Bay Area fans wind up for Turkey's long-awaited World Cup soccer appearance at Levi's Stadium

For the first time in more than two decades, Turkey has made it to soccer’s World Cup, and Turkish people around the Bay Area are having a ball.

“Everybody’s excited,” said Sean Tekdemir, a former professional soccer player in Turkey and Indonesia who owns the Pro Elite Soccer Academy in Mountain View.

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The four dozen national soccer teams in the World Cup have been divided into 12 groups. Turkey is in Group D with the U.S., Australia and Paraguay.

Turkey, the country of origin for thousands of Bay Area residents, was widely seen as the top threat to the U.S. team to finish first in the group, before it fell Saturday to Australia in a stunning 2-0 upset in Vancouver. The national team includes a couple of top players in big European leagues: Arda Güler from Real Madrid in Spain and Kenan Yıldız at Juventus in Italy, both just 21 years old, although most players play in the Turkish league, which has become more competitive in recent years.

Now the Turkish squad goes up against Paraguay at 8 p.m. on June 19 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Tekdemir will be in the stands, with three of the aspiring professional players he coaches at his academy, and the parents of one of them.

“I’ll point out some tactical moves,” Tekdemir said.

His invitation to the group was conditional: “I told them, ‘Come with me to celebrate for Turkey — go for Turkey or you can’t go with me,'” he said.

“I’m sure we’ll have enough fans cheering for Turkey, but just to make sure.”

Tekdemir believes Turkey’s loss Saturday may be attributable to a fatal overconfidence, after the team’s captain Hakan Calhanoglu boasted Turkey would “dominate” Australia.

“The team, I don’t think, was completely locked in,” Tekdemir said.

Thirty-two countries will advance after each team within each group plays the other three. To advance, a team must finish in its group’s top two, or be one of the top eight third-place teams based on number of wins, ties and losses.

Whoever finishes atop Group D will play July 1 at Levi’s Stadium.

Before the Cup games started, the sport’s global governing body the Fédération Internationale de Football Association ranked Turkey somewhere in the middle of the World Cup pack, below powerhouses like France, Spain and Argentina, but above Uzbekistan, Iraq and Jordan.

“I am feeling pressure,” Tekdemir said. “After qualifying for this World Cup, we don’t want to just go out without leaving some memories in the bank.”

Turkey had a memorable World Cup in 2002, finishing third, but didn’t qualify for the next five Cups. In 2026, Turkey qualified through the European playoffs and benefited from the expansion to 48 teams in this World Cup — 16 of those from Europe, up from 13 in 2022.

Several members of the Turkish World Cup team have gained high profiles competing for European clubs, Tekdemir noted.

“Seeing them playing together and representing Turkey in this stage is exciting,” said Tekdemir, 42.

The World Cup, held every four years, represents a month-long crescendo of a three-year competition among men’s national soccer teams in FIFA.

Soccer arrived in Turkey in the 1870s, brought by British merchants to major port cities including Istanbul, and has grown to be the nation’s most popular sport, according to The Project on Middle East Political Science at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former semi-professional soccer player, has continued to compete in exhibition matches.

“It’s played almost everywhere on the streets,” Tekdemir said. Indoor, seven-on-seven organized pickup games are held in nearly every city and small town in Turkey, Tekdemir said. “People meet after work, and they play,” he said.

Tekdemir’s brother Dino, owner of several Bay Area restaurants including Anatolian Kitchen in Palo Alto and Barbayani Greek Taverna in Los Altos, carries on the after-work indoor-soccer tradition, playing with people from his restaurants on Wednesday nights in Redwood City.

In advance of the game at Levi’s Stadium, many Turkish fans have been flowing into the Bay Area from the East Coast and Canada, Dino Tekdemir said. And, he added, “There’s a lot of people also traveling from Turkey.”

Tekdemir will be going the other way, however. He’s heading to Turkey, and plans to catch the game against Paraguay on TV at the crack of dawn because of the time difference, while jet-lagged.

On Saturday, soccer fans flocked to watch parties to see Turkey face off against Australia, including at Bay Area Cultural Connections in Santa Clara.

On June 25, Turkey takes on the home team, playing the U.S. in Los Angeles at 7 p.m.

Sultan’s Kebab restaurants in Campbell, Pleasanton and Livermore are putting all Turkey’s games up on TVs, said owner Fatih Ulas.

Ulas planned to attend the game at Levi’s Stadium with his wife and two of his children. His ticket prices were steep — $2,300 each, but Ulas sees the game as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“It actually gives me goosebumps,” Ulas said. “It’s a World Cup and it happens to be in our town in Santa Clara.

“What are the chances that we’re going to have a Turkish team, me being Turkish, but playing in America, like 10 minutes away from my house? I feel like I’m back home.”

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This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 4:17 AM.