WORLD CUP 2002

The 2002 World Cup saw the tournament go to Asia for the first time, and was the first to be co-hosted, by Japan and South Korea. The format was the same as in France in 1998, thirty-two teams in eight groups with the top two going through. Champions France started the defence of their title in Group A, but suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Senegal in the opening match. Held to a 0-0 draw by Uruguay, they had to beat Denmark in their final match to go through but lost 2-0 and crashed out without scoring a single goal. Senegal joined the Danes in the second round after a remarkable 3-3 draw with Uruguay, in which the South Americans fought back from 3-0 down but then missed a sitter which would have taken them through.

Spain won Group B easily with three wins, and they were joined in Round Two by Paraguay who came from behind to beat Slovenia 3-1 in their last match and therefore edge out South Africa on goals scored. Brazil cruised past Turkey, Costa Rica and China in Group C, with Costa Rica missing second place on goal difference after a 5-2 defeat to Brazil in their last match. Turkey sealed the runners-up spot with a 3-0 defeat of debutants China.

Co-hosts South Korea gained their first ever World Cup win over Poland to open Group D, and when the U.S.A. beat favourites Portugal 3-2 the two teams fancied to progress were struggling. Portugal recovered to beat Poland 4-0 but defeat to the Koreans saw them crash out, and also sent the U.S.A. through despite their loss to the Poles. In Group E, Germany opened by thrashing Saudi Arabia 8-0 and went on to win the group, with Ireland clinching second place when they beat the Saudis and Germany defeated African champions Cameroon. Argentina were favourites in Group F, but defeat to England severely dented their hopes and with England picking up the result they needed against Nigeria, Argentina's draw with Sweden was not enough. England and Sweden went though, and the Argentinians joined the list of surprise first round casualties.

Italy opened Group G in impressive style against debutants Ecuador, but struggled from then on and were lucky to go through. After defeat against Croatia, the Italians could only draw with eventual group winners Mexico and would have gone out if Croatia had completed an expected victory over Ecuador, but they lost 1-0 and Italy went through to the last sixteen. The other co-hosts Japan were in Group H, along with Belgium, Russia and Tunisia. After narrowly failing to beat Belgium in the first match, Japan delighted the home crowds with wins over Russia and Tunisia to win the group. Second place would be decided by the final match between Belgium and Russia, and two late goals helped to give Belgium a 3-2 win and a place in the second round.

Germany opened the second round with a 1-0 win over Paraguay in a poor game, before a fantastic first half performance saw England move safely past Denmark with a 3-0 win. Senegal came from behind to beat Sweden with an extra-time golden goal, and Spain recovered from conceding a last minute penalty equaliser to beat Ireland in a penalty shoot-out. Two late goals saw Brazil past a stubborn Belgian side, but Mexico were a shadow of their earlier performances as they crashed out to the U.S.A. The last two second round games featured the two co-hosts. Japan conceded an early goal to Turkey and could not recover, losing 1-0, but South Korea scored a late equaliser against Italy and then found a golden goal winner to reach their first quarter-final.

In the first quarter-final, Brazil hit back from a goal down to beat an English side who struggled to assert any authority with their opponents down to ten men. Germany and South Korea set up a semi-final meeting in controversial circumstances, the Germans beating the U.S.A. 1-0 after a clear penalty was denied to the Americans and South Korea knocking out Spain on penalties after their opponents had a goal wrongly disallowed. The last quarter-final saw Turkey beat Senegal with a golden goal.

The semi-finals were largely quiet affairs, with Germany ending South Korea's fairytale run thanks to a Michael Ballack goal, and Ronaldo scoring the only goal as Brazil beat Turkey for the second time in the tournament. In the third place match, Hakan Sükür scored the fastest ever goal in the World Cup finals after just 11 seconds as Turkey beat the South Koreans 3-2 in a hugely entertaining match to seal the bronze medals.

Amazingly, the final between Brazil and Germany was the first ever World Cup meeting of the two sides who had seven titles between them. Brazil were overwhelming favourites, Germany having surpassed all expectations to get to the final, but the first half was a tight tussle and ended with the teams level at 0-0. Midway through the second period German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, one of the players of the tournament, spilled a shot from Rivaldo and Ronaldo pounced to give Brazil the lead. With Germany chasing the game, Ronaldo scored again twelve minutes later to seal the Golden Boot for himself and the title for Brazil, for a new record fifth time.