Thursday 7 June 2018 08:44, UK
David Beckham may have gained redemption for 1998 but it was Brazil who saw off England and claimed a fifth World Cup.
The 2002 World Cup, like the 1994 tournament in the USA, saw FIFA trying to spread the message outside football's traditional heartlands of Europe and South America.
And so the world's 32 best teams travelled to Japan and South Korea. The locals seemed genuinely interested and were fantastically welcoming, while the stadiums were superb.
The opening game of the tournament between France and Senegal saw one of the World Cup's biggest upsets with the holders slumping to defeat.
The initial excitement of a World Cup can quickly fade as teams look to get at least a point to get their campaign underway, often serving up drab, cagey opening games. And however much you enjoy other countries' games, you really are just itching for the England boys to get stuck in.
But among the usual early tournament fare, a couple of gems shine brightly. One, strangely, a victory for Germany. It wasn't just any victory, as the Germans battered Saudi Arabia 8-0, an almost unheard of result in the final stages.
As so often seems to be the case in football, the fixture list had immediately thrown up a delightful quirk. England, managed by everyone's favourite laid-back Swede, Sven-Goran Eriksson, would face... Sweden.
The game itself wasn't a classic. England took the lead in the first half through Sol Campbell. But Sweden dominated the second half and deservedly equalised through Niclas Alexandersson. As a palpably unfit David Beckham trudged off after an hour, England were hanging on.
Sweden were unable to turn their dominance into further goals, held at bay by England's back four and the pony-tailed David Seaman. The mood at full-time was not one of optimism. Before the tournament, most people felt that Sweden and England were vying for second place in Group F behind the much-fancied Argentina, while you could never rule out the unpredictable Nigerians.
And even with second place, there was the likelihood of facing France - who would surely bounce back from their opening day embarrassment - in round two. There was no doubt Sweden had been the better side, and the realisation was dawning that we might well need to take at least a point from Argentina to progress.
Looking back, games in the group stages often blend into one. Instead of remembering goals and results, other little details are the ones that live longest in the memory. And for me, one of the defining images of the whole tournament was Rivaldo's hilarious extra-from-Platoon routine against Turkey.
If memory serves the Turks were getting very narky after a very iffy late penalty gave the Brazilians a 2-1 lead. As the game moved into injury-time, Hakan Unsal booted the ball at Rivaldo near the corner flag. The ball struck the Brazilian somewhere near the knee. Rivaldo seemed to wait an age before collapsing to the ground, clutching his face in apparent agony.
Unsal was duly red-carded, and They Think It's All Over had a new bit for their credits.
But all these games were just for starters. From the time the draw had been made, all English eyes had been fixed firmly on one match. Friday, June 7, in the bizarre indoor dome at Sapporo: England versus Argentina. Or to put it another way, David Beckham versus Diego Simeone.
With memories of Beckham's red card four years previously still fresh, the game took on more significance than ever. The magical 5-1 win in Munich had given England revenge over the other old footballing enemy to put one over us on penalties, and here was the chance to repeat that success.
Of course, no-one believed it was possible. Argentina were many people's tip for the cup, and had completed a comfortable, albeit dull, win over Nigeria in their first group match while England had been pilloried in the press for their stuttering display against Sweden.
I remember a tight first half, with Argentina starting brightly before England began to find their stride. I seem to remember Danny Mills and Nicky Butt being brilliant.
Then, on the verge of half-time, with everyone looking at nil-nil and a job half done, something wonderful happened. Mauricio Pochettino's challenge on Michael Owen was clumsy rather than dirty, but Owen - as he had four years earlier in St Etienne - made the most of it, and Pierluigi Collina, the best referee in the world, pointed to the spot.
Beckham's moment of redemption was at hand. As he gathered the ball and walked towards the penalty spot, his nemesis Simeone offered a handshake. Brilliantly, Beckham ignored him.
If the England skipper wasn't already aware of the significance of his next kick, he definitely was now. Beckham stepped up and drilled it straight down the middle, past a stranded Pablo Cavallero. England were beating Argentina.
The second half is a complete blur in my mind. I seem to remember Teddy Sheringham trying a couple of audacious volleys and nearly pulling them off and a fine surging run from cuddly Leeds defender Mills.
As the group stages wore on, it became clear that a couple of the big teams were in real trouble. France needed to beat Denmark by two goals in their last game to get through, and Argentina now needed to beat the disciplined and skilful Swedes to make the last 16.
As it turned out, France limped apologetically out of the World Cup, thoroughly outplayed by Denmark, who won the game 2-0 to top the group above Senegal. Even Uruguay finished above Les Bleus. France, without a win and without a goal left only one mark on the competition - the worst ever record for defending champions. Sacre Bleu!
England and Argentina's day of reckoning followed soon after. As millions of England fans got up early for the 7:30 BST kick off, the teams seemed determined to send them back to sleep as England and Nigeria played out one of the most tedious 0-0 draws in history.
All the excitement was happening in Miyagi where Sweden were holding Argentina to a 1-1 draw. England fans didn't care that the Swedes had pipped us to top spot on goals scored. The Argies had joined the French in going home early, we were through, and life was good.
In the other groups, the biggest surprise was the success of the hosts. Japan and South Korea qualified impressively, both topping their groups with two wins and a draw from their three group games.
Admittedly, the Japanese didn't have the toughest group, with Belgium joining them in round two while Russia and Tunisia were eliminated, but South Korea qualified - along with the USA - at the expense of Portugal and Poland.
Spain and Brazil were the only teams to win all three of their group games, while Germany and Italy got through despite being a bit rubbish.
England faced a tricky second-round clash with Denmark, who'd looked so good disposing of France. England had managed to wangle another evening kick-off, which meant a nice and manageable lunchtime kick-off in the UK.
The conspiracy theorists maintained that England had contrived the bore draw with Nigeria in order to avoid topping the group and therefore facing a clash with Senegal in the full heat of the day.
If this was the plan, it was a phenomenally short-sighted one, as even a cursory glance at the fixture list revealed that the winner of this evening second round tie would face a likely daytime battle with Brazil in the quarter-finals... But that was all for another day. Denmark were the opponents, and not to be taken lightly. Brazil could wait.
England got off to the best possible start. In the fifth minute, Beckham swung over a corner from the left. Denmark had, for some reason, decided to eschew marking in favour of standing around looking confused.
As everyone else looked on, Rio Ferdinand arrived at the back post with the simplest of chances. He had only to nod in from no more than two yards out and England were ahead. Instead, the centre-back scuffed his header back across goal, straight to Thomas Sorensen in the Denmark goal.
Apparently surprised to receive this gift, Sorensen contrived to drop the ball agonisingly over the line and into the goal. We went mental, and, hilariously, Ferdinand did as well, launching into a ridiculous over-the-top "Bo, bo, bo!" celebration entirely out of keeping with what was, essentially, a shocking miss from him.
Had Sorensen not made that error, Denmark might have gone on to win and Ferdinand could well have replaced Seaman as the villain of the piece for the England fans. England ran riot for the rest of the first half, with Owen adding a second goal after a nice turn and crisp finish.
This was brilliant, but England knew it was their day when the much-maligned Emile Heskey managed to get on the scoresheet. Three-nil at half-time, and the second half was a cruise, an exercise in conserving energy for tougher times ahead, as England equalled their biggest World Cup finals win.
For the co-hosts, the second round brought mixed fortunes, the Japanese went down 1-0 to Turkey, but, in one of the games of the tournaments, South Korea came back from a goal down to beat Italy in extra-time.
Ahn Jung-hwan, who had earlier missed a penalty, scored the golden goal that sent South Korea into a frenzy. Earlier, Damiano Tommasi thought he'd won the game for the Italians, but his goal was hilariously ruled out for offside.
But the really outrageous officiating was still to come, in the quarter-final between Spain and, you guessed it, South Korea. Spain had been a little fortunate to get through against the Republic of Ireland on penalties, but the manner of their elimination still left a bad taste.
The bald facts state that South Korea went through on penalties after a goalless draw, but that tells only half the story. The way the ref and linesmen were going, a goalless draw was the very best Spain could get out of the game.
First they had a goal ruled out for 'offside' against Fernando Morientes even though it was Baraja who nodded home Joaquin's free-kick.
Spain were dominant throughout normal time, but couldn't find another goal for the officials to disallow. We had to wait until extra-time for that, and it was a corker.
Joaquin marauded menacingly down the right, clipped in a cross and Morientes headed home. Golden goal, game over. But no, the linesman informed the ref that the ball had gone out for a goal-kick before Joaquin's cross. Absolute dross - the ball never even touched the line, let alone crossed it.
Even before extra-time was out, Morientes managed to hit a post and be pulled up again for an iffy offside. Unsurprisingly, he picked up a booking for questioning the officials' decisions and there was a sense of inevitability about the shoot-out.
By then though, England were already out, and unlike the Spanish, had no one to blame but themselves. It had been billed as the game that would ignite the tournament. Pele announced that whoever won this one would go on to win the World Cup.
It all started so promisingly for England. Midway through the first half, Brazil's centre-half Lucio made a shocking mess of Heskey's through ball, letting in Owen, who calmly slotted the ball past Marcos. As the half progressed, England weren't creating a lot, but seemed to be holding on reasonably comfortably.
"If we can just get to half-time," I thought, "we could do this."
With half-time seconds away, the ball was safely in the Brazilian half, and Beckham appeared to have it under control on the right-hand touchline. But, under pressure, Beckham jumped out of the way of the ball and incoming tackle.
Did he think the ball was going out of play, or was he just protecting the world's most famous metatarsal? Either way, it was a disastrous misjudgement as Brazil embarked on an irresistible forward surge.
The Three Rs - Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho - in full flow. It was Ronaldinho, the new darling of the Brazilian fans, to the fore on this occasion. His jinking run took him deep into England territory as the clock wound down.
He glided effortlessly past Ashley Cole before drawing probably the only mistake Sol Campbell made in the whole tournament, selling himself early and allowing Ronaldinho to pick out the run of Rivaldo with a precise pass. Rivaldo's crisp first-time shot was unstoppable, arrowing into the bottom corner. The whole thing took maybe 10 seconds. Breathtaking.
England never really recovered, and when Ronaldinho's free-kick sailed freakishly over Seaman's head and nestled in the back of the net it was a killer blow.
Looking back I don't even care whether he meant it. It doesn't matter. I wasn't even that bothered that watching balls sail over his head seemed to be an increasingly common event for the brilliant but ageing Seaman.
What really gets me about that game is England's performance in the last half-hour. With Brazil reduced to 10 men after Ronaldinho's mistimed lunge on Mills England created precisely nothing.
It was passionless, and Beckham, Eriksson and the rest seemed powerless to stop it. I can't remember Marcos making a save. There was no glorious failure this time, no penalty heartbreak. In a World Cup of shocks, England were unusual for simply being beaten by a better team.
The rest of the tournament panned out all too predictably. Brazil saw off Turkey in their semi-final, this time without any nonsense from Rivaldo, and Germany - who had quietly and efficiently progressed without ever being any good - ended South Korea's dream.
So, after all the shocks along the way, the final at Yokohama was a clash between two of the game's heavyweights, with Brazil strong favourites.
The final was not a classic. For over an hour, the Germans frustrated the Brazilians, blunting their creative spark, and the biggest topic of discussion was Ronaldo's bizarre 'reverse-Eriksson' hairstyle.
But ultimately, the final marked the redemption of one of the game's great talents. Germany had only conceded one goal in the tournament, but in 12 second-half minutes, Ronaldo scored twice to seal a fifth World Cup for the boys from Brazil.
As he was substituted and broke down in tears of joy, the contrast with the confused and hurt shell in Paris four years previously could not have been greater.
Ronaldo had managed to outdo Beckham at redemption and crazy haircuts.
Oliver Kahn may have won the Golden Ball award but it was the Golden Boot winner whose performances will be most remembered from 2002.
Ronaldo scored eight goals throughout the tournament, including the only two in the final, as he stole the show in Japan and South Korea.
Ably assisted by Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, among others, Ronaldo was the spearhead of arguably the last great Brazil team as they stormed to a fifth World Cup victory.
In many ways, a largely forgotten strike as it happened in the group stage during a game Uruguay actually lost, but Dario Rodriguez's strike against Denmark was an astounding piece of technical play.
Alvaro Recoba's corner was only half cleared by Denmark's defence as far as Pablo Garcia, who controlled the ball in the air before squaring it to Rodriguez, who fired home a stunning volley from the edge of the area. The main problem was it came between two Jon Dahl Tomasson goals in a 2-1 defeat for Uruguay.
There are several contenders for the best game of the tournament in 2002. The opener between France and Senegal was stunning in terms of the result and Germany's 8-0 win over Saudi Arabia in terms of the scoreline.
But the game that will live longest in the memory was the last-16 clash between the hosts South Korea and Italy. Italy led from Christian Vieri's early strike in Daejeon but Seol Ki-Hyeon equalised with two minutes to go and Ahn Jung-Hwan grabbed the golden-goal winner in the 117th minute after Francesco Totti had been sent off.
It was a game of hugely questionable refereeing decisions, disallowed goals, a dramatic late victory and a minnow beating an international giant.
Had England managed to beat Nigeria or Sweden and top their group then a kinder path to the semi-finals would have awaited them. At some stage, however, they would have come up against Brazil, the side who saw them off in the quarter-finals.
Scotland had qualified four years earlier but finished third in their group to miss out on the tournament. They haven't been back to a major tournament since.
Wales won just once in their group and came nowhere near qualifying, while Northern Ireland also finished fifth in their group.
