There are a number of popular Turkish football club teams as far as football is concerned but the national team is still the most important. The first ever match played by the national team was versus Romania in 1923. In the World Cup competition they have only managed to qualify for the finals on three occasions in 1950, 1954, and 2002. Unfortunately the team did not make an appearance in 1950 and were therefore withdrawn from the competition. Their greatest World Cup achievement to date was finishing in third place in 2002. Other notable achievements have included reaching the knockout rounds of Euro 2000, the semi-finals of Euro 2008 and finished third in the 2003 Confederations Cup. Turkey managed to successfully qualify for Euro 1996 but went on to lose all of their schedules matches without scoring a goal.
During the World Cup
in 2006 the Turkish club qualified for their first international tournament in
six years and finished second in their group. They were drawn in a group
alongside Switzerland, Portugal, and the Czech Republic and managed to
successfully qualify for the later knockout stages. Their quarter-final match against
Croatia was goalless after 90 minutes, and Croatia led 1–0 in the final minute
of extra time, but a late Turkish goal resulted in penalties. Turkey managed to
beat Croatia in penalties 3–1.
This saw them drawn
against Germany in the semi finals of the competition but due to injuries and
suspensions they had only 14 outfield players. Despite this they managed to
hold out for a 2–2 draw until in the last minute of the match they were knocked
out following a late goal from Germany. Sadly this meant that the Turkish club
missed out on competing in the finals of the competition as they failed to win
a play-off. In this match they came up against Switzerland once again having
come second in the group. Sadly the match was tarred by violence following the
match which saw players from both sides brawling both on the field and also in
the tunnel. For the World Cup in 2010 Turkey again failed to qualify following a mixed campaign and narrowly
missing out on a play-off place to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to these events
their Coach Fatih Terim announced he would be resigning. For the UEFA Euro 2012
competition Turkey were drawn against teams such as Kazakhstan, Austria, Belgium,
Germany, and Azerbaijan.
Further Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_football_clubs_in_Turkey
http://www.football.co.uk/turkey/index.shtml
