ISTANBUL - Veteran captain Burak Yılmaz netted a hat-trick as Turkey saw off a late rally from the Netherlands to secure a 4-2 home victory on Wednesday at the start of their World Cup qualifying campaign.
Yılmaz opened the scoring in the 14th minute of the Group G match with a deflected shot followed by a penalty 20 minutes later at Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium to put the Turks 2-0 up at halftime.
The dispute over dual nationality players escalated to a new magnitude before the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship as five players chose the USMNT over Mexico, although the Mexican federation was able to get Efraín Álvarez to play with Tata Martino's senior side.
United States women's head coach Vlatko Andonovski said on Tuesday he plans to name his squad for the Tokyo Olympics in mid-June as he waits to see how several players recover from injuries.
"We have roughly set the middle of June when we're going to know the (Olympic) roster," Andonovski told reporters after announcing a 23-player, veteran-heavy squad for April when the four-times World Cup winners have friendlies against Sweden and France.
23 strong to take on and !
AMSTERDAM - The Netherlands team hope that this week’s start of the World Cup qualifiers in Europe will highlight the plight of migrant workers in Qatar and help to improve their working conditions.
"A lot of attention is now focused on whether we should go there if we qualify," coach Frank de Boer told a news conference on the eve of his team’s opening Group G match against Turkey in Istanbul, amid growing controversy at home over Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 finals.
Belize's football federation (FFB) expressed "disappointment and disgust" on Monday after the bus ferrying the squad to their hotel in Haiti was stopped by an armed gang on motorcycles.
The incident occurred shortly after the squad had arrived in the Caribbean nation to play a World Cup qualifier.
STOCKHOLM - AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimović shed a few tears of pride as he returned to Sweden's national team after a four-year absence for their World Cup qualifiers and recounted how his son did not want him to leave home to join up with Janne Andersson's squad.
The 39-year-old, who quit international football after Euro 2016, choked up when he was asked what his boys, Maximilian, 14, and 12-year-old Vincent, thought of his decision to answer his country's call again and return to the world stage.
México avanzó sin despeinarse a las semifinales del Preolímpico de la Concacaf. El Tri venció 3-0 a Costa Rica, en una actuación sólida y coronada por un fantástico gol de Sebastián Córdova. De jogo bonito, de tiki-taka.
En la previa, el duelo ante los ticos aparecía más complejo que el debut ante República Dominicana. Sin embargo, más allá de los ásperos roces que se produjeron entre varios jugadores ante la permisiva actuación del árbitro salvadoreño Iván Barton, México sacó la tarea con una facilidad pasmante.
When listening to people discuss the merits of the U.S. U-23 side on a player-by-player basis, it’s interesting to take note of this particular ilk of big-brained soccer ‘splainer as nothing more than a snake oil salesman well-versed in misleading radar plots.
What I can tell you for sure is that they don’t know the strengths and weaknesses of 19-year-old João "Johnny" Lucas de Souza Cardoso, they don’t spend much time watching Internacional in the Brasileiro and their sage words of advice for Jason Kreis are worth even less than their 8K Twitter followers.
After grinding out a win against Costa Rica last Thursday, the United States U-23s took care of business on Sunday night by beating the Dominican Republic 4-0 in Olympic qualifying at Estadio Akron. If Mexico beats or ties Costa Rica in Sunday’s later game, the U.S. is through to the semifinals. If Costa Rica wins, Wednesday’s group finale against Mexico takes on meaning again.
Es sabido que la Copa América es el torneo de selecciones más antiguo del mundo. Año 1916, Argentina decidió conmemorar el primer centenario de su independencia, y para celebrarlo, optó por organizar una competición de fútbol. Uruguay, Brasil y Chile se unieron al ágape albiceleste.
Dicho evento sirvió como antecedente para la fundación de la Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL), ente rector de todos los torneos de fútbol a nivel de clubes y selecciones de Sudamérica.