Soccer World Cup 2002 / Belgium

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

qualification

Belgium had to face Croatia and Scotland in qualifying . In addition, the outsiders from Latvia and San Marino were in the qualifying group. With a win against the Scots on the penultimate matchday, a draw in the final game against Croatia would have been enough. However, they lost 1-0 to a goal by Alen Bokšić and had to go to the play-offs, where they defeated the Czech Republic with two 1-0 wins and qualified for the World Cup finals.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Croatia	15: 2	18th
2	Belgium	25: 6	17th
3	Scotland	12: 6	15th
4th	Latvia	5:16	4th
5	San Marino	3:30	1

Belgium	-	Croatia		0-0
Latvia	-	Belgium		0: 4
Belgium	-	San Marino		10: 1
Scotland	-	Belgium		2: 2
Belgium	-	Latvia		3: 1
San Marino	-	Belgium		1: 4
Belgium	-	Scotland		2-0
Croatia	-	Belgium		1-0

Playoff:

Belgium	-	Czech Republic		1-0
Czech Republic	-	Belgium		0: 1

Belgian contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Geert De Vlieger	Willem II Tilburg	10/16/1971	4th	0	0	0	0
13	Francky Vandendriessche	Excelsior Mouscron	04/07/1971	0	0	0	0	0
23	Frédéric Herpoel	KAA Gent	08/16/1974	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Eric Deflandre	Olympique Lyon	08/02/1973	1	0	0	0	0
3	Glen De Boeck	RSC Anderlecht	08/22/1971	2	0	0	0	0
4th	Eric Van Meir	Standard Liege	02/28/1968	2	0	1	0	0
5	Nico Van Kerckhoven	FC Schalke 04	December 14, 1970	2	0	0	0	0
12	Peter Van Der Heyden	Club Bruges	07/16/1976	2	0	1	0	0
15th	Jacky Peeters	KAA Gent	December 13, 1969	3	0	0	0	0
16	Daniel Van Buyten	Olympique Marseille	02/07/1978	4th	0	1	0	0
midfield player
6th	Timmy Simons	Club Bruges	December 11, 1976	4th	0	0	0	0
8th	Bart Goor	Hertha BSC	04/09/1973	4th	0	0	0	0
10	Johan Walem	Standard Liege	02/01/1972	3	1	0	0	0
11	Gert Verheyen	Club Bruges	09/20/1970	4th	0	1	0	0
14th	Sven Vermant	FC Schalke 04	04/04/1973	1	0	0	0	0
17th	Gaëtan Englebert	Club Bruges	06/11/1976	0	0	0	0	0
18th	Yves Vanderhaeghe	RSC Anderlecht	01/30/1970	4th	0	2	0	0
19th	Bernd Thijs	KRC Genk	06/28/1978	0	0	0	0	0
21st	Danny Boffin	VV St. Truiden	07/10/1965	0	0	0	0	0
striker
7th	Marc Wilmots	FC Schalke 04	02/22/1969	4th	3	0	0	0
9	Wesley Sonck	KRC Genk	08/09/1978	4th	1	0	0	0
20th	Branko Strupar	Derby County	02/09/1970	2	0	0	0	0
22nd	Mbo Mpenza	Excelsior Mouscron	December 04, 1976	3	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Robert Waseige		08/26/1939

Preliminary round

In the first game of the preliminary round, Belgium met hosts Japan. The game ended 2-2 after Belgium initially had clear advantages and also took the lead. Favored by Belgian defensive mistakes, Japan gained the upper hand from the middle of the second half.

In the second game, after a disappointing performance against Tunisia, only a draw was achieved. In the last group game there was finally an increase and Russia was just beaten 3-2. However, Belgium only finished second in this weak group behind Japan. That meant that they met Brazil in the round of 16.

Japan	-	Belgium		2: 2
Tunisia	-	Belgium		1: 1
Belgium	-	Russia		3: 2

Final round

After Belgium disappointed in the preliminary round, there was finally the longed-for increase in performance in the round of 16. At times they were superior to the Brazilians and a surprise was in the air. After the referee refused to acknowledge a correct goal by Marc Wilmots because of an alleged offside position, the Brazilians scored two goals and, with a bit of luck, reached the next round.

Brazil

-

Belgium

2-0