Turkey is one unique team which geographically belongs to Asia more but in football they are UEFA members. Football in Turkey has been in positive progress in the past few decades and their relatively constant appearances in European championship is the evidence of their improvement. However, in world cup, they are not so lucky yet.
Overall Campaign
Turkey have only managed to qualify in two world cup finals, in 1954 and 2002. The results are in fact in contrast to each other. In the former edition, Turkey was fortunate to seal one spot in the final round after winning a toss coin after the replay against Spain in the play off. Yet, on the main group stage, they were hapless against West Germany and they suffered a heavy loss twice, on match day one and the playoff. Their big win against South Korea became less memorable due to their poor campaign. Meanwhile, in the latter one, Hakan Sukur and Co had to struggle to qualify in the final round, but they managed to finish third in the tournament. Senol Gunes’s side was even lucky enough to advance to the round of 16 by only collecting four points from a loss to Brasil, a draw against Costa Rica and a win over China, plus not encountering a single other European team. At the knock out stage, Turkey unimpressively edged out the host Japan in a rainy match by 1-0 victory. They did it again against Senegal by Ilhan Mansiz’s golden goal at the quarter final with identical score. However, Brasil and his winning team plus Ronaldo Luiz halted their surprising form at the semi final. Turkey eventually bounced back and thumped another host, South Korea in an entertaining clash.
Iconic Moments
The team’s best moment in the world cup was the 2002 quarter final fixture against Senegal. They were not the favourite at that time as the African side just eliminated Sweden with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrik Larsson in it. El Hadji Diof and Co were even dominating the game and knocking on their door but their goalie Rustu Recber was in-form and denied a number of decent chances. Their opportunity came as the substitute Ilhan Mandiz broke the deadlock. It was another golden goal in the tournament and dramatic exit for Bruno Metsu’s men who edged out Sweden through a golden goal as well. Another iconic moment was a victory in third play-off against South Korea. Their skipper, Hakan Sukur scored the fastest opener in the world cup history.
Turkey’s worst moment was when they were hammered by the eventual Champion, West Germany in 1954. Fritz Walter and Co hammered them 4-1 and 7-2.
Top Players & Managers
So far, their current manager, Senol Gunes, remains the key figure in Turkey’s world cup campaign in history. He led Hakan Sukur, Hasan Sas, Rustu Recber, Umit Davala and Bulent Korkmaz to their impressive result more than two decades ago.
