The United States Soccer team edged Turkey , 2-1, in its final home game before traveling to South Africa for the World Cup.
The U.S. soccer team scored two second half goals, rallying to defeat Turkey , 2-1, in a friendly match in Philadelphia before a large crowd of 55,407.
Arda Turan scored Turkey's goal in the 27th minute when he was able to get by the U.S. defense just past midfield and take the ball in alone, beating U.S. goalie Tim Howard.
The USA equalized in the 58th minute when Landon Donovan sent a low crossing pass to a wide open Jozy Altidore who tapped the ball in the net. Donovan again had the assist for Clint Dempsey who scored the game winner in the 75th minute from close range.
U.S. coach Bob Bradley was pleased how his team rallied.
"In terms of what you want out a send-off game, I think today was very good," said Bradley. "It was a great crowd, so the team feels honored when our fans come out like that. There's a lot of things on the field to build on. We had a real good push when we got behind, and at the end [it was] a good hard-fought win against a good team."
Since Turkey did not qualify for the World Cup, its next goal is to reach the Euro 2012 tournament. For that effort the Turks have hired renowned Dutch football coach Guus Hiddink. He officially takes over August 1, but has been overseeing the team in recent days.
At the post-match news conference, Turkish assistant coach Ogoz Cetin spoke about the loss to the U.S. team and what was achieved.
"We couldn't resist their ambition to win the game, in the second half especially," said Cetin. "Losing an international match, of course is upsetting for us, but of course we had lots of games here from our U.S. tour, because we were here for Mr. [Guus] Hiddink to know the players, know our national team and how we will play, how our game style will be in future games. So I can say that this camp was beneficial."
U.S. goalie Tim Howard said it was not an easy victory.
"[it was a] Very, very tough game. It didn't start out so well, but it ended fantastic, so we're looking forward now to getting to South Africa," said Howard.
The U.S. soccer team arrives in South Africa on Monday and will play a final World Cup warm-up game there against Australia next Saturday in Roodepoort.
The Americans play their opening 2010 World Cup game against England on June 12.
