Turkey (National Football)

Turkey and Galatasaray legend Hakan Sukur has revealed he is now an Uber driver in the United States and sells books for a living after being exiled from his home country by president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Sukur retired from football in 2008 and joined Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2011. He served as an MP in Istanbul for four years, but in 2013 he left the AKP to serve as an independent.

The former striker told Welt am Sonntag's Matthias Marburg (h/t Goal's Sam France):

"Then the hostility started. Stones were thrown at my wife's boutique, my children were harassed on the street.

"I received threats after every statement I made. When I had left, they locked up my father—and everything I owned was confiscated.

"I have nothing left anywhere in the world. Erdogan took everything from me. My right to freedom, the right to explain myself, to express myself, the right to work."

Turkish authorities issued a warrant for Sukur's arrest in August 2016, a month after the government fended off a failed coup attempt.

Sukur had previously expressed support for cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish government accused of leading the coup.

The 48-year-old had moved to the U.S., where he ran a cafe in California, shortly before the coup attempt, which he condemned on Twitter after the arrest warrant was issued.

Sukur explained to Welt am Sonntag he decided to leave the AKP was because "Erdogan's politics led to bad times," but he denied any wrongdoing: "I only did things that are legal." 

"Can they show me a crime that I have committed?" he added. "No. They just say 'traitor' and 'terrorist.'"

His father, Sermet Sukur, was also issued an arrest warrant in 2016. He was taken into custody in Hakan's hometown of Adapazari and imprisoned.

According to Goal, both of his parents have been diagnosed with cancer. Following the diagnosis, his father, who served as Hakan's agent during his playing career, was released and placed under house arrest.

Sukur said it is a "very difficult time for them" and that everybody he associated with in Turkey now has "financial difficulties."

Sukur also said a Turkish student was jailed for 14 months after taking a selfie with him during a visit to the United States.

Sukur is Turkey's all-time top scorer, having bagged 51 goals in 112 matches. He has more than double the goals of their next-highest scorer, Burak Yilmaz, who has 24.

He was also part of the Turkey side that finished third at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where he scored once.

The striker spent the bulk of his career with Galatasaray, scoring 284 goals in 518 appearances, according to Transfermarkt. His efforts helped the club win eight Super Lig titles, five Turkish Cups and the UEFA Cup.

Sukur was banned from Galatasaray in 2017, a decision he says came from Erdogan rather than the club.

In his native Turkey, he also played for Bursaspor and Sakaryaspor, with whom he won another Turkish Cup.

Abroad, he had spells with Torino, Inter Milan, Parma—with whom he won the Coppa Italia—and Blackburn Rovers.

Mehmet Topal can often be found signing autographs and talking with fans after games. The Spider is one of the most widely respected players in Turkey.

He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd be shot at, but he has been. Twice. And, obviously, he's lived to tell the tale.

Topal grew up in Battalgazi, a provincial backwater of Malatya in eastern Turkey—a region that lacks the kind of footballing infrastructure found in the big cities. He did, however, get used to being in a group of 11 from early childhood. Topal grew up in a family of nine siblings, and when he was not helping out with his chores at the family shop, he could be found kicking a ball around.

It was not long after breaking into his local side, Malatya Belediyespor, that he got his first transfer. Dardanelspor snapped Topal up and brought him over to the Aegean shores of Canakkale when he was just 13. The dual-footed midfielder’s ability to use his long legs to win the ball earned him the nickname "Orumcek," or Spider.

In 2006 at age 20, after rising through the ranks of lower-tier football, Topal earned a €1 million transfer to Galatasaray, a top club on Istanbul's European side.

Many players have ended up falling victim to the glitz and glamour of life at the "Big Three" Istanbul clubs, but the bright lights did not distract Topal. He managed to avoid the lure of the gossip columns—and still does.

On the pitch, the Spider played a key role in Turkey reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2008. Under the stewardship of the "Emperor," Fatih Terim, Turkey were heralded as the comeback kings in the European championships.

The Crescent-Stars never knew when they were beaten, coming from behind against Switzerland, Czech Republic and Croatia to record memorable victories. The Red and Whites were knocked out in the semi-finals in equally dramatic fashion, with Germany winning on a last-minute goal.

After the Euros, Topal had a long list of suitors from across Europe, including Everton, where manager David Moyes had expressed interest in him. Turkish media reported that the Toffees made an €8 million offer, according to Transfer Market Web, but Galatasaray rejected the bid after Topal said he was happy there. Two years later, with Topal saying he wanted to play in La Liga, Valencia managed to snap him up for a €5.5 million fee.

Topal made 43 league appearances for Los Che and starred in the Champions League as well as the Europa League. Though he was settling into life in Spain, he missed Istanbul, so he returned to Turkey after two seasons on a €4.5 million transfer to Fenerbahce—Galatasaray's archrival on the Asian side of Istanbul.

Making the switch from Europe to Asia is never easy in Istanbul. An ex-Galatasaray player joining Fenerbahce is akin to a man leaving Arsenal to join Tottenham Hotspur or bolting Barcelona for Real Madrid, as Luis Figo did in 2000—a move that resulted in a Barca fan throwing a pig's head at Figo. 

Lions fans still have not forgiven Emre Belozoglu, a Galatasaray veteran who signed with Fenerbahce in 2008.

But no animal heads were thrown at Topal, who is one of the few high-profile Turkish players generally liked regardless of fan loyalty.

Turkish players and managers, not to mention club presidents and board members, can be a tad antagonistic at times toward rival sides. It's engrained in the footballing culture. But Topal has never taken part. As a result, he's heralded as a role model. Considering derby games often descend into violence, the bar for being a role-model player is not particularly high, but Topal deserves credit for dodging the chaos.

It also helps that he and his down-to-earth wife, Selda, are a well-liked football celebrity couple. They actively support the Turkish Kidney Foundation and, unlike the prototypical WAG swanning around the swanky parts of Istanbul in a Ferrari or Lamborghini, Selda can be spotted driving her practical little Mini Cooper.

Still: There were those two attacks. Both are unsolved.

In April 2015, Topal and most of his teammates were traveling in the Fenerbahce team bus when it was attacked on its way to Trabzon Airport following their 5-1 win at Caykur Rizespor. Someone shot the bus with a rifle along the Surmene-Arakli Highway.

Only the driver of the coach, Ufuk Kiran, was injured, and had it not been for his quick reactions in hitting the brakes, according to the Turkish daily Milliyet (h/t AS.com), the vehicle could have careened off a cliff into the sea, possibly resulting in many deaths.

The incident sparked national outrage and shock. The Turkish football federation reacted to the incident by suspending Super Lig and Turkish Cup matches for a week.

Fenerbahce general secretary Mahmut Uslu and others initially thought the attack was tied to an ongoing feud between Fenerbahce and Trabzonspor, a Black Sea-coast club whose supporters believe were the rightful champions in 2011 due to Fenerbahce’s alleged involvement in a match-fixing scandal that year.

Matches between the two Super Lig giants have been raucous affairs ever since, but with the assailants still unknown, the motive for the shooting remains a mystery.

Surviving one shooting attack is bad enough, but to relive the whole incident a few months later just added to the trauma. In August, an unknown gunman fired on Topal while he was in his car after training. He was traveling with youth player Uygar Mert Zeybek when the attack took place. Fortunately, his Mercedes G63 had bulletproof windows.

A source says Topal told his friends: “Uygar and I escaped death.”

Fenerbahce denounced the attack in a statement, saying: “This was a terrorist attack. We condemn these armed attacks on our players and hope justice will prevail.” The perpetrator has not been found.

“I have been trying to forget about what happened," Topal said, according to a source close to him, "but it is difficult when nobody has been caught yet.”

There has always been a small hooligan element in Turkish footballing culture, but these shootings were unprecedented. The bus incident was not a skirmish among fans or a random act of idiocy. It was a potentially deadly attack.

“Of course the incidents took their toll and it took a while to get over," Topal said. "All I can do is be happy to be alive.”

Topal had a scary moment even before anybody shot at him. When he took a nasty fall in a 2014 match against Bursaspor and landed on his head, his team-mates reported hearing something snap. Topal was rushed off the field but somehow managed to emerge unscathed. He even played the rest of the game.

The long-legged midfielder has not let these incidents affect his performance. He was one of the most important members of the Fenerbahce side this season as well as the Turkish national team’s unbelievable road to Euro 2016 qualification.

Again coached by Fatih Terim, the Crescent-Stars regained their title as the comeback kings by qualifying for the tournament against all odds following a disastrous start to the campaign.

Turkey had been expected to battle with the Netherlands for the top spot in Group A, but Iceland and Czech Republic pummeled the Crescent-Stars. After drawing with Latvia, they were joint last with two games against the Dutch, ranked fifth in the world, still on their schedule.

Then the unthinkable happened. A draw and a 3-0 win over the Netherlands, combined with another draw against Latvia and wins over Kazakhstan and the Czech Republic, put Turkey in position to finish third in the group with a win over Iceland, which would at least qualify them for a playoff to get into Euro 2016.

In typical Turkish style, it all had to end in melodrama. The Crescent-Stars got their win when captain Selcuk Inan scored the only goal on a free-kick in the 89th minute. That and two upsets—Kazakhstan over Latvia at the same time and winless Greece over Hungary in a Group F stunner two days earlier—gave Turkey a guaranteed ticket to France and the tournament.

The Turkish national team boasts a technically gifted midfield with the likes of Barcelona's Arda Turan and Bayer Leverkusen's Hakan Calhanoglu. The player who holds it all together, though, is Topal.

There is an abundance of attack-minded midfielders but few on the defensive end. The Spider weaves his web, trapping opposition players with his long legs, and manages to not only break up play, but launch counter-attacks.

Turkey have won eight of their last nine games with the cerebral midfielder in the side. Topal also provides Terim with an additional option in defence and has featured as a centre-back when required.

The most pressing concern in the Turkish side is the back four. To put it nicely, the state of the defence at times has resembled a leaking ship, but to be fair, things have started to improve recently. The last time Turkey conceded more than a single goal in a game was 16 games ago. The team has risen from 49th to 18th in the FIFA World Rankings since the end of 2014.

Terim is facing a centre-back crisis. Bayer Leverkusen centre-back Omer Toprak has not played for Turkey since the now famous "hotel incident" in 2014, when winger Gokhan Tore and an armed accomplice invaded Toprak's hotel room to threaten his friend—also in the room—at gunpoint in a feud over a woman.

Squad selections for major tournaments rarely please everyone, but Terim decided to include Tore in the preliminary 31-man squad, which means Toprak would be excluded, as he's said he won't return to the national team as long as Tore is there.

You don’t have to be a detective to decipher why Toprak may be reluctant to join a squad that includes Tore. What got heads scratching was when Terim left Tore off of the final 23-man squad. That left Turkey without both the explosive Besiktas winger and one of their most experienced defenders.

We may never know if Toprak would have joined the squad had Terim not initially given Tore a call-up, but what's clear is that there's a problem in defence, one that's been exacerbated by a groin injury that's forced Serdar Aziz out.

The Emperor does, however, have a possible solution up his sleeve. Topal seems likely to feature as a centre-back this summer, based on his appearances in the back four in March warm-up friendlies against Sweden and England. The 23-man squad lacks defenders that can pass the ball out of defence with the composure and efficiency of Topal, and he is no stranger to the position—especially for the national team.

The Spider was first called up during Terim’s last stint in charge back in 2008. Despite playing predominantly as a defensive midfielder, Topal did star as a center-back in the semi-final against Germany, putting on a valiant display as Turkey bowed out in a 3-2 thriller.

"I'm lucky to have a player like Mehmet Topal," Terim told the Istanbul magazine Fanatik after Turkey's 2-1 win over Sweden this spring. "He is a rare breed. He tries his hardest wherever I play him and never complains. I have full trust in him."

The current national team side has a youthful core lacking in experience. Topal, Turan and Hakan Balta are the three survivors of the class of 2008.

Few are the players who can say they have won the league with Galatasaray as well as Fenerbahce. Fewer still among that group have had two attempts at their life and lived to tell the tale.

The pressure of a big game pales in comparison to having bullets fly at your car and team bus. Considering what he's been through and escaped unscathed, you have to wonder if the Spider should be called Spider-Man. Like the superhero—and also like his national team—he can always be counted on when the situation looks dire.  

Fatih Terim's attention to detail is legendary. So the most striking thing when sitting down in his office at the Turkiye Futbol Federasyonu's elegant but understated headquarters—set in a quiet corner of Istanbul's Besiktas district—is how few clues exist to a career stuffed full of drama and accomplishment.

It's minimalist, with three sofas in a half-circle in front of his desk, which faces a huge plasma TV that's replaying Barcelona's demolition of Celta Vigo.

This is where Turkey's plans for Euro 2016—their first major tournament in eight years—will be hatched. Few surprises will be involved. Terim's approach will be typically attacking. "Aiming to do as well as we can, and even to try to win it," he says.

After a late surge to qualify, with Selcuk Inan's dramatic free-kick goal to beat Iceland sealing passage as the third-placed side with the best record, there's an extra feeling of freshness and possibility about Terim's Turkey. The decision to play the final home qualifiers in Konya, rather than Istanbul, was "a very important" one that had explicit effect, he argues.

"The crowd in Istanbul are very important to us and always will be," Terim says. "However, there's the reality of living in a big city and the challenges it brings. And we thought playing in Istanbul all the time created a sense of satisfaction. You have to remember that we're talking about the 12th man, an extra player that can make the difference to win the game.

"There were people from all over Turkey there in Konya."

That sense of national unity, always a central tenet of Terim's philosophy, was evident as the team overcame the Netherlands and then Iceland.

On the pitch, his principle that fortune favours the brave endures, as it has for more than two decades of coaching. Later, as we talk mostly with the help of a translator, there's a rare nod to his myriad achievements when he clocks me looking at his hands as he toys with a small purple paperweight on his desk flocked with the red coat of arms of Florence, Italy.

"You recognise this?" he asks in English (Terim is not quite fluent but breaks into it when he wants to emphasise a point).

He may be inextricably linked with the development of modern Turkish football, but Terim's methods have translated overseas, too.

He made a formidable impression on and off the pitch in less than a season at Fiorentina, building an irresistible team around Rui Costa in 2000-01 before a fallout with owner Vittorio Cecchi Gori. He was subsequently awarded the title of Commendatore OSSI, a form of knighthood given to foreign nationals who make exceptional contributions to Italy.

Terim took plenty from that and his subsequent truncated spell in charge of AC Milan, but he always had broad horizons. He credits much of this to the late Jupp Derwall, the Euro 1980-winning manager with West Germany who later coached Terim at Galatasaray in the twilight of his playing career.

"We were very close," says Terim, turning his gaze briefly skyward and mouthing "rest in peace" to his mentor, who died in 2007.

"When he was the coach of the German national team and I was the captain of Turkey, we played one another and got to know each other," Terim says. "When we worked together for a year at Galatasaray, we were like father and son. He always made good choices, and, of course, he really affected Turkish football."

Before it even got to tactics, Derwall got busy, Terim says: "He started by changing the club's structure and the pitches [to grass]. Then, after, he brought in training camps, nutrition, more thorough training."

Yet the aspect of Derwall's character that appears to have most affected Terim was his humanity, which is evident in his own work.

"He understood that it wasn't the end of the world to lose a game," Terim says. "He prioritised the happiness of his players because he understood that a happy player can achieve more. He changed the way football was seen in Turkey and the way Turkish football was seen by those outside."

Derwall gave Terim a coaching job at Galatasaray after his retirement (Terim had vowed to quit football altogether and spend his time with family). Another German coach, Sepp Piontek, invited Terim to join the Turkey national team. After Piontek left in 1993, Terim took over. Two years into his first spell, he guided Turkey to Euro 96: the team's first major championship finals since the 1954 World Cup.

"It was a very special tournament for us," Terim says, "because it was the first time for me and for our country. We needed to get there. I knew it would be very hard [to qualify], but I was thinking about it and dreaming about it. I was thinking about all the times that we failed.

"As a Turkish coach, I knew what was resting on my shoulders and that if we accomplished this, it would open other doors. Before, they [the players] were watching in it on TV, and now they were in it. When you look at the 16 flags, and one of them is yours, it's a proud moment."

Despite not winning a point or scoring, Turkey didn't disgrace themselves, giving close games to Croatia (more on them later) and Portugal.

"We created an environment of trust in the nation," Terim says. "The people started to believe in us, that we could get to these tournaments, so it has a social and historical importance to our country."

Twelve years on, when Terim was back in charge following an all-conquering spell at Galatasaray and his Italian adventure, Turkey prepared for Euro 2008 with "increased expectation among the people" back home, as Terim puts it—with some degree of understatement.

The status of both club and national teams had skyrocketed. His Galatasaray side had beaten Arsenal in the 2000 UEFA Cup final before current Besiktas boss Senol Gunes' national team came back from South Korea and Japan with an extraordinary third-placed finish in the 2002 World Cup.

Yet Terim had the same desire to right wrongs as before. Euro 2008 co-hosts Switzerland had edged Turkey on away goals in the play-offs for the 2006 World Cup in Germany in a bad-tempered encounter. After a defeat in their tournament opener to Portugal in Geneva, Terim's squad arrived at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, to face the Swiss in a game neither side could afford to lose.

"We should have been there in 2006," Terim says. "We deserved it, and we were really motivated by that [in 2008]."

A dramatic last-gasp win in Basel, sealed by an Arda Turan goal, was the first of a series of late shows that made Turkey arguably the must-watch team of the tournament—they went on to pull rabbits out of their hat against the Czech Republic and Croatia.

It all came together in the midst of a storm.

"The weather was terrible. It was raining very heavily, and we were 1-0 down [to Switzerland]," Terim says. "We missed a lot of chances, and it looked like we were never going to be able to score, but the team kept on playing hard. In those circumstances, it was enormous for us. It was very important for us to go into the last group game with a chance."

There followed a return to Geneva and a dizzying comeback from 2-0 down to beat the Czechs and reach the last eight, where Turkey faced Croatia in Vienna. It was an epic, and it's been on the tip of thousands of tongues around the country since the draw for the Euro 2016 finals in mid-December, as a rematch at Parc des Princes opens the campaign for Terim and Co. on June 12.

When Ivan Klasnic scored in the 119th minute in Vienna, Croatia looked like they had it won—and celebrated like they had. An even later equaliser by Semih Senturk paved the way for an improbable Turkey victory on penalties. Despite comfortably besting Guus Hiddink's Turkey in the play-offs for Euro 2012, Croatia will surely feel they want to set the record straight (or straighter) in a finals context this summer. So how does Terim see Vienna now?

"We refused to give up," he says. "Of course, we conceded a goal in the 119th minute but scored ours even later."

He briefly switches to English again: "It's better than the other way around, right?"

He smiles. "It was harsh conceding a goal like that. Everyone was exhausted. The players were virtually falling down, and we just had to try to get them back up. You'd think there was no coming back from that."

Turkey returned to Basel for the semi-final, and it was back to Terim's career touchstone of Germany. In another thrilling game, Semih again came up trumps with an equaliser before an even later winner from Philipp Lahm.

As you'd expect, Terim has no regrets after continuing to go for the throat following Semih's goal.

"If we were winning 2-0, 1-0, it doesn't matter," he says in English, throwing his hands apart for emphasis. "We're always looking for the next goal—not only when we're behind."

Two German-born players, Hakan Balta and Hamit Altintop, made up part of that squad, which also contained the London-born Colin Kazim-Richards, the France-born Mevlut Erdinc and the naturalised Brazilian Mehmet Aurelio.

Mining the Turkish diaspora is a continuing policy rather than mere opportunism. There is, of course, one particularly fallow hunting ground.

"We have very good relations with Germany," Terim says, "and I have a good relationship with Jogi Low, too."

A couple have slipped through the net, including Ilkay Gundogan and Mesut Ozil.

"One of our youth coaches actually found Ozil at 15," Terim says, "and until he was 21, they tried, and I tried, to persuade him to come play for our country. But he made his choice, and we respected that."

Terim talks passionately about the backroom efforts to help foreign players adapt on a cultural level, which, he says, his players play their part in helping with. Nevertheless, there has been renewed focus on the issue after a furore involving three German-born players in November 2014.

Several different versions of the incident were floated in the Turkish and German press, but the crux was that in May 2013, after Turkey's World Cup qualifying hopes were ended, the Leverkusen pair of Omer Toprak and Hakan Calhanoglu had a gun pulled on them by a friend of winger Gokhan Tore, as per the Guardian. The coach continued to pick Tore and received some especially personal criticism from sections of the media for doing so.

Terim draws breath and briefly considers before responding.

"In that case, I don't think we should share every aspect of it with society at large," he says. "The public, of course, have the right to be informed on lots of things, but there are situations in which the reputation or the dignity of the people involved is more important than the right of the public."

His features tighten as he warms to his theme.

"As far as my own sense of justice goes," he says, "I should protect them in the same way that I would protect my own children. I heard about the situation a long time after it happened. At that time, I didn't think it was necessary to make a statement about it. I felt it was a situation that we could resolve ourselves. This is very important."

That said, Terim refutes the idea that he attempted to sweep the matter under the carpet.

"I'm not talking about covering up or pretending as if it never happened," he says. "The incident didn't happen during the national team camp, but because of the way that it played out in the media and the way it was manipulated, it greatly affected the balance of the team and the players afterwards.

"These players contribute to the national interest with their talent, and I'm not the sort of man who can easily rub people out without giving them a second chance. Everything I did was to hold on to them. If they [the media] want to criticise me for this, let them do it. It's not a problem to me."

Ahead of the summer, Terim and his team feel they have the right spirit, but he says it's a must to continue to work on mutual understanding to retain the necessary togetherness in the young core of his side.

"I don't think Toprak and Calhanoglu have any problems in terms of national values, though they have a few problems with the language sometimes. There are a few cultural issues," he says. "Nowadays, we have a more connected, closer relationship with these players. Toprak, Calhanoglu and Gokhan Tore fit in with us."

As someone who worked hard to adapt to different cultures, Terim is familiar with what's involved.

"I know that it's hard," he says. "They were born there and raised there. But our players are very helpful. Before, we were only using one-to-one communication techniques, but for the Euros, we're going to work with an expert team to try to change the model of Turkish football in terms of adapting players from other countries."

Tore is apparently very close to both Toprak and Calhanoglu now.

"So who's right?" Terim asks in English. "They're young players, and they are young people, and they can make mistakes."

A bit of the German magic of recent years wouldn't go amiss in France, of course, but Terim and Turkey will continue to do things their way.

"This [philosophy] is what's brought me to this point," he says. "The idea's not just attacking—playing as a team, defending as a team and never giving up. The tactics are important, but we want more than that."

As those who marvelled at Turkey's return from the brink in qualification know, "more" is exactly what we now expect when Terim and the national team come together.

Not even Jose Mourinho would try this stunt.

The president of Turkish club Trabzonspor was so annoyed that referee Cagatay Sahan failed to give his side a penalty during a 2-2 draw with Gaziantepspor, that he locked the official, and his three assistants, in the stadium until 4am. 

They might have been imprisoned even longer if it hadn't been for a phone call from the president of the entire country. 

The Guardian reported the amazing story. 

The boss of Turkish football club Trabzonspor locked four match officials in a stadium overnight for failing to award his team a penalty, only to release them under escort from special forces after a phone call from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The enraged club president, Ibrahim Hacıosmanoğlu, ordered Çağatay Şahan and his assistant referees to be detained after Trabzonspor were denied a penalty in the final minutes of the top-flight match against Gaziantepspor, which ended 2-2.

Haciosmanoglu tried to explain his actions: "I told stadium security not to let the referees leave until the morning, until I arrived, but a very important person called me and asked me not to cause embarrassment in Turkey and around the world. He promised the [penalty] incident would be investigated."

Haciosmanoglu might be hoping for the penalty incident to be investigated but, unsurprisingly, the Turkish FA are also looking into his actions. 

Update, November 4 

Haciosmanoglu was handed a hefty penalty for his audacious act: banning him for 280 days from doing any of his work-related duties and slapped with a fine of £34,250, according to The Mirror. 

Two other club directors were hit with bans of 410 days and six officials involved with the incident were suspended for a year. 

[Guardian]

Turkey took an early lead in their crucial European Championship qualifier with the Netherlands, courtesy of midfielder Oguzhan Ozyakup.

The former Arsenal schoolboy producing an exquisite dinked finish after a pinpoint through ball from Arda Turan.

The Barcelona midfielder then added a second himself, worming his way into the box before somehow beating Dutch keeper Jasper Cillessen at his near post.

Arda Turan'in golü... #turkey #Barcelona https://t.co/CBEy06UAMU

— Sukru Gursoy (@SukruGursoy) September 6, 2015

Burak Yilmaz then added a late third to secure the win for the hosts, turning and firing home from inside the box.

[#QualifEuro16] Yilmaz marque le troisième but pour la Turquie !! 3-0 TURQUIE 3-0 PAYS BAS http://t.co/lReFHGOdYZ

— PassionFootball Club (@PassionFootClub) September 6, 2015

The three points will take Turkey above the Netherlands into third place in Group A.

[Vine: Tribun Dergi, Twitter: @SukruGursoy, @PassionFootClub]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okwSwK2vQGI

Bursaspor goalkeeper Harun Tekin is clearly not a man to be trifled with, if this video clip is anything to judge by.

Tekin was keeping goal for his side in a 2-0 defeat to Kasimpasa and conceded the second goal deep into injury-time in the game.

One supporter became so excited by the result that he decided to encroach onto the pitch, much to the disgust of Tekin, who decided to take matters into his own hands.

Tekin, who was making only his fourth appearance for Bursaspor since joining in July 2010, took at least eight swings at the intruder before appearing to continue in his role concentrating on the match, as officials removed the supporter.

However, the Bursaspor goalkeeper was not satisfied with his original punishment of the encroacher and swiftly returned to mete out further punishment to the fan, who was being hauled away by security staff.

It may not rank alongside Eric Cantona's infamous kung fu kick aimed at a Crystal Palace supporter while he was playing for Manchester United in 1995, but it's still a painful lesson to be heeded for any would-be pitch invaders.

Tekin threw his shirt away in disgust as he left the field, but we can safely assume the supporter in question will not be entering the field of play again in a hurry.

Tekin's attack wasn't the only video to make us go "ouch!" today.

Austrian side SC Weiz had clearly been working on a new approach to free kicks and placed two of their men kneeling in front of the wall against FC Furstenfeldbruck. 

But Kevin Steiner's set piece was not exactly perfect in its delivery, as you will see in this YouTube clip.

A Turkish court in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir has banned Google’s popular blogging platform Blogger in response to a complaint by satellite television provider Digiturk, that Blogger users had illegally posted videos of Turkish Super League matches that are owned by Digiturk’s Lig TV.

The ban, widely viewed as disproportionate, has prompted outrage among Turkey’s 600,000 bloggers and 18 million Internet users and focused attention on Turkey’s restrictive Internet laws. Millions of Turkish bloggers and blog readers have been unable to access Blogger since the ban was imposed on March 1. Critics of the ban have created groups on Facebook and Twitter that are rapidly gaining popularity. They assert that the ban amounts to censorship.

“This is a disproportionate response by the court and undoubtedly has a huge impact on all law-abiding citizens,” cyber-rights activist and Bilgi University law professor Yaman Akdeniz told Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. Akdeniz acknowledged that Digiturk had a legitimate concern but argues that banning a website did not provide a solution.

Turkish Media Association Secretary General Deniz Ergürel compared the ban to shutting down telephone services because two people used a phone to discuss committing a crime. “Even cursing, threatening or cheating over the phone is considered a crime, but this does not imply access to phones all over the country would be banned if there is a case against them,” Ergürel said.

In defense of its complaint, Digiturk said that its repeated warnings to not use copyrighted material had been ignored. Digiturk said it had paid $321 million for the exclusive right to broadcast Super League  matches. “Thus, we applied to court to ban these websites, and the court decided to ban access to them, after it was proved that although all legal procedures were conducted, the violations were not stopped,” Digiturk said in a statement.

James M. Dorsey is a senior research associate at The National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

The Turkish national team caught the hearts and eyes of football fans around the world at EURO 2008 when they pulled off dramatic comebacks against the Czech Republic and Croatia before ultimately falling to powerhouse Germany. Two and a half years later, the Turks are in danger of not qualifying for a major tournament, something the country has become accustomed to. Despite earning World Cup bronze and a European Championships semi-final finish, the country have only ever participated in the respective competitions a total of five times combined. With the nation on the brink of it's biggest talent boon since the early 90's, the time is now for the “Cardiac Kids” to once again pull from behind.

Although new coach Guus Hiddink picked up where Fatih Terim had left off when it came to squad selection, winning resolved all problems; convincing wins over Romania and Kazakhstan were followed by a 3-2 jinx past Belgium. Everything seemed well until the matchup with the Germans. On paper, Germany was predestined to win, but not with such a large margin.

However, it wasn't until Azerbaijan's shocking upset that Hiddink finally saw the light.

Sitting on an incinerating hot seat, Hiddink decided to shake up the entire squad ahead of a friendly against the Netherlands, calling up a total of nine uncapped players. International icons Nihat Kahveci and Mehmet Aurelio were dropped, with Hiddink favoring emigrated Turks Mehmet Ekici (Germany) and Nadir Çiftçi (England) instead.

The results were not perfect, but there was certainly an improvement. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, players such as Serdar Kesimal and Yekta Kurtuluş proved themselves to be quality players with potential to become key cogs for the national team. 

Kurtuluş even earned himself a transfer to Istanbul giant Galatasaray.

Floundering in third place after four matches was not the plan. To make matters worse, Austria can pull four points ahead if they can beat Belgium on March 25th. Fortunately for Turkey, the Austrians still have to face Germany twice.

Whatever happens to Austria, Turkey must focus on themselves and treat every upcoming match as a knockout match; there are no easy games left. Even the upcoming friendly against South Korea is important. Whether or not Hiddink keeps the same squad, the new generation have to pick up where the old left off in 2008 and bring the football-rich country back to the forefront.

The team's next match is a friendly against South Korean on 8 February. Their next EURO 2012 qualifying match is against Austria on March 29th.