Turks triumphant no matter the result

Updated: Friday June 28, 2002 04:47 a.m. ET

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DAEGU, South Korea (AP) -- The Turks have already confronted and conquered one co-host of this World Cup and don't expect to be daunted by the passionate "Red Devils" fans cheering wildly for the other in Saturday's bronze medal match against South Korea at Daegu.

Senol Gunes said if his Turkish lineup ignored the language and focussed only upon the red in the stands, then it might as well be a home game. Both nations have red as the predominant national color.

Besides, win, lose or draw against the Koreans, the Turkish team will head home as heroes.

"We wanted to give hope and happiness to our people and we managed that," Gunes told reporters Friday. "We wanted to be the masters of the football field and we did that -- the players will understand when they get back to Turkey how big a job they've done in this World Cup."

Turkey lost two games, both to Brazil, in the first round in Group C and in the semifinal.

Turkish players were "very sad to lose against Brazil twice, but the sadness lasted for only one day -- we have new targets ahead of us," Gunes said.

The former Trabzonspor and international goalkeeper said his lineup had contributed to a genuine World Cup in its first finals appearance since 1954, facing no other European rivals in six games so far.

In the first round match at Ulsan, Brazil rallied to win on Rivaldo's contentious penalty kick in the 87th minute and two Turkish players were ejected late. The Turks recovered to draw with Costa Rica and blitz China 3-0 to reach the second round.

A 1-0 second round win over co-host Japan upset the local crowd at Miyagi and quarterfinal rival Senegal had the bulk of the support at Osaka -- although the Turks prevailed on Ilhan Mansiz' golden goal in the 4th minute of extra time to advance.

In Wednesday's semifinal, the Brazilians won on Ronaldo's strike in the 49th minute. That set up a Brazil vs. Germany championship match Sunday at Yokohama and sunk Turkey into a No. 3 vs. No. 4 match.

"In this World Cup, both (Turkey and South Korea) have made a big impact. My wish was that these two teams would play in the final," said Gunes. "We have brought color into world football.

"We saw no teams superior to us and we always saw the team ahead of us as an equal opponent -- we relished the challenge and played to win."

The South Koreans had a more spectacular run at the title, topping Group D with wins over world No. 5 Portugal and Poland and a draw against the United States before a second round upset of Italy and a quarterfinal shocker against Spain.

The Koreans went into the tournament they're co-hosting with Japan on a 0-4-10 record in five previous trips to the finals. A 1-0 semifinal loss to the Germans was the only blemish in the campaign and the Koreans go into the bronze match on 4-1-1 at home.

South Korea is the first non-European team in the third-place playoff since Brazil edged Italy for bronze in 1978 and is determined to finish with a bang for its millions of new-found supporters.

With local expectations high and Turkey giving its all for No. 3, a match that hasn't traditionally had much hype will be among the best of this tournament, Gunes said.

"Of course Turkey and South Korea could be sad they're not in the World Cup final," Gunes said. "But, before the tournament, if anyone had asked these nations if they wanted to play for their place they would have definitely accepted."

The Turkish players kept a low profile Friday and were to have a light training run on the eve of the match to get a feel for the stadium and run some fatigue out of their legs.

It was Korean referee Kim Young-joo who gave Hakan Unsal and Alpay Ozalan two cautions apiece in the opener against Brazil and left the Turks with nine men for the last 10 minutes.

But Gunes said he doesn't hold a grudge.

"We blamed one man, you can't make a whole country accountable for that," he said. "Besides, we forgot all about that when we made the second round."

Guus Hiddink's South Korean squad was practicing at Gyeongju and planned to travel west to Daegu on the morning of the match. It will likely be Hiddink's last match in charge.

The 55-year-old Dutchman led the Netherlands to the final four in France four years ago, where a narrow loss on penalties to Brazil in the semis was followed by a 2-1 loss to Croatia in the third-place match.