Turkey's World Cup Team to Train in Mesa, Arizona

We are just weeks away from the World Cup excitement building in one Arizona

city will be taking the international soccer spotlight. The Turkish men's

national soccer team will call the Arizona Athletic grounds home

throughout the tournament. You know, it's over in Mesa Fox since Jacob

Luthi joins us live with a look at the preparations underway and how locals

are reacting to this pretty big deal, Jacob.

Yeah, pretty big deal. Pretty exciting. You mentioned over here in Mesa. Yeah,

it's very hard to miss, right? So the Arizona Athletic ground says that this

is an application process years in the making, and then they were chosen to

be a training site for this year's World Cup. Now we're told that the

Turkish men's national team is expected to get here on June 7th. They'll be

training at this facility right here behind me. But until then, a lot of

work is going into making sure that this place is World Cup ready.

We're thrilled. We're so excited. Mustafa Uyghur says being this close to

a team he grew up loving is almost unimaginable. Everybody in the family,

they are saying that, wow, we cannot see them when they are here in Turkey.

But you're gonna see them all in Arizona. Mustafa moved to Arizona a

decade ago, now runs a phone repair shop in Tempe. As Turkey prepares for

its first World Cup appearance since 2002, he and his family say they're

ready to rally behind their team. It's been many years since Turkey last

played in their World Cup, and for that, I was even more mad. Between games,

the team will train in Mesa, Arizona athletic grounds. The 275 acre complex

is one of the largest sports facilities in North America, with more

than two million visitors every year. It is a Herculean effort to get the

fields to the standard that FIFA needs them to be. Senior Facilities Director

David Hayes says his crews are working to make sure the training fields match

World Cup playing conditions, even under the Arizona sun, with weekly

check ins with FIFA and constant quality testing. They check everything

from more height to moisture content and everything in between. And then we

lay the lines down and then the more the mores that have to follow very

strict modern patterns, the lines have to be painted very to a very specific

schematic. So it's it really is down to the to the millimeter between players,

coaches and family members. About 60 people will be moving between hotels

and the training facilities during the team's stay. Mesa Mayor Mark Freeman

says the complex being picked as a training site is a big win for the

city and a sign that years of investment in sports facilities and

infrastructure are paying off for Mesa to be part of this growth and part of

participate in this. These events like this, we have planned for this over the

decades. We have the roadways, we have the infrastructure, we have the water,

we have the hotels, the hospitality part of it, and it's all right here in

Mesa Arizona. Turkey is expected to play the U. S. On June 25th, who will

Mustafa and his family be supporting? We are in the Lambo, which thing we are

going to support.

Now the training sessions here will be closed to the public, but there is a

community day that is scheduled for June 8th for people to come on out, get

their photos taken, maybe get some autographs signed, really taken this

moment for this city. Also, I was asking, you know, hey, it's gonna be hot

June and July. How's this team gonna try to beat the heat? Well, there will be

actually practicing in the evenings. I know a lot of Arizonans when it gets

hot, we'll be doing things in the evening. So Christina John. All right,

they're being smart about it. They are rabid, rabid soccer fans. Yes. Thank

you. Absolutely. Thank you. All right. You can catch all the 2026 World Cup

action right here on Fox. 10 Games will be airing live every day. It all

starts June 11th.