The story that has now made it to the big screen will not be repeated anytime soon. “King Otto” is the name of the film about the sensational success of Otto Rehhagel and the Greek national team at the 2004 European Championships, and the film has a secret hero: Ioannis Topalidis, the translator who diplomatically conveyed Rehhagel’s instructions to the professionals. “There were some things you couldn’t say to Greek players like that, then I covered them with a bit of icing,” he says in the film. But Kenan Kocak rejects the parallels: “I have almost nothing to do with translation.”
Kocak, 40, former coach at Hannover 96 and born in Kayseri in Central Anatolia, has been part of the Turkish national team’s coaching team for seven weeks. Together with Jan-Moritz Lichte, formerly Mainz 05, he assists his boss Stefan Kuntz, before that Germany’s U21 national coach. There is “a special translator who is with Stefan around the clock,” says Kocak on the phone. Only “when it gets more personal with players, I help Stefan”.
The fact that Kocak and Kuntz could, however, become part of a surprising success story, that both their ideas and their translation are beginning to work, is now the first prerequisites for this. “Wait for us, WM!” Wrote the newspaper on Wednesday Hürriyet. Türkiye Spor raved about the “magic of Kuntz”. And Kocak says: “We are satisfied. Our goal in this international season was to do our part with two wins to ensure that we still have a chance at the World Cup. We succeeded.”
The Turks won the final group game in Montenegro 2-1, and the team has scored ten out of a possible twelve points since Kuntz took office in September. Back then, Turkey were third in the group, losing 6-1 to the Netherlands and only 2-2 at home against Montenegro. On Tuesday, the victory could have been enough to win the group if the Dutch had lost to Norway at the same time. After the victory of the Dutch, Turkey now has to go to the playoffs with semi-finals and finals in March. Games against Portugal or Italy are looming. “We take it as it comes,” says Kocak.
Kocak lists the changes: lower ball contact times per head, more ball conquests in the opposing half
The game against Montenegro was not an inspiring one, “not a phenomenal one”, as Kocak puts it, “but a deserved victory”. After an early deficit in the fourth minute, Kerem Aktürkoglu equalized after 22 minutes, fifteen minutes after the break, the substitute Orkun Kökcü hit with a deflected shot from distance. And as much as the victory had to be fought for, as often as the counter-protection looked adventurous, at least the goal scorers matched the first signs of a change of course under the new coach.
Aktürkoglu, 23, from Galatasaray Istanbul and Kökcü, 20, from Feyenoord Rotterdam made their debut under Kuntz’s predecessor Senol Günes. In the disappointing, pointless qualifying round at the EM, they hardly played a role. Aktürkoglu, previously without an international goal, has now scored three times in four games under Kuntz.
When Kocak talks about the changes, he mentions more compactness and playfulness or a higher speed, which is also proven by the statistics: lower ball contact times per head, more ball conquests in the opposing half. Above all, however, he emphasizes something else: the nature of his boss.
“When we started, the mood was sometimes not that good. With his manner, Stefan put a lot of effort into this,” says Kocak, who has known Kuntz since his coach at Waldhof Mannheim. “Stefan is someone who takes everyone with him, not just the players, through his style, through his communication. He’s a great coach, a great person, you can’t learn that. Either you have these traits in you or you don’t.”
The most famous pictures so far of Kuntz, 59, as coach of Turkey were actually those that suggested a very close bond with the team: After the dramatic 2-1 in Latvia in October, when only a penalty goal in the 99th minute brought the victory, he fought – in vain – with tears.
After the victory on Tuesday, he cheered more cautiously. The decisive games are yet to come. And then it should get emotional again. “If we can qualify for Qatar,” said Hamit Altintop, the Turkish sports director and former Bundesliga professional, ZDF, that means: “legendary status for the coach.”