Football World Cup 2002 / Slovenia

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

qualification

Slovenia narrowly beat Yugoslavia in the battle for second place. In the play-offs, Romania was surprisingly defeated. This was the first time that Slovenia qualified for the World Cup finals.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Russia	18: 5	23
2	Slovenia	17: 9	20th
3	Yugoslavia	22: 8	19th
4th	Switzerland	18:12	14th
5	Faroe Islands	6:23	7th
6th	Luxembourg	4:28	0

Faroe Islands	-	Slovenia	2: 2
Luxembourg	-	Slovenia	1: 2
Slovenia	-	Switzerland	2: 2
Russia	-	Slovenia	1: 1
Slovenia	-	Yugoslavia	1: 1
Slovenia	-	Luxembourg	2-0
Switzerland	-	Slovenia	0: 1
Slovenia	-	Russia	2: 1
Yugoslavia	-	Slovenia	1: 1
Slovenia	-	Faroe Islands	3-0

Playoff:

Slovenia	-	Romania	2: 1
Romania	-	Slovenia	1: 1

Slovenian contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Marko Simeunovič	NK Maribor	December 06, 1967	2	0	0	0	0
12	Mladen Dabanovič	SC Lokeren	09/13/1971	1	0	0	0	0
22nd	Dejan Nemec	Club Bruges	03/01/1977	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Goran Sankovič	Slavia Prague	06/18/1977	0	0	0	0	0
3	Željko Milinović	JEF United Ichihara	09/12/1969	3	0	2	0	0
4th	Muamer Vugdalič	NK Maribor	08/25/1977	1	0	0	0	0
5	Marinko Galič	FC Koper	04/22/1970	1	0	0	0	0
6th	Aleksander Knavs	1. FC Kaiserslautern	December 05, 1975	2	0	0	0	0
19th	Amir Karič	NK Maribor	December 31, 1973	3	0	2	0	0
23	Spasoje Bulajič	1. FC Cologne	11/24/1975	2	0	0	0	0
midfield player
7th	Džoni Novak	SpVgg Unterhaching	09/04/1969	3	0	0	0	0
8th	Aleš Čeh	Graz AK	04/07/1968	3	0	1	0	0
10	Zlatko Zahovič	Benfica Lisbon	02/01/1971	1	0	0	0	0
11	Miran Pavlin	FC Porto	10/08/1971	3	0	2	0	0
14th	Saša Gajser	KAA Gent	02/11/1974	1	0	0	0	0
15th	Rajko Tavčar	1. FC Nuremberg	07/21/1974	1	0	0	0	0
17th	Zoran Pavlovič	FK Austria Vienna	06/27/1976	0	0	0	0	0
18th	Milenko Ačimovič	FK Red Star Belgrade	02/15/1977	3	1	0	0	0
20th	Nastja Čeh	Club Bruges	01/26/1978	2	0	1	0	0
striker
9	Milan Osterc	Hapoel Tel Aviv	07/04/1975	3	0	0	0	0
13	Mladen Rudonja	Portsmouth FC	07/26/1971	3	0	1	0	0
16	Senad Tiganj	NK Olimpija Ljubljana	08/28/1975	1	0	0	0	0
21st	Sebastjan Cimirotič	US Lecce	09/14/1974	3	1	1	0	0
Trainer
	Srečko Katanec		07/16/1963

Preliminary round

Slovenia were gross underdogs in Group B. All three games were lost. Along with China and Saudi Arabia, Slovenia was the only team without a point win.

One reason for the poor performance of Slovenia was the suspension of playmaker and superstar Zahovic after the game against Spain because of differences of opinion with the coach.

Spain	-	Slovenia	3: 1
South Africa	-	Slovenia	1-0
Slovenia	-	Paraguay	1: 3