- The Saipan incident
- Ronaldo’s redemption
- Goldenballs to the rescue
- Another unfortunate exit
- The ‘home town referee’
- France’s failure
- Give that man as Oscar
- Golden ball for the golden gloves
The Saipan incident – Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy
It took the Republic of Ireland many, many attempts before they managed to qualify for the World Cup. Indeed, it was 13th time lucky when they finally made it in 1990 under the singular leadership of Jack Charlton. When Charlton led them again to the finals in 1994, his star player was a 22-year-old from Cork, Manchester United’s Roy Keane.
Keane was to become the beating heart of the most successful team ever in English football, winning seven league titles with United. A natural leader, Keane was hugely talented, but his real point of difference was his intense competitiveness and will to win. This drive was normally positive, but could also boil over into excessive aggression and borderline violence.
Keane was someone who set extremely high standards for himself and for his teammates, and from his early days it was clear that he did not think Ireland football lived up to these standards. At his first call up, for the Irish U-21s, he described the set-up as “a bit of a joke”, and relationships between Keane and the Ireland football authorities remained frosty throughout his international career. He was critical of travel arrangements, diet, training and match tactics, and Keane had little or no respect for manager Mick McCarthy whom he felt was clueless.
Keane’s frustrations reached boiling point in 2002, when Ireland, having qualified for their third World Cup finals, flew to the island of Saipan (in the Mariana Islands) for a pre-finals camp. The FAI and management saw the camp as an opportunity for R&R and to reboot after a tough club season; Keane wanted it taken far more seriously. Annoyed and fed up on the island, he determined to leave the squad and return home, but then changed his mind and stayed. Faced then with a negative press reaction in Ireland, which questioned his commitment to the national cause, he decided to grant an interview to the Irish Times to lay out his reasons for wanting to leave in the first place.
When the article was published, it led to a public confrontation between manager McCarthy and Keane. McCarthy brandished the newpaper article asking Keane what it was all about, then accusing his captain of feigning injury in a key play-off match. Keane lost it. His 10-minute rant is reported as including the following:
“Mick, you’re a liar … you’re a fucking wanker. I didn’t rate you as a player, I don’t rate you as a manager, and I don’t rate you as a person. You’re a fucking wanker and you can stick your World Cup up your arse. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country! You can stick it up your bollocks.“
McCarthy had no other choice but to send his best player home. Although many significant people, including the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, got involved, there was no way back for Keane. Without their captain and talisman, Ireland surprisingly did quite well, going unbeaten in the group stage and going out only on penalties in the round of 16.
As for Keane, he did return to the side once McCarthy had been replaced as manager a year or so later. And many of his criticisms of the national side’s set up and approach were later validated in a report commissioned by the FAI into the country’s football structure. But as far as the World Cup was concerned, it was too late for Keane – he never got the chance to play in one for his country.
Ronaldo’s redemption – Brazil 2-0 Germany, Final
The 1998 World Cup final produced a superb victory for the home nation, France. If there was any cloud in what was otherwise a bright blue sky of happiness, it was the unusual circumstances that had befallen their opponents, Brazil, on the day of the final. In short, their best player, Ronaldo, had suffered a convulsive fit hours before the match and had spent three hours in hospital. After being omitted initially from the teamsheet, he was sensationally reinstated into the starting XI. He played the match despite appearing unfit to play, and his ineffectual performance was certainly a factor in Brazil’s underperformance on the day.
There were numerous conspiracy theories relating to the incident. Had team sponsor Nike put undue pressure on Brazil manager Zagallo to include their marquee player? Had Ronaldo suffered a nervous breakdown that the team doctor had been reluctant to fully diagnose? Had Zagallo simply bowed to player power? Whatever was really behind it, it raised a number of question marks about the player who was regarded as the finest forward of his generation (and indeed was still voted player of the tournament).
The years following 1998 were not kind to the Brazilian. He suffered a bad knee injury in 1999 while playing for Inter Milan, then an even worse setback only minutes into his comeback match six months later. He missed the entire 2000/1 season and much of the following one, and did not play at all in Brazil’s (unconvincing) World Cup qualification campaign. He did recover sufficiently to be included in his team’s squad for the 2002 finals, and it soon became clear that his powers had not waned. South American football expert Tim Vickery wrote that “Without Ronaldo, Brazil were a shambles, fortunate even to get to the tournament. With him it was a different story.”
Playing alongside Rivaldo and Ronaldinho in one of the most dangerous front threes ever assembled, Ronaldo was unstoppable. He scored in each of the group games, in the round of 16 and again in the semi-final. (The only game he did not score in was against England.) After four years he was back in the final, and this time he seemed in prime fitness and form. And so it proved. With the final goalless on 67 minutes, Ronaldo won the ball near the German box and found Rivaldo in the box. When Rivaldo’s shot was spilled horribly by German keeper Oliver Kahn, Ronaldo anticipated perfectly and was right on the spot to capitalise and roll it coolly into the goal. 12 minutes later he received the ball on the edge of the box and made a yard of space for a right-footed shot that found the bottom corner of the net. Two goals to Ronaldo and 2-0 to Brazil. The great striker had come back from the disappointment and controversy of 1998 and from many months when he might have thought he would never play again at the top level, to win his country their fifth World Cup.
Goldenballs to the rescue – England 2-2 Greece, final qualifier
England in recent years have made qualification for major tournaments look extremely straightforward. It was not ever thus. In 1994 we failed to qualify at all, in 1998 it required a heroic rearguard in Rome, and in 2002 we really did push it to the wire.
The qualification started in dismal fashion with a 0-1 defeat at home to Germany, a match that prompted the emotional resignation of manager Kevin Keegan (in a Wembley stadium toilet). When England then failed to beat lowly Finland in Helsinki things looked about as grim as they could be. England, though, did bounce back. The appointment of their first foreign manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, brought about an upturn in fortunes and wins were achieved at home to Finland and away to both Albania and Greece.
The game that looked likely to be the group decider came on 1st September 2001 in Munich. It will go down as one of the most epic wins in England’s history. After conceding an early goal, England found a magic and glorious scoring touch. Michael Owen slotted in a hat-trick, Steven Gerrard got another, and there was even one from Emile Heskey. Despite taking fewer shots and having less possession, the match finished with the unimaginable scoreline of Germany 1 England 5. Even then, England were not guaranteed qualification, and they came to their final game, at home to Greece, needing to win to finish top of the group.
In the first half, England were simply abysmal. The pressure of the situation seemed to get to everyone, and the Greeks were superior in all areas of the pitch. The away team’s dominance was rewarded on 36 minutes when Charisteas put them ahead with a cross-shot from the right. England came out stronger in the second half, but still struggled to fashion much in the way of chances. When they did get the ball on target Greek keeper Nikopolidis (a dead ringer for George Clooney) was on hand to keep it out of the net. A breakthrough, though, came on 67 minutes when substitute Teddy Sheringham, on the pitch for only 15 seconds, glanced in a header from a Beckham free kick. But the Old Trafford crowd was silenced two minutes later when Nikolaidis wriggled his way to a shot in the box to restore the Greek’s lead.
If there was one bright spark in England’s performance it was in the performance of captain David Beckham. Beckham was everywhere, tracking back when required and surging forward at every opportunity, demanding the ball, taking players on, leading by example. It’s estimated that he covered 16.1km in the match, well above even his own high average. As the clock ticked on and the game entered added time, he alone seemed to think that the game could be rescued. And so it could. In the third minute of added time a free kick was awarded 25-yards out for a foul on Sheringham. Beckham set himself to take it, then curved the ball over the net and into the top left-hand corner of the net. It was an incredible and unforgettable strike, and with Germany (perhaps equally incredibly) failing to beat Finland at home, England had scraped their way through to the 2002 World Cup finals.
Another unfortunate exit – England 1-2 Brazil, Quarter Final
Was it a shot or a cross? We will never know for sure, but what we do know is that Ronaldinho’s free-kick from 35 yards out finished in the back of England’s net, and that it was the decisive goal in a 1-2 defeat that once again saw England knocked out of the World Cup.
It was not perhaps a vintage England side – Danny Mills, Trevor Sinclair and Nicky Butt all started against Brazil – but they had, under Sven Goran-Eriksson, proved hard to beat. They qualified narrowly from their group – the highlight being a 1-0 win against old enemy, Argentina – before a convincing 3-0 demolition over Denmark in the round of 16. Perhaps they were peaking at the right time.
They faced in the quarter final a Brazil sporting a fearsome front line of the three R’s, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, as well as two superb attacking full backs, Cafu and Roberto Carlos. While Brazil could be relied upon to score, they were fallible at the back. And, so it proved when England took the lead after 23 minutes, a mistake from Lucio allowing Michael Owen space to fire past Brazilian keeper Marcos. The lead lasted until just before half time. Ronaldinho picked up possession in his own half, then burst through the England half before picking out a pass to an unmarked Rivaldo who passed it coolly into the net.
Although Brazil had looked the better side and had certainly posed more of a threat, the game looked reasonably well balanced going into the second half. It took, however, only five minutes for the customary catastrophe to strike. A clumsy challenge by Paul Scholes (a tautology if ever there was one) gave Brazil a free-kick 35 yards from goal on the right. Ronaldinho grabbed the ball and set it down. His only sensible option was a cross to the back post, and that’s clearly what David Seaman was expecting. The veteran keeper set himself a couple of yards from his goal line as Ronaldinho sent the ball towards the box. The flight of the ball though was more direct than anticipated, and Seaman suddenly realised it was headed goalwards. He tried to step back to cover it, but looking all of his 39 years and more, and with his boots seemed stuck in treacle, he could not make up the ground. If you were ever to look for a definition of the word ‘floundering’ you would find it here. The ball floated agonisingly over his flapping arms and into the top corner of the goal. Brazil were 2-1 up.
There were still 40 minutes remaining, and Brazil had to play the last 30 without the goalscorer, who got himself sent off for an incompetent rather than malicious tackle. England, however, were a little off key all match and never really looked likely to do it. While Brazil would go on to win the title, England, once again, would be flying home early.
The ‘home town referee’ – South Korea vs Italy, Round of 16
In September 2010 Ecuadorian national Byron Moreno was arrested at JFK International Airport in New York City while attempting to smuggle 6kg of heroin into the US. He pleaded guilty, was convicted and imprisoned for 2½ years after which time he returned to Ecuador. His crime might have gone unnoticed – just another criminal trying to bring in drugs from South America – were it not for the fact that, to many people’s eyes, Moreno had committed a more egregious ‘crime’ eight years earlier at the 2002 World Cup. His offence then had been to do seemingly whatever he could to ensure that home nation South Korea beat Italy in their World Cup knock-out match.
In 2002 Moreno was a referee at the World Cup. His debut came in the group game between USA and Portugal. While this match finished in a massive shock, a 3-2 victory for the Americans, there was no sense that Moreno’s officiating had been in any way off. He was duly selected to referee the big Round-of-16 tie between home nation South Korea, ranked a lowly 40th in the world, and Italy, a powerhouse of European football and one of the favourites for the tournament.
The match turned out to one of the most explosive, dramatic and controversial in World Cup history. It was intensely physical from the start and the Italians, no shrinking violets themselves, clearly felt that the referee let too many illegal Korean challenges go unpunished. It was, however, their defender, Coco who was first to go into the book in only the 3rd minute for a very late tackle on Park Ji-Sung. When the ensuing free kick was floated into the box, Moreno awarded a very soft penalty after a Korean attacker fell to the floor. Although the penalty was saved (brilliantly by Buffon) the Italian flame of injustice had been lit.
They were especially aggrieved when in the 49th minute, a clear elbow in face of Alessandro del Piero went unpunished, not least because their own Francesco Totti had received a card for a similar if less obvious offence minutes before half time. Totti’s card was to come back to haunt Italy in extra time, when he was pulled down in the Korean box, but was adjudged not to have been fouled but instead to have dived. Moreno pulled out a second yellow to controversially send off the star midfielder.
10-man Italy battled hard, and thought they might have done it when Damiano Tommasi broke through the Korean defence and rounded the keeper. The linesman, however, had flagged for a marginal offside and, in the days before VAR, this was enough to rule out the goal. In a tournament using the ‘golden goal’ rule, this would have been enough to see Italy through, but instead it was the Koreans who benefited when Ahn Jung-Hwan scored at the other end in the 26th minute of extra time. A huge upset had been completed.
Watching the game again, and seeing it not through Italian goggles, some of Moreno’s decisions seem questionable but not ridiculously one-sided. For example, five Koreans were booked vs five for Italy. Moreno gave 28 free kicks against Korea vs 22 against the Italians. When FIFA investigated, they could find no evidence of fixing. That did not, of course, stop Italian fans and media from claiming (to this day) that everything was corrupt and weighted in favour the home side.
In reality, it was South Korea’s next opponents, Spain, who had more cause for grievance. In their quarter final, Spain had two seemingly legitimate goals disallowed, and numerous offside flags raised in dubious circumstances. The Koreans, to be honest, couldn’t have cared less, and neither could most of the watching public around the world. Their unexpected journey to the semi-finals was the most magical of the 2002 World Cup, as long, of course, as you weren’t Spanish or Italian.
France’s failure – Group stage
In 1998, France, playing on home soil, gloriously won their first ever World Cup trophy. A great side, featuring Zidane, Desailly, Vieira, Thuram, Djorkaeff and Thierry Henry, delivered on the biggest stage of all, convincingly defeating Brazil 3-0 in the final. In 2000, they reinforced their position as one of the top teams in the world by winning the European Championships. They arrived at World Cup 2002 as defending champions and ranked number one in the world.
They suffered two big blows before the tournament. First, star left-sided midfielder Robert Pires was ruled out with a knee injury. Then, a bigger blow, when star player and overall talisman, Zinedine Zidane, suffered a thigh injury in a pre-tournament friendly. Their poor showing in Asia was nevertheless unexpected. Perhaps too many players were a little past their best, and many were drained after a tough club season. Perhaps they had become complacent. Perhaps manager Roger Lemerre had lost his edge (although he did go on to lead Tunisia to their first and only AFCON title). Whatever the reasons, their World Cup campaign was disastrous.
They kicked off the tournament with a massive shock, a 1-0 defeat to unfancied Senegal playing in their first ever finals. This was followed this up by a dull goalless draw against Uruguay. They still had a chance if they could beat Denmark, but they failed miserably to do this, going down 2-0. They exited the tournament at the group stage, bottom of their group without having scored a single goal. France would go on to rebuild and recover, making the final in 2006, but their defence of the title in 2002 was indisputably not their finest hour.
Give that man an Oscar – Rivaldo, Brazil 2-1 Turkey, Group stage
If there has ever been a more disgraceful act of playacting than that perpetrated by Rivaldo in the 2002 World Cup in the match against Turkey I have yet to witness it.
The game, the opener in Group C, had been surprisingly tight but seemed to have been settled in the 87th minute when Rivaldo stepped up to convert a (somewhat dubiously awarded) penalty to give Brazil a 2-1 lead. The minutes ticked on and as the clock was ran down in added time, Brazil won a corner for what would almost certainly be the game’s final action. Rivaldo strolled over to take it but, in no rush to do anything, made no move to collect the ball. A frustrated Turkish player, Hakan Unsal, kicked it firmly towards him where it struck the Brazilian on the thigh. Somehow this was enough to see Rivaldo collapse to the floor clutching his face as though he’d been punched hard in the face.
Korean referee Kim Young-joo was probably looking elsewhere at the time, because he fell hook line and sinker for the Brazilian’s cheating. He was not helped by his linesman, who was standing next to the corner spot and really should have seen it, so sent off Unsal for a second yellow card.
It was an utter disgrace, so much so that it prompted FIFA to give themselves new powers to fine players retrospectively for simulation. Rivaldo was fined (c.£5,000) but FIFA took no further punishment, leaving him available for future matches. He went on to play a key role in Brazil’s run to the title which, famously, included a re-match against Turkey in the semi-final. Remarkably their players did not target Rivaldo or seek retribution. I can think of many who would not have been quite as restrained.
The golden ball for the golden gloves – Oliver Kahn
The German side that made it through to the World Cup final of 2002 was not, perhaps, one of their vintage line-ups. They had qualified for the finals only via a play-off with Ukraine, and had entered the tournament in the unaccustomed position of being ranked outside the top 10 teams in the world. They were, as always, solid and well organised at the back and hard working in midfield but, despite the emergence of Miroslav Klose, were not especially potent in attack.
One area where they were world-class was between the sticks. First-choice keeper was Bayern Munich’s Oliver Kahn, big, strong and aggressive, a man who saw the six-yard box as his private fiefdom and was determined to protect it from outsiders. A good shot-stopper, he had saved three penalties in the 2000/1 Champions League final shoot-out to take his team Bayern to the title.
In South Korea and Japan for Germany, Kahn was almost unbeatable. He conceded only one goal in the group stage – a last-minute equaliser to Robbie Keane of Ireland – but thereafter made save after save and block after block to keep his goal intact. In each of the knock-out rounds – the round-of-16 vs Paraguay, the quarter final vs USA and the semi vs South Korea – he made critical saves to ensure a shut-out for the opposition. One goal at the other end in each game was enough to see Germany through. It was not single-handed (although some of his saves were), but Kahn’s keeping was perhaps the key factor in his team reaching the final.
It was unfortunate for Kahn that his only significant blemish in the tournament should come in the final against Brazil. And it was hugely significant. A shot on the turn from Rivaldo in the 69th minute should have been collected, but it bounced out of Kahn’s hands into the path of Ronaldo who fired it in for Brazil’s opener. Ronaldo, of course, went on to score a second and the title went to Brazil. Such was the quality of Kahn’s performances up to that point, however, that despite the high-profile error, ‘Der Titan’ was still voted player of the tournament and received the coveted Golden Ball. Kahn remains the only goalkeeper ever to have won the award.
https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/articles/oliver-kahn-goalkeeper-golden-ball
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2002/jul/01/worldcupfootball2002.sport10