Soccer World Cup 2002 / Spain

The Spanish national soccer team at the soccer world championship 2002 in Japan and South Korea :

qualification

Once again Austria and Israel were drawn to the Spaniards, as well as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Liechtenstein. The highly favored Iberians had no trouble asserting themselves and took first place unbeaten.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Spain	21: 4	20th
2	Austria	10: 8	15th
3	Israel	11: 7	12
4th	Bosnia Herzegovina	12:12	8th
5	Liechtenstein	0:23	0

Bosnia Herzegovina	-	Spain		1: 2
Spain	-	Israel		2-0
Austria	-	Spain		1: 1
Spain	-	Liechtenstein		5-0
Spain	-	Bosnia Herzegovina		4: 1
Israel	-	Spain		1: 1
Spain	-	Austria		4-0
Liechtenstein	-	Spain		0: 2

Spanish contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Iker Casillas	real Madrid	05/20/1981	5	0	0	0	0
13	Ricardo	Real Valladolid	12/30/1971	0	0	0	0	0
23	Pedro Contreras	Málaga CF	07/01/1972	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Curro Torres	Valencia CF	December 27, 1976	1	0	0	0	0
3	Juanfran	Celta Vigo	07/15/1976	3	0	0	0	1
4th	Iván Helguera	real Madrid	March 28, 1975	5	0	0	0	0
5	Carles Puyol	FC Barcelona	04/13/1978	4th	0	0	0	0
6th	Fernando Hierro	real Madrid	03/23/1968	4th	2	0	0	0
15th	Enrique Romero	Deportivo La Coruña	06/23/1971	3	0	0	0	0
20th	Miguel Ángel Nadal	RCD Mallorca	07/28/1966	4th	0	0	0	0
midfield player
8th	Rubén Baraja	Valencia CF	07/11/1975	4th	0	0	0	2
11	Javier de Pedro	Real Sociedad	08/04/1973	4th	0	0	0	1
14th	David Albelda	Valencia CF	09/01/1977	2	0	0	0	0
16	Gaizka Mendieta	Lazio Rome	03/27/1974	3	1	0	0	0
17th	Juan Carlos Valerón	Deportivo La Coruña	06/17/1975	4th	1	0	0	0
18th	Sergio	Deportivo La Coruña	11/10/1976	1	0	0	0	0
19th	Xavi	FC Barcelona	January 25, 1980	3	0	0	0	0
21st	Luis Enrique	FC Barcelona	05/08/1970	5	0	0	0	1
22nd	Joaquín	Betis Seville	07/21/1981	2	0	0	0	0
striker
7th	Raúl	real Madrid	06/27/1977	4th	3	0	0	0
9	Fernando Morientes	real Madrid	04/05/1976	5	3	0	0	1
10	Diego Tristán	Deportivo La Coruña	05/01/1976	2	0	0	0	0
12	Albert Luque	RCD Mallorca	03/11/1978	2	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	José Antonio Camacho		06/08/1955

Preliminary round

Seeded Spain had a relatively easy opponent drawn. At the beginning there was an undisputed victory against Slovenia . Paraguay turned out to be a much harder chunk. Spain fell behind early with an own goal and then found it difficult to get back into the game. Substitute Morientes was able to equalize in the 53rd minute. Spain then played sovereign and won 3-1 in the end. The second round was reached.

In the last group game against South Africa, the stars were spared. Nevertheless, they won 3-2.

Spain	-	Slovenia		3: 1
Spain	-	Paraguay		3: 1
South Africa	-	Spain		2: 3

Finals

In the round of 16 they met second in Group F, Ireland. Fernando Morientes scored the opening goal in the eighth minute . The Irish, who fought to the point of total exhaustion, overran the Spanish gate. Only in the 90th minute was the equalizer made by a penalty kick. No goal was scored in extra time, so the decision was made on penalties. The Irish missed three consecutive penalties and Spain were in the quarter-finals.

Opponent was South Korea, which had already eliminated Portugal and Italy. The Koreans were even stronger than the Irish and had the audience behind them. No goals were scored in regular time. Again the penalty shoot-out had to decide. The Koreans converted all five penalties, Spain failed once. With that South Korea was in the semifinals. The game caused a lot of polemics in retrospect, as the Spaniards were denied two regular goals. Already in the last 16 match between South Korea and Italy, the Asians were favored by incorrect referee decisions. According to critics, South Korea's participation in the semi-finals and third place match (in Seoul) had a very positive financial impact on the organizers.

Spain	-	Ireland		1: 1 n.V., 3: 2 i. E.
South Korea	-	Spain		0: 0 n.v., 5: 3 i. E.