The 2026 World Cup gets underway on Thursday. The first game will be in Mexico City, as one of the co-hosts, Mexico, takes on South Africa. Team USA has its first game on Friday against Paraguay.
On Monday night, the Turkish national team held an open practice in Mesa, where it’s been training in advance of the tournament. Türkiye is in group D, with the United States, Paraguay and Australia.
The Show went to check out the festivities.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Good morning, Nick.
NICK SANCHEZ: Good morning.
BRODIE: So, what did it look like, and maybe more interestingly, what did it sound like last night?
SANCHEZ: Well, I saw a lot of fans. I believe the official ticketed number was about 3,000, and you could feel that presence. There were easily 3,000 — maybe a little bit more that managed to get in — people there.
So many fans wearing Turkish national team jerseys, wrapped in the Turkish flag, wearing jerseys of club teams in Türkiye, of the Turkish league. I heard a DJ there playing Turkish music, there was a vendor doing like on-site screen printing of Türkiye national team T-shirts. Yeah, the vibes were very high.
BRODIE: And as I would imagine the case if you go to a soccer match, like the fans weren’t just sitting there talking amongst themselves, right?
SANCHEZ: No, this isn’t this isn’t equivalent to, I would say, American baseball culture. It’s quite the opposite. So, when we got into the actual practice, by the time the actual practice started, that’s where you could really hear the presence of the Turkish national team fans. And actually, what we’re going to hear right now is a few of the chants that were happening during the practice.
[CHEERING AND CHANTING]
SANCHEZ: And what you hear there is the chanting obviously, but also like banging on and jumping on the metal bleachers that the fans were sitting in. It was pretty raucous. And there was another chant actually for one player in particular, Arda Güler. He is a young, attacking midfielder for the Turkish national team. He also plays for Real Madrid in Spain.
Very exciting young player, who I think a lot of fans are excited to see at this tournament. They were chanting his name, shouting his name, and at one point during the practice, he actually acknowledged the crowd, and they erupted.
BRODIE: Oh, wow.
SANCHEZ: Just like with a little wave. That’s kind of the power of this tournament.
BRODIE: That’s so cool. OK, so you said 3,000 — maybe a few more than that — fans who are there. Who’d you talk to? Who are these folks?
SANCHEZ: Yeah, I talked to a lot of Türkiye fans, Turkish-American fans in particular, a lot of them from here. And one fan told me that the feeling of having, in all the towns in all the world, your favorite team, your Turkish national team is training in your backyard. She described to me the feelings that brings her.
OZLEM (TÜRKIYE FAN): It’s a feeling you can’t explain unless you feel it. The simple fact that they’re going to be playing against the USA, the country where I was born against my dad’s country, six hours away, it’s amazing.
SANCHEZ: And another fan from San Tan Valley told me that he’s feeling a little more conflicted about the U.S. and Türkiye playing against each other in the group stage, but overall, he’s very optimistic.
MERT (TÜRKIYE FAN): I’m a Turkish-American, so I’m kind of sad because USA and Türkiye are going to play. And I’m hoping they will both qualify for the next level. At least they will get out of the group stages. I think they will go all the way up to last 16. Maybe quarterfinals, but at least they will come up to last 16, and then we will see there.
BRODIE: Now, Nick, it has been a little while since Türkiye has been in the World Cup, but I would imagine their fans of the team, pretty optimistic?
SANCHEZ: They are, yeah. This Türkiye’s first Men’s World Cup since 2002, and I spoke to one fan who remembers that.
ILKER (TÜRKIYE FAN): Yes, I was in Türkiye during that time. It was such a good times. We missed the No. 1 by a hair, and it was like we get the No. 2, but it was the best games we were playing. Yeah, this time we are going to get it.
BRODIE: All right, we’ll see if Türkiye is in fact going to get it. By that, I assume he means the trophy, right? The World Cup Championship?
SANCHEZ: The World Cup trophy, that’s right.
BRODIE: All right, we’ll see how it plays out. KJZZ’s Nick Sanchez, thank you.
SANCHEZ: Thanks, Mark.
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