Emre Gungor and Hamit Altintop scored to give Turkey a 2-0 win over
Honduras in an international friendly match in Istanbul on
Wednesday.
Arda Turan headed a corner from the right down to the feet of
defender Emre, who made no mistake from close range to open the
scoring in the 41st minute.
Hamit then slammed the ball from the edge of the penalty area
into the top right-hand corner of the net in the 55th minute for
the second.
Turkey gained control of the game midway through the first
half and missed several chances before eventually going ahead.
Honduras goalkeeper Donis Escobar saved a rising shot by
striker Mevlut Erdinc in the 14th minute before keeping out a
close-range header by Mehmet Aurelio just after the half-hour mark.
Honduras will this summer be making its first World Cup
appearance since 1982. It is in Group H with European champion
Spain, Chile and Switzerland.
"I believe they will have a difficult time against Spain,
Chile and Switzerland," Hamit said of Honduras.
"It was a special game for us," he added. "A new team was
being tried out. We played well here. My teammates all had the
desire to win."
Turkey, which finished third in the 2002 World Cup, failed to
qualify for the tournament in South Africa.
The friendly match allowed Turkey assistant coach Oguz Cetin
to try out some new young players, like Bursaspor's Volkan Sen.
Cetin is in charge of the team until Dutchman Guus Hiddink takes
over as coach in August.
Lineups:
Turkey: Volkan Demirel, Sabri Sarioglu (Kazim Kazim, 84),
Emre Gungor, Servet Cetin, Caner Erkin, Hamit Altintop, Volkan Sen
(Halil Altintop, 46), Mehmet Aurelio (Necip Unsal, 80), Emre
Belozoglu (Nuri Sahin, 76), Arda Turan (Ozan Ipek, 62), Mevlut
Erdinc (Tuncay Sanli, 46).
Honduras: Donis Escober, Edgar Alvarez (Amado Guevara, 46),
Victor Bernardez, Maynor Figueroa, Emilio Izaguirre, Mauricio
Sabillon, Julio Cesar de Leon (Walter Martinez, 46), Wilson
Palacios (Hendry Thomas, 70), Danilo Turcios (Erick Norales, 84),
Carlo Costly (Georgie Welcome, 69), David Suazo (Carlos Pavon, 46).
