Confederations Cup Turkey 2 : USA 1

However, the young squad were still good value for the win.

SCORING CHANCES

Though the Americans had plenty of first-half possession, it was Gunes’s men who predictably created the scoring chances.

Ahmet Yildirim put Yilmaz clean through, only for his effort to be blocked by the advancing Tim Howard in goal, Yildirim then hit the crossbar with a 20-metre free kick and the Howard did well again to stop Sanli in another one-on-one.

As Yilmaz smacked another effort just wide, a goal was clearly on the cards – with the only surprise being that it came from the United States.

Landon Donovan escaped down the left and the unmarked Beasley had no difficulty heading home his looping cross from close range.

Turkey responded by going straight up the other end and winning a penalty when Sanli went down in a defensive sandwich between Danny Califf and skipper Frankie Hejduk.

Yilmaz made no mistake from the spot, firing low into the left-hand corner.

Turkey kept up the pressure in the second half, with shots from Gokdeniz Karadeniz and an Alpay header before Sanli collected a neat through-ball from Volkan Arslan, expertly rounded Howard and steered his shot into an empty net.

The U.S. hit back in search of an equaliser and substitute Clint Mathis nearly found one in the 80th minute with a shot which Catkic blocked and a follow-up which Korkmaz cleared off the line.

But it was Turkey who got off to a winning start in their campaign that also sees them face Cameroon and favourites Brazil – who were meeting later on Thursday in Paris – in their remaining group games.