FACTS ABOUT....Portugal v Turkey Match...

Portugal play Turkey in their opening
match of the Euro 2008 finals on Saturday (all times GMT) Where: Stade de Geneve, Geneva Capacity: 30,000
When: Saturday June 7, 1845 Referee: Herbert Fandel (Germany)
Teams: Likely formation, shirt numbers, age, caps and goals

Portugal (4-3-3) Turkey (4-4-2)

1-Ricardo 32-75-0 23-Volkan Demirel 26-21-0

4-Jose Bosingwa 25-8-0 2-Servet Cetin 27-29-1
15-Pepe 25-3-0 3-Hakan Balta 25-8-1
16-Ricardo Carvalho 30-43-4 4-Gokhan Zan 26-19-0
2-Paulo Ferreira 29-47-1 20-Sabri Sarioglu 24-13-1
8-Armando Petit 31-54-4 5-Emre Belozoglu 27-56-4
20-Deco 29-53-3 7-Mehmet Aurelio 30-19-1
10-Joao Moutinho 21-13-1 17-Tuncay Sanli 26-54-15
11-Simao Sabrosa 28-61-15 22-Hamit Altintop 25-42-2
7-Cristiano Ronaldo 23-55-20 8-Nihat Kahveci 27-54-15
21-Nuno Gomes 31-69-28 21-Mevlut Erdinc 21-4-0 Also available:
3-Bruno Alves 26-11-1 1-Rustu Recber 35-116-0
5-Fernando Meira 30-49-2 6-Mehmet Topal 24-5-0
6-Raul Meireles 25-9-0 9-Semih Senturk 25-4-1
9-Hugo Almeida 24-9-2 10-Gokdeniz Karadeniz 28-46-6
12-Quim 32-26-0 11-Tumer Metin 33-23-7
13-Miguel 28-47-1 12-Tolga Zengin 24-2-0
14-Jorge Ribeiro 26-8-0 13-Emre Gungor 23-1-0
17-Ricardo Quaresma 24-21-2 14-Arda Turan 21-18-1
18-Miguel Veloso 22-6-0 15-Emre Asik 34-27-2
19-Nani 21-13-2 16-Ugur Boral 26-8-0
22-Rui Patricio 20-0-0 18-Kazim Kazim 21-2-0
23-Helder Postiga 25-32-10 19-Ayhan Akman 31-10-1
Coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari Fatih Terim
Injured: None Suspended: None None

Key stats:
* Turkey have not appeared at a major tournament since the
2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan when their run to
the semi-finals was ended by a Brazil side coached by Luiz
Felipe Scolari, now in charge of Saturday's opponents Portugal. * Portugal have won the countries' two previous meetings in
European Championship final tournaments. Fernando Couto scored the goal in a 1-0 in the group stage
at Euro 96 and striker Nuno Gomes scored both in the 2-0
succcess in the quarter-finals at Euro 2000.

Previous meetings:
18.12.1955 Fr Istanbul Turkey 3 Portugal 1 25.03.1956 Fr Lisbon Portugal 3 Turkey 1 24.01.1965 WCQ Lisbon Portugal 5 Turkey 1 19.04.1965 WCQ Ankara Turkey 0 Portugal 1 14.06.1996 ECF Nottingham Portugal 1 Turkey 0 24.06.2000 ECF Amsterdam Portugal 2 Turkey 0 Group A Switzerland Czech Republic Portugal Turkey

Next group matches
Saturday June 7 Switzerland v Czech Republic, St Jakob Park, Basel, 1600
Wednesday June 11 Czech Republic v Portugal, Stade de Geneve, Geneva, 1600 Switzerland v Turkey, St Jakob Park, Basel, 1845
Sunday June 15 Switzerland v Portugal, St Jakob Park, Basel, 1845 Turkey v Czech Republic, Stade de Geneve, Geneva, 1845

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.