Since the 2002 World Cup, all national soccer teams have lost their contracts in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022. Turkey made it to the qualifying rounds of five consecutive World Cups with the national soccer team. I think Turkey's participation in the 2002 World Cup was for 3:0.
78.97% of the area of 360,000 square kilometers is located in the Asia Minor Peninsula, which is geographically part of Asia. West of the Black Sea Straits (Bosphorus), about 23,000 square kilometers also belong to Turkey. However, Turkey considers itself a standard European country. And that is easy to understand. In the past, Europe was powerful. Even the United States in North America was the world's only superpower, which many consider to be a continuation of European civilization. Turkey not only joined the main European NATO battleground, but also worked to join the European Union. Unfortunately, it shaved its head and picked a hot head. The EU does not want to accept Turkey.
In soccer, Europe is the most powerful continent in the world. Turkey's near level is the first month. Of course, they do not want to go to Asia, where the level of soccer is lower. Many Asian countries geographically close to Europe, such as Israel, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Kazakhstan Menia and Kazakhstan. Back in 1954, Turkey appeared as a European team in the World Cup in Switzerland, which was the first time Turkey participated in the World Cup. Incredibly, Turkey has only participated in the World Cup twice in its history, with the exception of 2002, which was in 1954. This number is not even as good as third-rate European00 teams such as Scotland and Austria. Scotland has participated in eight World Cups, one of which it has reached five times in a row. Austria has four more, in 1954, 1982, 1990 and 1998.
In 1958, Turkey was dunked 4-1 by West Germany in the first game and beat Korea 7-0 in the second game. Because they got 2 points with West Germany, they had to play another play-off. That play-off lost Turkey's face, 2-7, and watched West Germany advance and eventually win the title. Of course, the worst thing that happened in the World Cup was South Korea, which went home with 16 duck eggs. After years of refinement, South Korea eventually became the top team in Asia and hasn't dropped since the 1986 World Cup.
What Turkey didn't realize was that it would be 48 years before the next World Cup. The worst was the 1982 World Cup qualifiers, where Turkey was placed in a group with the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Wales and Iceland and lost all eight matches, scoring zero points.
The 2002 World Cup was a proud one for Turkey. Turkey beat the national soccer team 3:0, drew Costa Rica 2:2, lost to Brazil, advanced to Japan, and Senegal reached the quarterfinals, losing to Brazil.
Once again, Turkey didn't expect to be out of the tournament so far after this brilliance.
Turkey performed miserably in the World Cup and relatively well in the Euros. Turkey participated in 1996, 2000 (top eight), 2008 (top four), 2016 (expanded to 24 teams) and Euro 2020. Overall, Turkey is in the middle of the European table, can play a game with mid-table teams like Sweden and Denmark, and is not that good to live after the breakaway into Europe.
If Turkey is stronger in Asia than Japan, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Australia, it has a near firm lock on a World Cup quota, so maybe Turkey would rather be the tail of the phoenix than the head of the chicken. Sources say that if Japan wants to go from Asia to Europe, a strong Asian team would certainly be welcome, so Japan could end up like Turkey and have a hard time getting into the World Cup.
