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                                       World Cup Korea&Japan 2002

Turkiye are in the last 16 after finishing ahead of Costa Rica on goal difference. The Turks convincingly beat China 3-0 whilst Costa Rica wento down 5-2 to Brazil, although the scoreline did not reflect the performance put in by th CONCACAF team.
Brazil raced into a 3 gaol lead but Paolo Wanchope and Ronald Gomez pulled Costa Rica back into a qualifying position, only to see Brazil score two goals in as many minutes to rebuild the mountain for Costa Ricans. Despite creating chances and play some neat, intracate football, Costa Rica could not break the dodgy looking Brazilian rearguard any further and have cruelly gone out on goal difference.

Brazilian midfield maestro Rivaldo has been hit with a fine of £5,180 for his play acting in the fixture between Turkiye The Barcelona man  defend his actions, as his Brazil team coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who feels his player has been hard done by.
There is little doubt that the fine will make much difference to mega earning Rivaldo, but it does signal FIFA's intent to clamp down on cheating and unsporting behaviour in the tournament.

France, the pre-tournament favourites are out of the competition after losing 2-0 to Denmark in Group A. Zinedine Zidane looked a shade of his World Class reputation as his team were put to the sword by a Danish side who gave them no chance to ever get going.
The two goals came from Jon Dahl Tomasson and Dennis Romedahl, who hit a well taken goal midway through the first half. Any hopes the holders had of obtaining their two goal lead were truly dashed when Tomasson converted Jesper Gronkjaer's cross on 66 minutes. The result sees France finish bottom of the Group and with the worst record of any World Cup defending champion.
Also in Group A, Senegal held on for a 3-3 draw which saw them finish runners-up behind Denmark. After storming into a 3-0 lead, Senegal laid back and Uruguay punished them. Richard Morales pulled one back before Manchester United's Diego Forlan hit a stunning shot to make it 3-2. Urugay equallised with a penalty from Alvaro Recoba with two minutes to go and Uruguay should perhaps have won the game when first goal scorer Morales missed a great chance in injurt time which denied his side a place in the last 16.

After France's shock defeat on day 1 comes a somewhat bigger surprise as America, the worst team at France 98 beat one of the favourites to win the World Cup, Portugal. Both sides had the fortune of receiving own-goals but hte USA thoroughly deserved their victory, showing no fear to Portguals star studded side.
The result was good for the co-hosts South Korea,  They won the group.Portugal regained their form after the humiliating defeat by USA to send Poland crashing out of the competition. A hat-trick from Pauleta and a late goal by Rui Costa gave the Portugese a superb 4-0 truimph. Portugal's World Cup dream is over after orea match.

Turkiye reached their first ever World Cup Quarter final with a 1-0 win over co-hosts Japan. They took the lead on 12 minutes through Umit Davala, and held their lead without really being stretched in defence. Despite all their possesion, Japan rarely found a clear opening and the final ball denied them on too many occassions.
Regardless of this, the co-hosts have much to be proud of and haqve shown in this tournament just how far they have come since 1998, and that they have the potential to do even better next time round.

England played Brazil, World Cup quarter final after the South Americans beat Belgium 2-0 in Kobe. The scoreline though does not reflect the performance and Belgium at least deserved to take the game into extra time as they were much the better team for most of the match. A superb individual goal by the mostly unaffective Rivaldo gave Brazil the lead on 67 minutes before Ronaldo took his tally to five in the tournament with the decisive strike four minutes from time.

England's World Cup dream is over. Brazil survived most of the second half with 10 men to comfortably win 2-1. Michael Owen gave England the lead after a comical error by Lucio, but Brazil equalised with a good goal in first half stoppage time. Then two minutes into the second half, Ronaldinho's free kick put Brazil in the lead and seven minutes late, the scorer of the winning goal saw red in harsh circumstances. His tackle on Danny Mills deserved a booking at the most and FIFA will be keen to look at the referee's performance which has been questionable throughout the tournament. 

South Korea's sensational World Cup adventure is over after they lost 1-0 to Germany in the first semi-final. Michael Ballack scored the goal with 15 minutes to go to send his unfancied side into the showpiece finale against Brazil.South Korea played wıth Turkiye.  Hakan Suker scores the fastest ever World Cup goal as Turkiye beat South Korea 3-2 to claim third place.            

Final Day

BRAZIL ARE THE CHAMPIONS..........

       Ronaldo buried the ghosts of 98 by scoring the goals that gave Brazil their FIFTH World Cup title.

The Inter Milan superstar missed two good first half chances, but made up for it with two strikes in the second half.

The first came after Goalkeeper of the tournament, Oliver Kahn spilt a shot by Rivaldo and Ronaldo was on hand to smash the ball past the despairing German keeper. The second was total proof that he was back to his best with a super strike from the edge of the box which went in off the post.

Both teams hit the woodwork, and Germany were unlucky not to take the lead through Oliver Neuville who's 30 yard free kick was brilliantly saved by Marcos

The final whistle was greeted by huge celebration as Cafu lifted the World Cup to huge applause, and whilst the whole team deserved their victory, it was the image of tearful Ronaldo which emphasised that he deserved this more than anyone, and now after four years of torment and injury, the World's greatest striker can once again enjoy his football, as a World Cup winner!

Match Schedule:
                                                                                                                                                                                          
SECOND ROUND                                                                   World Cup 2002:
                                                                                                                                        TEAM RANKİNG
Jun 15 Seogwipo Germany v Paraguay 1-0                                                                       TOPSCORERS
Jun 15 Niigata Denmark v England 0-3                                                                             ASSISTS
Jun 16 Oita Sweden v Senegal GG 1-2                                                                             REFEREE RATING
Jun 16 Suwon Spain v Ireland (3-2)1-1                                                                            VARIOUS STATISTICS 
Jun 17 Jeonju Mexico v USA 0-2
Jun 17 Kobe Brazil v Belgium 2-0
Jun 18 Miyagi Japan v Turkiye 0-1
Jun 18 Daejeon South Korea v Italy GG 2-1

QUARTERFINALS

Jun 21 Shizuoka England v Brazil 1-2                                   
Jun 21 Ulsan Germany v USA 1-0
Jun 22 Gwangju Spain v S.Korea (3-5)0-0
Jun 22 Osaka Senegal v Turkiye GG 0-1

SEMIFINALS
                                        
Jun 25 Seoul Germany v South Korea 1-0
Jun 26 Saitama Brazil v Turkiye 1-0

BRONZE FINAL

Jun 29 Daegu South Korea v Turkiye 2-3

WORLD CUP FINAL

Jun 30 Yokohama Germany v Brazil

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