SAINT-ETIENNE, France - Back on soccer's world stage, the United States showed it still has some growing up to do.
Turkey rallied from a first-half deficit, soundly beating the United States 2-1 Thursday night in the Americans' opener of the Confederations Cup.
"We played pretty poorly, probably didn't deserve to win," said Landon Donovan, who fed DaMarcus Beasley for the only U.S. goal.
Beasley put the United States ahead in the 36th minute, outjumping Ibrahim Uzulmez to head the ball past goalkeeper Omer Catkic.
Turkey tied it three minutes later on a penalty kick by Okan Yilmaz after Danny Califf and U.S. captain Frankie Hejduk surrounded Yilmaz in the penalty area and pulled him down.
Tim Howard, the 24-year-old goalie making his first international tournament start, guessed correctly, diving right. But Yilmaz placed his low shot near the post out of Howard's reach.
"After that, we kind of just lost our composure," Beasley said.
In the 70th minute, Turkey scored the go-ahead goal after Volkan Arslan fed the ball down the middle to Tuncan Sanli. Howard came out to get the ball but couldn't reach it in time, stumbling as Sanli went wide and sent the ball into the open net.
Howard, who plays for Major League Soccer's MetroStars, was starting because Brad Friedel was given the tournament off and Kasey Keller is recovering from minor elbow surgery.
The United States, which is 5-2-1 this year, started four players who started in the 1-0 loss to Germany in the World Cup quarterfinals: Donovan, Hejduk, Gregg Berhalter and Eddie Lewis.
The Americans play World Cup champion Brazil on Saturday, probably needing at least a tie to keep alive their chance to advance to the semifinals. Brazil lost to Cameroon 1-0 Thursday.
WUSA ALL-STAR GAME: Boston Breakers forward Maren Meinert was named the MVP after scoring two goals and assisting on another as the World Stars beat the American Stars 3-2 in Cary, N.C. San Jose CyberRays defenseman Brandi Chastain and Carolina Courage forward Danielle Fotopoulos scored for the American Stars.
MLS: Carlos Ruiz of the Los Angeles Galaxy was suspended for two games and fined $1,000 for injuring Kansas City's Carey Talley with an elbow last weekend. Marco Etcheverry of DC United was fined $1,000 for critical comments about officiating.
WOMEN'S WORLD CUP: North Korea qualified by beating Japan 3-0 in the Asian Championship. North Korea and China will play the final on Saturday. China already had qualified for the World Cup as host nation before it was moved to the United States because of the SARS virus.
