hungary and West Germany. However the Turks never played Hungary due to the tournament format, and a 4-1 defeat by the Germans was followed by Turkey carrying out a 7-0 win over South Korea. Turkey lost the play-off to West Germany 7-2.

'60s to '90s

Despite the introduction of a national league, and showings by Turkish clubs in European competition, the 1960s would be a barren time for the national team. The 1970s saw Turkey holding back in the World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, but the team was a point too short to qualify for Euro 1972 and Euro 1976.

The 1980s saw Turkey lose 8-0 to England on two separate occasions. Yet the 1990 World Cup qualifiers would mark a turning point for Turkish football, with Turkey only missing out on qualification in the final game.

Euro 1996 and 2000

Turkey qualified for the Euro 96, beating both Switzerland and Sweden 2-1, but then they lost all their matches without scoring a single goal. However, they did go home with an award: the fair-play award, given to Alpay Özalan.

Turkey qualified for Euro 2000 after winning a play-off against the Republic of Ireland. Turkey lost their first match 2-1 to Italy, they drew their second match against Sweden 0-0, and beat host nation Belgium 2-0, making it the first time in the history of the European Championship that a host nation had been eliminated in the first round, brought Turkey into the last eight of the tournament where Portugal won the quarter-final match 2-0.

World Cup 2002

The Turkish team started the 2002 World Cup with a 2-1 defeat against Brazil. Turkey passed the group stage with a 3-0 win against China, after drawing 1-1 with Costa Rica.

Turkey then faced home team Japan, beating them 1-0. The Turkish team continued their run, as they beat Senegal 1-0 on a golden goal to book their place in the semi-finals where a 1-0 defeat against Brazil forced them to play the third place match, and a bronze medal was the prize after a 3-2 victory over South Korea. Hakan Şükür scored Turkey's first goal in 10.8 seconds, even when the South Koreans kicked off first. It was the fastest goal in World cup history.^[2]

Confederations Cup 2003 and Euro 2004

In the summer of 2003, Turkey reached third place at the 2003 Confederations Cup in which they drew 2-2 against Brazil. Turkey lost to eventual tournament winners France 3-2 in the semi-final match. Turkey defeated Colombia 2-1 to win third place.

The Turkish team failed to qualify for Euro 2004 on play-offs due to a loss to Latvia after finishing second in their group.

World Cup 2006

The Turkish team once again narrowly missed out on the finals after failing to win a play-off, this time on away goals against Switzerland, again after finishing second in their group. There were scenes of violence after the game on and off the pitch.

Euro 2008

Turkey qualified for their first international tournament in 6 years by finishing second behind Greece in Group C. They were placed alongside Switzerland, Portugal and the Czech Republic in Group A. In their first match they played Portugal and were level until the hour mark when Pepe scored to give Portugal the lead. They doubled the lead in stoppage time through Raul Meireles and therefore Turkey suffered a 2-0 defeat.

Turkey defeated Switzerland 2-1 in their second match in a rainy encounter with goals from Semih Şentürk (header into the top right corner) and Arda Turan (deflected from defender and went into the middle of the Swiss goal). This mathematically eliminated all chances of the host nation Switzerland's qualifying for the second round. This was the second time in the history of the European cup that a host nation did not qualify for the second round. The first such nation was Belgium 8 years earlier which also was eliminated after losing to the Turkish team.

Turkey made a great comeback against the Czech Republic 3-2, qualifying them as the runners-up in Group A. After being down 2-0 by Czech goals from Jan Koller at minute 34 and Jaroslav Plašil at minute 62, things seemed pretty desperate for Turkish side, however Arda Turan scored for the Turks at 75th minute on a cross that found its way to his feet at the edge of the box to slip it by Petr Cech. Incredibly just 3 minutes before 90, the Turks equalised when a ball slipped between Cech's safe hands right to Nihat Kahveci who placed it softly into the net. When the group stage match was thought to be going towards penalty kicks for the first time in Euro history, Nihat broke away from a Czech defender to receive another Hamit Altintop pass and curled a right foot shot into the top corner of the goal just from the edge of the penalty area, eliminating the Czechs from the tournament and giving the Turkish team a place in the quarterfinals against Croatia.

The Turks were down 1-0 in the final minute of extra time against Croatia. Semih Senturk took the ball just inside the Croatian box and scored a goal with the last kick of the game, sending it into penalty kicks. After two misses and one blocked shot, Croatia were eliminated from the tournament, leaving Turkey to face Germany in the semifinals.

^[3]

World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1930	Did Not Enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1934	Withdrew during qualifying	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1938	Did Not Enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1950	Qualified but withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1954	Round 1	9	3	1	0	2	10	11
1958	Withdrew during qualifying	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1962	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1970	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1974	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1978	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1982	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1994	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2002	Third place	3	7	4	1	2	10	6
2006	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	2/18		10	5	1	4	20	17

European Championship record

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1960	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1964	Did Not Quality	-	-	-	-	-	-
1968	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1972	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1976	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1980	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1984	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1988	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1992	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1996	Round 1	3	0	0	3	0	5
2000	Quarter-finals	4	1	1	2	3	4
2004	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2008	Semi-finals	4	2	1	1	6	6
2012		-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	3/13	11	3	2	6	9	15

*Denotes draws including knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

Confederations Cup record

Year	Round	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1992	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1995	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1997	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1999	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2001	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2003	Third place	5	2	1	2	8	7
2005	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	1/7	5	2	1	2	8	7

RCD Cup/ECO Cup record

Year	Round
1965	Runners-Up
1967	Champions
1969	Champions
1970	Runners-Up
1974	Champions
1993	Did not enter

Euro 2008

Final round

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	3	2	1	5	3	+2	6^[a]	Advance to knockout stage
2	Turkey	3	2	1	5	5	0	6^[a]	Advance to knockout stage
3	Czech Republic	3	1	2	4	6	−2	3^[b]
4	Switzerland (H)	3	1	2	3	3	0	3^[b]

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Notes:

^ ^a ^b Head-to-head result: Portugal 2–0 Turkey.
^ ^a ^b Head-to-head result: Switzerland 0–1 Czech Republic.

7 June 2008

18:00

Switzerland	0–1	Czech Republic
	Report	Svěrkoš 71'

St. Jakob-Park, Basel

Attendance: 39,730^[4]

Referee: Roberto Rosetti (Italy)

7 June 2008