Turkey's Nihat Kahveci, right, celebrates his free kick goal with head coach Fatih Terim, left, during a friendly soccer match between Turkey and Uruguay in Bochum, western Germany, Sunday, May 25, 2008.(AP) Turkey 2 Uruguay 3
Turkey slid to a 3-2 defeat to Uruguay in Bochum Sunday in a friendly international ahead of next month's European Championships. Turkey welcomed back midfielder Hamit Altintop, who has recovered from a foot fracture, and the Bayern midfielder set up the first goal in the 13th minute with a cross which Arda Turan headed home.
Luis Suarez equalized for the South Americans in the 31st minute before Nihat Kahveci put Turkey back in front six minutes after half-time.
However Suarez notched his second with a penalty in the 78th minute and Cristian Rodriguez converted another spot kick five minutes from time.
Turkey, who are in Germany training for the June 7-29 tournament in Austria and Switzerland, on Tuesday defeated Slovakia 1-0 in Bielefeld.
A third and last test match follows on Thursday against Finland in Duisburg.
Turkey defender Gokhan Gonul has meanwhile been ruled out of Euro 2008 because of a foot injury.
Turkey coach Fatih Terim called 27 players into the training camp and will trim it to 23 by Wednesday's deadline for squad nominations.
Turkey are in Group A with Portugal, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
Turkey: Volkan, Hakan Balta, Gökhan (Mevlüt 87), Emre Belözoğlu (Halil 65), Mehmet Topal, Nihat, Yıldıray (Tuncay 65), Arda (Tümer 60), Emre Aşık, Hamit (Sabri 46), Kazım (Ayhan 46).
Uruguay: Carini, Alcoba, Godín, Gargano, Caceres, Eguren, Suárez, Cavani, (Fernández 46), Pereira (Silva 68), Giménez (Rodríguez 56), González (Flores 75).
I could watch the match and I was surprised with this result. But I think that during the second half Turkey arrived to the Uruguayan penalty area few times. The would need to improve before the EURO.
ReplyDeleteQuite honestly, this site criticizes every bad move in Turkish football and praises every good one. Why so bipolar? So what if they lost to Uruguay in a FRIENDLY. Turkey is notorious for not putting it's pedal to the metal until the big games. Didn't Turkey lose to the Czech Republic 4-0 not so long ago? Great. It's not like anyone cared about that friendly either. At this point Terim is trying different players out to see how the team gels. Just be patient and have faith for once.
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