Turkey aims for semi spot today

Turkey coach Senol Gunes and his players will be particularly anxious to settle this matter right away. They will not want to leave their semifinal chances to Monday’s meeting with Brazil.

Changes
Gunes is certain to make changes this evening. The competition format virtually dictates that. The group schedule is a punishing one which involves teams playing 3 matches in 5 days. All coaches are going to rotate players to allow them rest.

France’s Jacques Santini went so far as to pledge before the competition began that no one player would appear in all three group games. Gunes signaled his intentions against the United States by leaving out two men who had been expected to play, goalkeeper Rustu Recber and midfielder Yildiray Basturk. Both have had long, hard seasons and Rustu’s fitness is suspect, but we can expect a return for them this evening.

In Yildiray’s case, this is likely to be at the expense of Selcuk Sahin. The Istanbulspor youngster showed some deft touches in midfield but was insufficiently involved in the game.

The other major midfield disappointment was Galatasaray’s Volkan Arslan. He played the one-two with Tuncay Sanli which laid on Tuncay’s brilliantly taken winner but until that point had done little positive. However, perhaps encouraged by that assist, towards the end of the match he was showing signs of adjusting to the tempo of the international game and there is another reason for suggesting that he may be retained.

Physically speaking, Cameroon happens to be an unusually large side and Volkan’s powerful physique alone may earn him the nod.

Gunes has to rethink his left flank. Besiktas’s Ahmet Yildirim was forced to leave the field because of injury on Thursday and even if nominally fit today will surely not be risked. His clubmate Ibrahim Uzulmez looked good going forward but was regularly being caught out by the Americans when called on to defend.

The answer may be to retain Galatasaray’s Ergun Penbe who substituted for Ahmet but pull him back into a deep role. After the USA game, the coach professed himself generally satisfied with the performance but complained that Turkey had not taken its chances and should have won bigger.

Nevertheless the wholly new strike pairing of Fenerbahce’s Tuncay and Bursaspor captain Okan Yilmaz did enough to suggest that it is worth another look unless Gunes decides to rest one or other of them. He suggested he might be looking for alternatives by bringing on Ankaragucu forward Huseyin Kartal for a first cap late in the game.

USA coach Bruce Arena singled out Tuncay and Gokdeniz Karadeniz for praise but also claimed that the experience of Alpay Ozalan and Bulent Korkmaz at the back had done a great deal to tip the balance. The FIFA Technical Committee made captain Bulent its man of the match. This surprises us a little. True, Bulent distinguished himself by heading a Clint Mathis shot off the line on 77 minutes but he and Alpay were cuaght out of position more than once and their lack of speed was sometimes exposed as well.

Schaefer
At last year’s World Cup, Cameroon’s indomitable Lions looked a spent force with several established players out of touch and a younger generation not ready to take on their mantle. It was all very different against Brazil.

The Lions won a tactical battle with a tight defense in which Rigobert Song was outstanding and by surprisingly matching a highly experimental Brazil move for move in midfield, especially during the second half. Like a lot of German coaches, Winfried Schaefer, who was believed to be on Fenerbahce’s shortlist before it recently appointed Christoph Daum, is regarded as a horses for courses man, one who will switch tactics and personnel according to the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition.

What he will try tonight we do not know bur against Brazil he played Real Mallorca’s Samuel Etoo as his single striker. Although Cameroon managed 6 shots on target to Brazil’s one and although Etoo scored a marvelous late winner, for much of the game he was finding it difficult to carry the burden alone up front.

If Schaefer opts for the same formation, Turkey’s task will be to get in amongst the Cameroon midfield and cut off Etoo’s supply of passes.

Fans
In St. Etienne the small contingent of American supporters (the Eurosport commentary team counted 62 of them!) were heavily outnumbered in the crowd by Turks. In St Denis it will be different. There are a lot of French citizens of Cameroon origin and a lot of Cameroon citizens resident in France.

Many of these are in the Paris area and they turned out in force for the Brazil game. We should be seeing — or rather hearing — a genuine contest between the rival groups of fans to outshout one another tonight. As to the competition on the pitch, given the height of the Cameroon defense, slinging in high balls is not likely to do the business.

Turkey will need to keep the ball on the ground and use fast, accurate passing movements to carve out openings. The last time it met an African opponent, it was Senegal in a World Cup quarterfinal which it won in injury time on Ilhan Mansiz’s spectacular golden goal.

At the time, Senegal looked considerably better than the reigning African champion. Thursday’s performance, though, suggests that the Indomitable Lions are back and hungry.