Uğurcan Çakır: "We have a chance to make up for it in the Paraguay match"

The Turkish National Football Team will face Paraguay in the 2nd match of Group D of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Before this match, national goalkeeper Uğurcan Çakır answered questions from journalists at a hotel in Arizona.

Çakır, saying the Australia match did not go as they wanted, said, "Sometimes when you are too motivated, it doesn’t work out. It was like that for us. We were sad, and we have the chance to make up for this mistake in the Paraguay match. We must prepare for the match with focus. We all must know our duties and play accordingly. It was not the final match. We all wanted to win the first match. We wanted to make our country proud. It didn’t go as we wanted. There are 6 points to earn ahead of us. The first match is against Paraguay. We want to win, take 3 points," he said.

"We wanted to win a lot but it didn’t reflect on the field"

The 30-year-old goalkeeper, who said they were upset about the result in the Australia match, said, "Coming here was actually our dream. We came here after 24 years, and in the first match, we wanted to make our country proud. I think there was even emotional pressure about that. When we saw TVs set up in the squares, we wanted to respond. We wanted to win a lot but it didn’t reflect on the field. The team’s morale is good. We forgot the first match. There are 2 matches left that we can call the final match. We want to win these and make our country proud," he said.

"There is no situation inside the team as written outside, friendship is very good"

Emphasizing that the current squad achieved successful results in the 2024 European Football Championship and the Nations League, the national goalkeeper said, "We were the ones who did these. Not many names changed. We added a few more players to the team. It was still the same squad. There is no situation inside the team as written outside. The friendship is already very good. This brought us great successes, like the World Cup after 24 years. There may be things written outside. I do not think there is a problem in friendship. We are happy, training is going fun. We got an undesired result in the first match, we upset our country. I think we can make up for it. We will prepare for the Paraguay match with our best performance. Hopefully, we will get the result we want in the Paraguay match," he said.

"We have a chance to make up for this in the Paraguay match"

Uğurcan Çakır, who said that criticisms may occur, stated, "Their criticism is our honor. If you play football, you have to be open to criticism. There is no need to exaggerate this. We have the chance to make up for this in the Paraguay match. Yesterday is behind us. We need to look ahead. We are also looking ahead," he said.

"I trust my teammates a lot"

Çakır said they made analyses of the Australia match: "We saw what we did wrong. Our coach also showed many positive positions. Keeping the ball wasn’t very important. We saw what we did wrong. The analyses of the Australia match are done. We are preparing for Paraguay. We will work a lot in training. We will be united, and as always, we will try to get a good result. I believe we have players with the character and talent to get this. We think we can succeed. There are 2 matches ahead of us. Yesterday is behind us, we will look ahead. I trust my teammates a lot," he said.

The national goalkeeper, who said he played below his standard against Australia, said, "Sometimes these matches can happen to you. I wanted to help my teammates more without conceding a goal. Hopefully, I will try to do this in the other matches," he added.

"We conceded a goal from the places we worked on in the Australia match"

The 30-year-old goalkeeper, who said the friendly match they played against North Macedonia before the World Cup was taken as an analysis for the Australia match, said: "We won that match. We analyzed Australia very well. We conceded a goal from the places we worked on. We wanted to focus a little more and minimize our mistakes. Hopefully, we will do this in the Paraguay match. The coach showed a lot in the analysis, we conceded a goal from the same position. We knew how the opponent would play. We conceded a goal in an unlucky way," he evaluated.

"Water breaks are not good at all"

Uğurcan Çakır also shared his thoughts on the water breaks given during the World Cup matches, saying, "Water breaks are not good at all. The match cools down, and our concentration is disrupted. I never liked it. There are teams that play like that, it may be good for them. Our matches do not have extremely hot weather. These breaks are not good," he said.

"The turning point in the Australia match was that we couldn’t score a goal"

When asked about the turning point in the Australia match, Çakır said, "The turning point is that we couldn’t score a goal. When you cannot score, emotions take over reason. You want to do more than what you have on the field. In front of those emotions, you cannot find logical positions. There is responsibility for our country, so we experience our emotions intensely. It was the opponent’s choice to keep the ball. We didn’t have very clear positions. We did what the opponent wanted. We could have produced different solutions, we worked on those but it wasn’t meant to be. We will do our best in the Paraguay match," he said.

"No match is easy on paper"

The national goalkeeper emphasized that no match is easy on paper and said, "You cannot see some things in the analysis of opponents, but when you get on the field, if the other person’s desire, ambition, concentration, and focus are more, no matter how talented you are, there is a chance they can beat you. Even Spain drew, everyone says they are the best team in the world. This can happen. Our seniors achieved great successes in 2002. The match is played on the field. I have played about 400 matches. I don’t remember winning any match easily," he said. Uğurcan Çakır also said he got used to the weather conditions and time difference over time.

"Then they will say we will play the final"

Regarding how they expect the criticisms if they win the Paraguay match, the 30-year-old goalkeeper said, "Then they will say we will play the final. We want to make our country happy. Our country also wants to be happy. America is playing the World Cup. Are they waiting for us to lose? I cannot understand that. All their criticisms are our honor. We took the necessary lessons and did our analyses. There are 2 matches ahead of us. Hopefully, we will win in the Paraguay match and make our country happy. I love all our friends very much, I trust them all a lot. Our slogan then was 'It’s not over until it’s over.' Hopefully we can succeed. We were very happy in 2008. Our country is waiting to be happy whether we win or not. Hopefully, we want to make them experience this," he concluded.