Turkey 1994-96 Home, matchworn Uğur Dağdelen v U21s
Turkey 1996-97 Home
Turkey 2016-17 Home, match prepared Oğuzhan Özyakup?
One of Adidas’ stranger 90’s templates, if only Turkey started with a V… The fabric of the shirt is printed with the classic 3-stripes all over, and they return on both shirts of the logo in a claw—like (or just a V) pattern. They frame the logos well, particularly the Turkey one, but the pattern has always looked a little strange to me. The front is dramatic, if nothing else, and the printed material make it nice enough, but it isn’t spectacular.
Needing only top 2 for Euro 1996 qualifying (assuming one of the best 2nd places), Turkey traded 2-1 away wins with Switzerland while also beating Sweden, Hungary and Iceland in Turkey. 3 away draws were not particularly helpful, 2-2 in both Sweden and Hungary, but results elsewhere were good enough and the format discounted the draw against Iceland for 2nd place qualifiers, leaving them in a good enough place to qualify directly!
One of the classic Adidas templates here. Very striking with the black emphasis on the white “teeth” contrasting sharply with the red of the shirt. The material is patterned, both with the obvious stripes and many, more subtle, moon and stars as per the flag. Very much all at once, you can’t help but take the entire shirt in. The little detail like the collar not being totally plain and the pattern extending to the back of the sleeves does add even more to it though. Might be hard to praise a template, but Adidas were once really solid with them.
These shirts were used in their Euros debut in 1996 where they’d qualified as one of the best runners-up. Drawn in a tricky group with Portugal, Croatia and Denmark, Turkey were not expected to escape the group. 1-0 losses to Portugal and Croatia were followed up with a 3-0 loss to Denmark, sending them out without even a goal scored. A sad end to their debut, but they were not embarrassed.
Is there anything more to this next shirt than the pattern? No, not really, but it is a nice pattern. A wide black grid pattern starts from the top of the shirt and gets denser and denser as you go down the shirt. Definitely a nice way of adding something interesting to the shirt. Black stripes down the sides are about the only other talking point and how long can you talk about them? They’re stripes!
Drawn in one of those tricky groups for 2018 World Cup qualification, Turkey used this shirt to try and reach their first World Cup since 2002. With the teams all taking points off each other, Turkey ended up falling short of Iceland, Croatia and Ukraine, only beating out Finland and Kosovo. Good home form, dropping points in a 2-2 draw with Ukraine and a 3-0 loss to Iceland, was followed up by poor away form. They only beat Kosovo away, drawing with Finland and Croatia and therefore fell 5 points short of the play-offs.
Competitive and on the fringes of tournaments tends to be Turkey’s lot in life. Since the mid 90’s they’ve won around half of their qualifiers, varying a little each time out. 5 Euros qualifications, first in 1996, have brought knockout football in 2000 and 2008. 2020 could bring more success! They first qualified for a World Cup in 1950, but withdrew like several other teams. 1954 brought a brutal group against Hungary, West Germany (the two finalists) and an outmatched South Korea that scarred them so much they didn’t return until 2002, where, despite an uninspiring group stage, they edged their way to the semi-finals and ended up finishing 3rd! A variety of minor tournaments in earlier years brought a moderate amount of success in the Balkans and Mediterranean. In the Nations League they’ve been League B both of the first seasons and finished bottom in both, failing to convert narrow results into wins. However immediate promotion from league c is a hopeful sign.
Still, could be worse, the women’s side has had some serious struggles. Regularly found at or near the bottom of qualifying groups they’ve even slipped into preliminary qualifiers. They’ve only twice failed to pick up at least 1 win though, regularly fighting hard to avoid being last in their groups, and can’t be considered amongst the bottom of Europe. For men’s youth football, Turkey have a mixture of success. The U21s have been to a solitary U21 Championship, exiting in the group stage, while the U19s and U17s have a much better record. 3 titles, 1 lost final and an additional 9 lost semi-finals show they have the skills to compete at that level, and fairly regularly. This has led to 3 World Cup appearances in each age band, even finishing 4th in the 2005 U17 World Cup! Women’s youth football sees them typically ranked around the middle of UEFA’s active associations and they’ve reached the elite round a few times, though typically struggle there. Some very reasonable performances have come through though and they hosted the 2012 U19 Championships, respectably taking 2 draws and a 1-0 loss to bow out with only 2 goals conceded. No other championship appearances have come through and possibly are a little way away, but their future looks bright enough.
Late to the party for futsal, Turkey first started trying to qualify for 2010. They made it for 2012, though then lost their games and generally have struggled in the main qualifying round but have come fairly close to repeating their qualification again. They’ve proved their credentials, but nothing more to date, not quite making the inaugural U19 Futsal Championship. Beach soccer has also been a nice distraction, with Turkey being successful in Division B of the Euro Beach Soccer League, though struggling more in division A. Since proper qualification structures have been put in place, they not been to the World Cup, generally being more of a middling side, but they were at the 2001 cup, losing both group stage games to get sent home.
Expected to challenge for the play-offs, Turkey’s Nations League form was concerning, as were strong performances from the Netherlands and Norway. They opened with a home win over the Netherlands and an away win in Norway, which set them on the road to the play-offs. Home draws to Norway, Latvia and Montenegro were far from encouraging but results elsewhere (and some stat padding against Gibraltar) took them to the play-offs where they were drawn, to their misfortune, against Portugal and lost 3-1.
Adam's National Shirt Collection 