Who’s To Blame? Terim? The Footballers? The TFF?

December 28th, 2009 | by: Cem | Comments (2)

As Turkey got knocked out of World Cup 2010, i wondered to myself. Why are we in this position?

Just after a strong Euro 2008 performance, Turkey came into the World Cup Qualifacation group struggling after a 2-0 win over Armenia and a 1-1 draw with Belgium. At that point, I took no notice of these performances and kept on believing that we would atleast qualify for the World Cup as did every other Turk. We then came up against an on-form Bosnia as they came to Istanbul with a 7-0 win against Estonia. We managed to defeat Bosnia with a 2-1 score and it was a tough match. At that point, I thought we had this qualification in the bag as Bosnia were the strongest in the group behind Spain and Turkey. Fatih Terim then made some huge mistakes in the squad department as we couldnt even score against Estonia in which that game ended 0-0.

Everybody was blaming Terim, but I stood by him as I was blinded by his luck in Euro 2008. As those games went by, we played a number of friendlies, beating Austria 4-2 with a Tuncay hat-trick and drawing 1-1 with Ivory coast. Then the back to back Spain matches came along at a really bad time in terms of injured players due to poor club performances. As I’ve explained before, the national team relies heavily on Fenerbahce, Galatasaray, also Besiktas but I will explain that later. Fatih Terim then called up another demoralisied squad as he brought in an out of form Nihat, Ibrahim and many more players that do not deserve to wear the National team uniform.

As the match kicked off, we started really brightly but Nihat the idiot tryed a shot instead of passing to Semih who could have had a tap in, it could have been 0-1 at Santiago Bernabeau. Tuncay, our star player then came dribbling through a tough Spanish defence and set Semih up to have a shot, Semih did everything right, but Casilas equalled his shot. We were absolutely shutting of any Spanish attacks even with our injury deprived defence. Tuncay again, sent a magnificent ball down to Arda who found him self in a one on one position but controlled the ball really badly and Casilas took the ball away from his feet. Spains first shot of the day came when Torres controlled a long pass and shot at Volkan but saved it magnificently, that was the 45th minute. Just as i thought we were going to win this game, Spain, sent a cross into the box from a set piece and Pique made it 1-0, at that point, I knew it was over, the players looked even more demoralised, it did not suite Turkey. We were then bombarded with the Spanish armada but Volkan managed to only keep it 1-0.

Terim was hugely criticised after the game because of his decision to take Semih Senturk off for one of Terim’s friends, Ayhan Akman. After Semih was taken of, nobody was holding the ball in the oppositions half and because of this, they dominated our midfield.

There was alot of sympathy for Turkey in Europe when we lost to Spain as we did not deserve it. Most Turks set their eyes on the home fixture in Istanbul.

We started the game on the backfoot as Spain pressed our midfield. Riera got one hell of a shot away at goal but Volkan saved it magnificently, he even injured himself doing it. We hit back as Arda sent a wonder cross that found Tuncay, Tuncay then controlled the ball and got the ball to Semih who calmly slotted the ball away. This time, we were destined to win. We strangled Spains midfield in the first half after the goal. In the second half, we pressed again but both teams rarely finding a goal scoring oppurtunity until the 60th minute when a Xavi cross found Torres whos header found Ibrahim’s hand, Mike Riley pointed to the spot and Xavi made it 1-1. Spain continued to press but to no avail. In the 88th minute, Gokhan Gonul couldnt have found him self in a better position to score. Sabris cross into the box found Gokhan Gonul in a one one one position who couldnt control the ball and went wide.

Fenerbahce’s flop of the season came onto the pitch in the 90th minute and assisted Riera on a Spanish counter-attack. I know people who wanted to kill Guiza after that assist. He cant even score one on ones and he makes a perfect assist.

Everybody started to question why Terim didnt resign after Euro 2008, he was widely criticized by the Turkish media and fans.

After those matches, we played Azerbaijan who we beat 2-0, France who we lost 1-0 to and Ukraine who we beat 3-0.

We had high hopes after we played these friendlies. We had to beat Estonia, Bosnia, Belgium and Armenia to qualify, it was a slim chance but who cares. We struggled to beat Estonia as they took the lead in the early minutes of the game. We equalised through Tuncay and took the lead with Sercan. They equalised in the second half then Arda and Tuncay made sure of the victory. Our next test was Bosnia.

We came into the game strong, pressing hard. Their goal keeper was bombarded with shots until we took the lead as Emre scored the rebound of a Semih shot. Bosnia equalised with a controversial free kick. We continued to shoot at their goal but to no avail, Arda beat the goalkeeper but found the post. All luck was lost, we had been knocked out of the World cup. I couldnt believe it.

We lost to Belgium 2-0 and beat Armenia 2-0 in the final games.

Who’s to blame? Terim? The Footballers? The TFF? All of them were to blame. Terim should stop playing his friends and should have called up players like “Mehmet Topuz” or “Volkan Sen”. Instead he called up Sabri and Ayhan and players he liked.

The Federation should have never extended Terims contract or should have atleast got involved after we drew with Estonia.

The footballers looked like they didnt care. How can you not care for your country? You represent them on a world stage. We deserve far better as fans.

The clubs poor choice in managers left our team with injuries and demoralised players. After the two Spain matches, national team players even had a brawl in the Galatasaray – Fenerbahce Darby match.

All in all, its going to be dissapointing to watch the World Cup without Turkey in it.

See you in 2010 Euro qualifiers.