TERIM DOES NOT LIKE THE PLAYERS TRANSFER DISTRACTION

Turkish National Team coach Fatih Terim believes that reports of player transfers may be distracting during the European Championship.

Fenerbahce announced on Friday that they agreed to buy midfielder Emre Belozoglu from Newcastle. The club said talks would start soon to decide how much Belozoglu would be paid.

Belozoglu’s move after three years in the Premier League stirred up reactions at home, especially among those supporting his former team Galatasaray, a rival of Fenerbahce.

Terim said that publicity could affect Belozoglu’s performance at the tournament.

“It’s very bad timing,” Terim said

COULD TURKEY AND COACH TERIM MAKE AN IMPRESSION?..

Turkey's head coach Fatih Terim, left, talks with midfielder Emre Belozoglu during a training session of the national soccer team of Turkey at the Centre Sportif Colovray in Nyon, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 4, 2008. Turkey is in group A at the Euro 2008 European Soccer Championships in Austria and Switzerland.
(AP Photo/)

Turkish National Team has failed to make an impression in international play since 2002, when it made a surprising run to the semifinals of the World Cup.
This will be third try, for Terim in the European Tournament.

Could the third time, be a charm for Terim?....

Only Brazil, which beat Turkey in the group stage and the semifinals, defeated the team in 2002. But since that memorable performance, Turkey failed to reach the Euro 2004 finals and the 2006 World Cup finals.

Coach Fatih Terim hopes the pieces are in place for Turkey to make another run at a major tournament at the Euro 2008 finals. Turkey opens the finals against Portugal on June 7.

"The state and direction of Turkish football were questioned after those failures, but qualifying for Euro 2008 has helped us turn the corner," Terim told UEFA.com. "Even big teams can miss out on these competitions and that's what's good about football. Naturally, there are times when you cannot win."

Seventeen of Turkey's 23 players are based in Turkey, but three key players have improved their game elsewhere in Europe.

Forward Nihat Kahveci plays for Villarreal in Spain, while midfielder Tuncay Sanli is at Middlesbrough in the English Premier League and midfielder Hamit Altintop is at Bayern Munich in Germany's Bundesliga

Kahveci scored 20 goals in Spain this season and has 15 goals in 55 appearances for Turkey. Sanli has 15 goals in 54 appearances for Turkey and Altintop, who is coming back from injury, has two goals in 42 games for his country.

With veteran Hakan Sukur, who scored the fastest goal in World Cup history in 10.8 seconds in 2002, left off the squad, Kahveci and Sanil will carry more of the team's offensive load.

Altintop developed into a solid all-around player for Bayern Munich before his injury and provides another attacking option in midfield. Semih Senturk is also a player to watch after he led Turkey's top league in scoring.

Turkey has a little controversy in goal where captain Rustu Recber, who has 116 international appearances, has apparently lost his spot to Volkan Demirel. The 26-year-old Demirel took advantage of playing time while Recber was injured and has held onto the job.

Terim also thinks a few younger players could emerge during the tournament, but the coach didn't want to point out anyone.

"I expect some of our talented young players to make a breakthrough this summer but I don't want to say who as this would be unfair on the rest," he said.

In addition to Portugal, the Czech Republic and co-hosts Switzerland are also in Group A.

OUTLOOK

Turkey was impressive in early qualifying, including a 4-1 victory at Greece in March of last year but struggled in the latter stages and just held onto a spot in the finals. Depending on what team shows up depends on how long Turkey will stick around.

SHORTY TURKS!...
As I mentioned before, Turkish National Team, attackers are short players...

Well, Today at the press conference in NYON, Switzerland, Striker Nihat talked about this.......here is what he said......
"We are short, but we have other capabilities," Kahveci, who is 1.75 meters (5-foot-9). "Looking at our team, we have Europe's most energetic players for sure."

Servet Cetin, Turkey's 1.91 (6-foot-3) central defender, is one of the tallest player.

Nihat went on to say "We'll keep the ball down on the pitch. That's how we will play,"

Tuncat Sanli returned to training with the team on Wednesday. He had trained under the supervision of a therapist the previous day due to an injury, but team officials declined to say what his injury was.

Turkish National Team ranks 20th in FIFA World Ranking

Collecting 21 points in June with victories in the friendly international games under preparations for Euro 2008 Soccer Championship, Turkey climbed 5 rows in FIFA World Ranking for June 2008 to 2Oth place with 877 points.

Among Turkey's rivals in Group A of the Euro 2008 Soccer Championship, Czech Republic is 6th, Portugal is 11th and Switzerland is 44th in the FIFA's World Ranking.

Turkey is set to take on Portugal in Geneva on Saturday, June 7th.

AMERICAN SOCCER(FOOTBALL) FANS WILL WATCH EURO 2008 ON ESPN

For the first time, ESPN will offer blanket coverage of the European Football Championship (Euro 2008) starting June 7 and running through June 29.

This is more proof that soccer popularity is growing in the United States. The ESPN network wouldn't be carrying all 31 games (on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes and even ABC for the championship match) if it thought an insignificant number of people would be tuning in.

Here are the early odds on the 16 countries,Germany 5-to-1; Spain 6-to-1; Italy 8-to-1; Portugal 8-to-1; France 10-to-1; Croatia 13-to-1; Netherlands 13-to-1; Czech Republic 17-to-1; Greece 23-to-1; Russia 23-to-1; Switzerland 26-to-1; Sweden 34-to-1; Turkey 34-to-1; Poland 41-to-1; Romania 41-to-1; Austria 101-to-1.

This tournament is famous for upsets. For example, Greece won the most recent UEFA tournament in 2004 at odds of 80-to-1.

ARDA TURAN:"I think offense is the best defense,"

Turkish National team coach and players are on the same page...

We all know Terim always believes in good defense before attack...

Well, Today in press Conference Arda Turan said:"I think offense is the best defense,"

"If we attack strongly, then our rivals will have to defend against us. We will try to score and be aggressive. That's the influence of our coach."

Turan who plays in central midfield and try and get the ball in behind opposition defenses to forward Nihat Kahveci. Emre Belozoglu and Hamit Altintop will be on either flank to allow Turan to drive forward, with Mehmet Aurelio in a holding role behind them to provide security on any possible counterattacks.

The 21-year-old Turan has been known to drift out of games late in the second half due to being physically weaker than his teammates, but he says he has toughened up and improved his tackling.

After Portugal, Turkey will play co-host Switzerland on June 11 and the Czech Republic four days later.

Hamit Altintop says he's fit for Euro 2008 opener

Hamit Altintop will be fit and ready for Turkey's opening Euro 2008 Group A match against Portugal on Saturday despite a late injury scare, he said on Tuesday.

"I am looking forward to the game," a team spokesman quoted Hamit as saying at a news conference at the squad's training base near Geneva.

The 25-year-old midfielder only returned to action in a friendly against Uruguay on May 25 after a two-month layoff due to a broken bone in his foot.

His club Bayern Munich said on Saturday he had suffered a muscle strain in training the previous day and could miss the Portugal match. Turkey's other Group A opponents are Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

12,000 pay to watch Portugal Practice

A crowd of 12,000 people have paid to watch Portugal's Euro 2008 squad hold an open practice in Neuchatel, a team spokesman said.

Tickets worth 15 Swiss francs (7.21 pounds) to watch the Group A favourites at Neuchatel's La Maladiere stadium on Tuesday (5:30 p.m. British time) have sold out and are being negotiated on the black market at four times that price, Portuguese online media said.

"There will be 12,000 people to watch the practice, that's already confirmed," team spokesman Antonio Florencio said over the telephone from Neuchatel.

Portugal arrived to a rousing welcome from an estimated 10,000 crowd of expatriate Portuguese at their tournament hotel in the lakeside city on Sunday evening, media reported.

"Neuchatel is a little piece of Portugal in the middle of Europe," said maisfutebol.iol.pt

Carlos Godinho, the squad's technical director, said Portugal were charging for two training sessions to help meet high costs of their participation in the tournament. There is another open session scheduled for Sunday.

"We are the only national team that has paid training sessions, but we're also the only one that will have training in front of 12,000 people," he told reporters.

However, fans were less happy with the large security operation surrounding the team, whose hotel has been declared out of bounds to anyone not attached to the squad, reports said.
There was a security vessel on the lake to ensure no-one got within 300 metres of the hotel grounds and large black panels around the hotel to prevent contact with players.

Portugal, who trained twice behind closed doors on Monday, meet Turkey in Geneva on Saturday in their opening group match. They also face co-hosts Switzerland and Czech Republic.

Source:(Reuters)