Soccer World Cup 2002 / Turkey

The Turkish national football team on an Azerbaijani postage stamp for the 2002 World Cup

The Turkish national football team at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea :

qualification

Turkey had to face Sweden, Slovakia, Macedonia, Azerbaijan and Moldova in qualifying. The first placed qualified directly for the 2002 World Cup, in second place you could qualify for the World Cup via a play-off round.

After they got off to a satisfactory start with 7 points from the first three games, they could only draw one draw at home against Slovakia and Macedonia. The home defeat against Sweden on the penultimate matchday ensured that Turkey had to be content with second place and now had the chance to participate in the World Cup in the play-off round.

Austria was drawn as an opponent to Turkey. After a 1-0 win in Vienna they were even able to beat Austria 5-0 at home and were therefore qualified for a World Cup for the first time since the 1954 World Cup.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Sweden	20: 3	26th
2	Turkey	18: 8	21st
3	Slovakia	16: 9	17th
4th	Macedonia	11:18	7th
5	Moldova	6:20	6th
6th	Azerbaijan	4:17	4th

Game results

0September 2, 2000	Turkey	-	Moldova		2-0
0October 7, 2000	Sweden	-	Turkey		1: 1
October 11, 2000	Azerbaijan	-	Turkey		0: 1
March 24, 2001	Turkey	-	Slovakia		1: 1
March 28, 2001	Macedonia	-	Turkey		1: 2
0June 2, 2001	Turkey	-	Azerbaijan		3-0
0June 6, 2001	Turkey	-	Macedonia		3: 3
0September 1, 2001	Slovakia	-	Turkey		0: 1
0September 5, 2001	Turkey	-	Sweden		1: 2
0October 6, 2001	Moldova	-	Turkey		0: 3

Relegation game

November 10, 2001	Austria	-	Turkey		0: 1
November 14, 2001	Turkey	-	Austria		5-0

Turkish contingent

In the run-up, national coach Şenol Güneş invited 28 players to his provisional squad, from whom İsmail Güldüren (Gençlerbirliği Ankara) was taken out of the squad during the preparation phase due to a knee injury. In the further course of the final 23-man squad, the following players were sorted out by the national coach: the fourth goalkeeper Metin Aktaş (Trabzonspor), defensive player Cihan Haspolatlı (Kocaelispor), striker Serhat Akın (Fenerbahçe Istanbul) and, surprisingly, the Spanish legionnaire Tayfun Korkut from First division club Real Sociedad .

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Rüştü Reçber	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	05/10/1973	7th	0	1	0	0
12	Ömer Çatkıç	Gaziantepspor	October 15, 1974	0	0	0	0	0
23	Zafer Özgültekin	MKE Ankaragücü	03/10/1975	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Emre Aşık	Galatasaray Istanbul	December 13, 1973	2	0	2	0	0
3	Bülent Korkmaz	Galatasaray Istanbul	11/24/1968	6th	1	0	0	0
4th	Fatih Akyel	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	December 26, 1977	7th	0	1	0	0
5	Alpay Özalan	Aston Villa	05/29/1973	5	0	2	0	1
16	Ümit Özat	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	10/30/1976	2	0	0	0	0
20th	Hakan Ünsal	Blackburn Rovers	05/14/1973	4th	0	0	0	1
22nd	Ümit Davala	AC Milan	07/30/1973	7th	2	0	0	0
midfield player
7th	Okan Buruk	Inter Milan	October 19, 1973	1	0	0	0	0
8th	Tugay Kerimoğlu	Blackburn Rovers	08/24/1970	7th	0	3	0	0
10	Yıldıray Bastürk	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	December 24, 1978	7th	0	0	0	0
11	Hasan Şaş	Galatasaray Istanbul	08/01/1976	6th	2	2	0	0
13	Mustafa İzzet	Leicester City	October 31, 1974	1	0	0	0	0
14th	Tayfur Havutçu	Beşiktaş Istanbul	04/23/1970	3	0	0	0	0
18th	Ergun Penbe	Galatasaray Istanbul	05/17/1972	5	0	1	0	0
19th	Abdullah Ercan	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	December 8, 1971	0	0	0	0	0
21st	Emre Belözoğlu	Inter Milan	07.09.1980	6th	1	1	0	0
striker
6th	Arif Erdem	Galatasaray Istanbul	02/01/1972	4th	0	0	0	0
9	Hakan Şükür	AC Parma	09/01/1971	7th	1	1	0	0
15th	Nihat Kahveci	Real Sociedad	11/23/1979	2	0	0	0	0
17th	İlhan Mansız	Beşiktaş Istanbul	08/10/1975	7th	3	1	0	0
Trainer
	Senol Güneş		06/01/1952

Preliminary round

Turkey was drawn into Group C. Opponents were record world champions Brazil and the two outsiders Costa Rica and China . Second place was therefore also easily possible.

After losing the opening game against Brazil - Rivaldo had provoked a red card with a faked head injury - they parted with a draw against Costa Rica in line with their performance. In the last game against China, a win was a must and at the same time one had to hope that the Brazilians who had already qualified for the round of 16 would win against Costa Rica. Both happened, Brazil beat Costa Rica 5-2 while Turkey beat China without any problems.

Game results

0June 3, 2002	Brazil	-	Turkey		2: 1
0June 9, 2002	Costa Rica	-	Turkey		1: 1
June 13, 2002	Turkey	-	China		3-0

Finals

In the round of 16, Turkey met the winners of Group H hosts Japan . In a rather weak game, Turkey got the upper hand and reached the quarter-finals, where they met Senegal, Africa's last representative. After the game was still goalless after 90 minutes, the game had to go into overtime. İlhan Mansız scored in the 95th minute . Turkey was thus in the semi-finals with a golden goal .

There you met Brazil again. In the second meeting, the Turks did not succeed in seriously distressing the eventual world champions. Only thanks to goalkeeper Rüştü Reçber they only lost 0-1.

In the game for third place they met the second host of the World Cup. In a respectable, but also almost insignificant game, you won 3: 2. Hakan Şükür scored the lead for Turkey after 11 seconds, which is the fastest goal in a World Cup game to date.

Game results

Round of 16	June 18, 2002	Japan	-	Turkey		0: 1
Quarter finals	June 22, 2002	Senegal	-	Turkey		0: 1 n.GG.
Semifinals	June 26, 2002	Brazil	-	Turkey		1-0
3rd place match	June 29, 2002	South Korea	-	Turkey		2: 3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Ay-Yıldız mesaiye başlıyor - ... 28 kişilik aday kadronun ... from May 9, 2002 on Radikal .com.tr
2. ↑ Bastürk in the squad as expected - ... Surprisingly, midfielder Tayfun Korkut from the Spanish first division club Real Sociedad San Sebastian ... on May 21, 2002 on kicker.de was not nominated