World Cup 2002 in South Korea and Japan: the star Brazilian Ronaldo, the protégé of the home team and one historical uniqueness

The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the seventeenth World Cup in a row, and it offered one historical uniqueness. For the first time in the history of the World Cup, two countries – South Korea and Japan – hosted the event. The tournament was held in 20 cities and brought many. Many famous stars showed up, Brazil took the gold, and even the protégé South Korea won a medal.

Seoul, Ulsan, Tegu, Busan, Suwon, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon, Chonju, Sogupcho, Niigata, Snapporo, Kashima, Saitama, Shizuoka, Yokohoma, Kobe, Rifu, Osaka, Oita. That’s the list of the twenty cities that participated in hosting the 2002 World Cup.

198 countries participated in the qualification for the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, with 32 of them taking part in the final tournament. FIFA had already come up with this very innovation for the previous tournament, namely the 1998 World Cup in France.

In the previous championships, only 24 teams could compete for the overall championship. As far as the game format is concerned, it has also remained the same as for the 1998 World Cup. And yes, the golden goal rule still applied.

Qualifiers, again without Czech participation

Just like the 1998 World Championship in France, the Czech Republic had to do without the Czech Republic. It should be noted that the last World Cup the Czechs had participated in until then was in 1990 in Italy, and that was still as Czechoslovakia.

In any case, as far as the specific qualifiers are concerned, 15 European teams, 8 American, 5 African and 4 Asian teams took part in the 2002 World Championship in South Korea and Japan. For the latter continent it was the national teams of Saudi Arabia, China and then, of course, South Korea and Japan as hosts of the tournament.

Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon, South Africa and Tunisia were the representatives of Africa. For the American continent, the following countries came to this championship – Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, USA and Mexico.

It should be noted that for both Costa Rica and Uruguay this was the first World Cup since 1990. And coincidentally since the year that was the last one in terms of participation of Czechs and Slovaks in the World Championship.

Traditionally, Europe had the largest representation at the 2002 World Cup, with Portugal, Spain, Croatia, France, Poland, Denmark, Ireland, Slovenia, England, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, Sweden, Germany and Russia qualifying for the tournament.

Incredibly strong Brazilians

Brazil has already passed its regular group with flying colours, not losing a point in three matches and advancing from first place with a score of 11:3. The South American team left Turkey, Costa Rica and China behind.

The latter was the big disappointment of the tournament, as it not only failed to score a point, but also did not score a single goal and conceded nine times. However, one cannot be surprised by the strength of the Brazilians, just look at their line-up, especially the offensive part.

The famous “R” trio of Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho destroyed their opponents. And the rest of the line-up? In midfield, the super-talented youngster Kaká, on the fringes, the star Roberto Carlos. In defence, we find names like Lúcio and captain Cafú, while the goalkeeping trio consisted of Marcos, Dida and Rogério Ceni.

The eighth round assigned the Brazilians to Belgium, but they handled their opponents 2: 0 and advanced to the quarterfinals, where they defeated England 2: 1. In a fairly even semi-final against Turkey, a goal by Ronaldinho was enough for the South American country to advance, and the final was again in the hands of the Canaries.

Ronaldo’s precise strikes, with eight goals from the tournament’s top scorer, in the 67th and 79th minutes decided Brazil’s golden fifth World Cup triumph. In any case, you can find out more not only about the Brazilian performance, but about the whole course of the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan in our above-attached special.

Germany take silver, Turkey take bronze against South Korea

The German team scored only one goal in the group stage and, like the later winners of the tournament, 11 of them were scored by themselves. First, the Germans completely outclassed Saudi Arabia 8:0, then drew with Ireland when Robbie Keane equalised at 1:1.

However, they managed their third group match convincingly, 2: 0 against Cameroon. And if we talked about the incredibly strong Brazil, the Germans also had a team that had a shot at the top spot. Oliver Kahn was a certainty in goal, while Thomas Linke and Frank Baumann were in defence.

And the back line or attack? Michael Ballack, Marco Bode, Bernd Schneider, Jens Jeremies, Oliver Neuville or Miroslav Klose. However, it must be said, the German goal machine got a bit stuck in the knockout battles. The team of then coach Rudi Völler eliminated Paraguay only with Neuville’s 88th minute goal.

In the quarter-final (against USA) and the semi-final (against South Korea), Ballack scored one goal each time. In the final, the Germans simply couldn’t keep up with a spirited Brazil.

Turkey won bronze medals at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, beating the defending champions South Korea 3:2 in the battle for third place. This is the topic we covered more in our special, so if you’re interested, be sure to drop by.

Speaking of numbers…

As we wrote above, the top scorer of the tournament was Brazilian Ronaldo with eight goals. Rivaldo and Klose scored three goals less, while Jon Dahl Tomasson and Christian Vieiri scored four goals.

Attendance reached 2,705,000, with 161 goals in 64 matches. It should be added that this is the first and last time in the history of the World Cup that two countries have hosted the event.

Despite all the controversy surrounding the participation of South Korea in particular, it was another unforgettable championship in sporting terms. And not only thanks to Brazil, but also thanks to the many stars who were present at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

So, in conclusion, if you are not only interested in this championship, don’t hesitate to visit our YouTube channel, where you will find episodes about the World Cup up to the first ever championship in Uruguay.

FIFA , ESPN