Football World Cup 2002 / Ireland

The Irish national football team at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea :

qualification

Ireland had drawn as group opponents Portugal, the Netherlands, Estonia, Cyprus and Andorra. Since only the first in the group qualified directly and the second had to play a deciding game, the chances of participating in the World Cup were extremely poor. Portugal and the Netherlands were considered high favorites.

At the beginning there was a surprising away draw against the Netherlands, who once again took a qualifying game lightly. It was almost a sensation when the next away game against Portugal ended in a draw. Suddenly a qualification no longer seemed impossible. The next games were won against the easy opponents Estonia, Cyprus and Andorra according to the program. The Dutch, on the other hand, suffered a home defeat against Portugal.

The Irish laid the foundations for their third participation in the finals after 1990 and 1994 on June 2, 2001 with another draw against Portugal. A few weeks later they won 1-0 at home with a strong fighting performance against the Netherlands. The second place in the table was reached. Only because of the better goal difference Portugal came first.

In the playoffs Ireland had to play against Iran, where they just prevailed.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Portugal	33: 7	24
2	Ireland	23: 5	24
3	Netherlands	30: 9	20th
4th	Estonia	10:26	8th
5	Cyprus	13:31	8th
6th	Andorra	5:36	0

Netherlands	-	Ireland		2: 2
Portugal	-	Ireland		1: 1
Ireland	-	Estonia		2-0
Cyprus	-	Ireland		0: 4
Andorra	-	Ireland		0: 3
Ireland	-	Andorra		3: 1
Ireland	-	Portugal		1: 1
Estonia	-	Ireland		0: 2
Ireland	-	Netherlands		1-0
Ireland	-	Cyprus		4-0

Playoff:

Ireland	-	Iran		2-0
Iran	-	Ireland		1-0

Irish contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Shay Given	Newcastle United	04/20/1976	4th	0	0	0	0
16	Dean Kiely	Charlton Athletic	10/10/1970	0	0	0	0	0
23	Alan Kelly	Blackburn Rovers	08/11/1968	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Steve Finnan	Fulham FC	04/24/1976	4th	0	0	0	0
3	Ian Harte	Leeds United	08/31/1977	4th	0	1	0	0
4th	Kenny Cunningham	Wimbledon FC	06/28/1971	2	0	0	0	0
5	Steve Staunton	Aston Villa	01/19/1969	4th	0	1	0	0
14th	Gary Breen	Coventry City	12/12/1973	4th	1	0	0	0
15th	Richard Dunne	Manchester City	09/21/1979	0	0	0	0	0
18th	Gary Kelly	Leeds United	07/09/1974	4th	0	0	0	0
20th	Andy O'Brien	Newcastle United	06/29/1979	0	0	0	0	0
midfield player
6th	Roy Keane (Suspended)	Manchester United	08/10/1971	0	0	0	0	0
7th	Jason McAteer	Sunderland AFC	06/18/1971	2	0	0	0	0
8th	Matt Holland	Ipswich Town	04/11/1974	4th	1	0	0	0
9	Damien Duff	Blackburn Rovers	03/02/1979	4th	1	0	0	0
11	Kevin Kilbane	Sunderland AFC	02/01/1977	4th	0	0	0	0
12	Mark Kinsella	Charlton Athletic	08/12/1972	4th	0	0	0	0
21st	Steven Reid	Millwall FC	03/10/1981	2	0	1	0	0
22nd	Lee Carsley	Everton FC	02/28/1974	1	0	0	0	0
striker
10	Robbie Keane	Leeds United	07/08/1980	4th	3	0	0	0
13	David Connolly	Wimbledon FC	06/06/1977	1	0	0	0	0
17th	Niall Quinn	Sunderland AFC	06.10.1966	3	0	0	0	0
19th	Clinton Morrison	Crystal Palace	05/14/1979	0	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Mick McCarthy		02/07/1959

Preliminary round

There was already some excitement in Ireland before the tournament. The star and captain of the team Roy Keane repeatedly criticized the association for its organizational achievements and was subsequently suspended.

After Ireland had drawn in their first two group matches against Cameroon and Germany, the round of 16 was within their grasp. A 2-0 win against the weak Saudis would be enough. Ireland had never won a World Cup game by more than one goal difference, but Saudi Arabia were not serious opponents. The Irish won 3-0 and finished second in Group E behind Germany.

Play Ireland in the preliminary round
date	encounter	Result
June 1st	Ireland - Cameroon	1: 1
June 5th	Germany - Ireland	1: 1
June 11th	Saudi Arabia - Ireland	0: 3

Final score group E
rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Germany	11: 1	7th
2	Ireland	5: 2	5
3	Cameroon	2: 3	4th
4th	Saudi Arabia	0:12	0

Round of 16

Ireland's opponent was the winner of Group B, Spain. Besides Brazil, the Spaniards were the only ones to win all the preliminary round matches and were considered favorites. With Raúl and Morientes they had world class players in their squad.

Spain took the lead in the eighth minute. Ireland fought doggedly. With an almost unbelievable running performance they tried to force the equalizer, but failed again and again due to the outstanding goalkeeper Iker Casillas . He even saved a penalty in the middle of the second half. It was only in the 90th minute that Ireland could equalize with a penalty kick. The fighting continued in extra time. Spain had only ten men on the field as one player was injured and the substitution quota had already been exhausted. But it remained at 1: 1.

The result was a penalty shoot-out First Robbie Keane and Fernando Hierro scored , then Holland missed for Ireland and Rubén Baraja gave Spain a 2-1 lead. The next four shooters all fired (Conolly, Kilbane; Juanfran, Valerón). After Finnan was able to equalize again as the last Irish shooter, Gaizka Mendieta converted safely as the last shooter and brought Spain to the quarter-finals.

Ireland

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Spain

1: 1 n.V., 2: 3 i. E.