Turkey name Yalcin to face England
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Turkey coach Senol Gunes has added Besiktas' Sergen Yalcin, Ilhan Mansiz and Emre Asik to the squad for next month's European championship qualifier against England.
Yalcin, who scored twice in five minutes as Besiktas beat Chelsea 2-0 in the Champions League this week, has been harshly criticized by the Turkish press in the past for lack of discipline and poor form.
But since Wednesday he has been a national hero, with the sports daily Fotomac on Wednesday calling him a magician.
"Like Harry Potter," the newspaper said. "The magician of football creates positions from nothing, he scores and assists."
Mansiz, one of the stars of Turkey's run to the semifinals of last summer's World Cup, could start the match after coming back from the injury problems which ruled him out of the squad for last month's qualifier against Liechtenstein.
The German-born striker scored the golden goal which put Turkey into the World Cup semi-finals at the expense of Senegal.
Gunes has also recalled Bayern Leverkusen's Yildiray Basturk, who has recovered from hepatitis.
The sellout match at Istanbul's Sukru Saracoglu Stadium on October 11 will determine which Group Seven team advances directly to the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal. England lead the group with 19 points from seven games, followed by Turkey with 18.
England, who are due to announce their squad on Sunday, have turned down their ticket allocation for the game and warned fans not to travel to Istanbul because of a history of crowd trouble between fans from the two countries.
Turkish officials have pledged tight security and have banned English fans from the stadium.
Turkish squad: Rustu Recber, Omer Catkic, Bulent Korkmaz, Alpay Ozalan, Fatih Akyel, Tayfur Havutcu, Emre Belezoglu, Okan Buruk, Tugay Kerimoglu, Ibrahim Uzulmez, Umit Davala, Ergun Penbe, Sergen Yalcin, Hakan Sukur, Nihat Kahveci, Hasan Sas, Tuncay Sanli, Ilhan Mansiz, Emre Asik, Gokdeniz Karadeniz, Zafer Ozgultekin, Deniz Baris, Tayfun Korkut, Yildiray Basturk.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
