Turkey Match With Greece - Turkey View March 2007

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Turkish coach sees Turkey's match with Greece as national match


Turkish national soccer team coach Fatih Terim said on Monday that he sees Turkey's match with Greece as a national match not as a national cause.

Terim made the remarks at a press conference in Polat Renaissance Hotel in Istanbul regarding 2008 European Football Championship qualifying Group C match between Greece and Turkey on Saturday in the Greek capital Athens, according to the semi-official Anatolia news agency.

He said that the upcoming qualifiers with Greece and Norway are of great importance in terms of Turkey's place in the group and also for the forthcoming matches.

"We, altogether, are trying to detach this match from getting perceived as a national cause, diminishing the pressure on our players. This is not a national cause but a national match" said Terim.

"We don't have a strategy like 'a tie is good for us'. Our target is to get the best result but we do not know where the conditions would take us," Terim said.

Following are the Turkey squad for the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Greece and Norway:

Goalkeepers: Hakan Arikan (Ankaraspor), Volkan Demirel (Fenerbahce), Orkun Usak (Kayseri Erciyesspor)

Defenders: Emre Asik (Galatasaray), Servet Cetin (Sivasspor), Huseyin Cimsir (Trabzonspor), Bekir Irtegun (Gaziantepspor), Nuri Sahin (Borussia Dortmund/GER), Ibrahim Toraman (Besiktas), Ibrahim Uzulmez (Besiktas), Gokhan Zan (Besiktas)

Midfielders: Hamit Altintop (Schalke 04/GER), Mehmet Aurelio (Fenerbahce), Emre Belozoglu (Newcastle United/ENG), Ferdi Elmas (Rizespor), Gokdeniz Karadeniz (Trabzonspor), Tugay Kerimoglu (Blackburn Rovers/ENG), Sabri Sarioglu (Galatasaray), Mehmet Topuz (Kayserispor), Arda Turan (Galatasaray)

Strikers: Tumer Metin (Fenerbahce), Tuncay Sanli (Fenerbahce), Hakan Sukur (Galatasaray), Fatih Tekke (Zenit Petersburg/RUS), Gokhan Unal (Kayserispor), Mehmet Yildiz (Sivasspor)

[bluecool]

""Our target is to get the best result"" this is right...our target was this n we got the best...

[Beckhams]

True....

the ball is round though remember that. Soccer is game

Very interesting game. Would have loved to see a closer one (if Greece were a bit less nervous... and their coach playing some younger people!)

[brkhvk]

greece can not play football. especially against Turkey.. 1 - 4 is a normal score..

[macedonian]

Extreme statement my Turkish friend, and of course rubbish. but if you mean the night specifically, I totally agree.

[shevchenko]

macedonian...is that 16year old phenom ready to lace them up? Nikopolidis gave that game away,,,,

[killer_6]

Ninis is his name shevchenko. and no, he's not ready yet, he's only 16! Let's wait a few more years!

[killer_6]

Originally Posted by macedonian

Extreme statement my Turkish friend, and of course rubbish. but if you mean the night specifically, I totally agree.

Even on that night, macedonian, the score didn't accurately reflect the match.

Turkey definitely deserved to win. No doubt. But Greece played well (at times) and could have and should have equalised. Kyrgiakos and Stelios both had glorious chances that they missed. THere was also the one that went off the post where the Turkish goalie kind of bumbled it.

If Nikopolidis played a half decent match, what would the score have been?

[brkhvk]

give nikopolidis again a chance in Istanbul.. or maybe you have a better goalkeeper... i liked to watch all the greek defender players faces after the fourth goal.. couldn't do a champion better at home? no, they could not.

[brkhvk]

If Turkey would play with A Team , what would be the score have been ?