Football World Cup 2002 / England

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

qualification

The qualification began for England with a false start: a home defeat against rivals Germany and a draw against Finland. Wins against weaker teams followed, but Germany had now worked out a comfortable lead. England played the second leg in Munich on September 1, 2001.

A draw would have been enough for the Germans to win the group and thus to qualify directly. The early deficit due to a goal from Carsten Jancker was almost compensated in return by Michael Owen and the opening goal was scored seconds before half-time. After two counterattacks by the fast Michael Owen, England pulled away 4-1. A quarter of an hour before the end, the fifth goal was scored.

Since Germany only reached a draw in the last group game against Finland, England also drew at home against Greece. But until stoppage time in the second half, the English were 2-1 back, before David Beckham converted a free kick and brought England to the World Cup finals.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	England	16: 6	17th
2	Germany	14:10	17th
3	Finland	12: 7	12
4th	Greece	7:17	7th
5	Albania	5:14	3

England	-	Germany		0: 1
Finland	-	England		0-0
England	-	Finland		2: 1
Albania	-	England		1: 3
Greece	-	England		0: 2
Germany	-	England		1: 5
England	-	Albania		2-0
England	-	Greece		2: 2

English contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	David Seaman	Arsenal FC	09/19/1963	5	0	0	0	0
13	Nigel Martyn	Leeds United	08/11/1966	0	0	0	0	0
22nd	David James	West Ham United	08/01/1970	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Danny Mills	Leeds United	05/18/1977	5	0	1	0	0
3	Ashley Cole	Arsenal FC	December 20, 1980	5	0	1	0	0
5	Rio Ferdinand	Leeds United	07/11/1978	5	1	1	0	0
6th	Sol Campbell	Arsenal FC	September 18, 1974	5	1	1	0	0
12	Wes Brown	Manchester United	10/13/1979	0	0	0	0	0
14th	Wayne Bridge	Southampton FC	08/05/1980	2	0	0	0	0
15th	Martin Keown	Arsenal FC	07/24/1966	0	0	0	0	0
16	Gareth Southgate	Middlesbrough FC	09/03/1970	0	0	0	0	0
midfield player
4th	Trevor Sinclair	West Ham United	03/02/1973	4th	0	0	0	0
7th	David Beckham	Manchester United	05/02/1975	5	1	0	0	0
8th	Paul Scholes	Manchester United	11/16/1974	5	0	1	0	0
18th	Owen Hargreaves	FC Bayern Munich	01/20/1981	2	0	0	0	0
19th	Joe Cole	West Ham United	11/08/1981	1	0	0	0	0
21st	Nicky Butt	Manchester United	01/21/1975	4th	0	0	0	0
23	Kieron Dyer	Newcastle United	December 29, 1978	3	0	0	0	0
striker
9	Robbie Fowler	Leeds United	04/09/1975	1	0	0	0	0
10	Michael Owen	Liverpool FC	December 14, 1979	5	2	0	0	0
11	Emile Heskey	Liverpool FC	01/11/1978	5	1	1	0	0
17th	Teddy Sheringham	Tottenham Hotspur	04/02/1966	4th	0	0	0	0
20th	Darius Vassell	Aston Villa	06/13/1980	3	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Sven-Göran Eriksson		02/05/1948

Preliminary round

Despite furious protests from the island, England was not “seeded” by FIFA when the group matches were drawn. Only the results of the previous three World Cups were taken into account, and England did not do well or did not qualify. The motherland of football, Argentina, was drawn to a favorite. The Nigerians and Swedes completed the “death group”.

The first game against Sweden ended in a draw. The second encounter was against Argentina. Just a few months earlier, an Argentine had brutally fouled David Beckham in a Champions League game and England had been eliminated by the South Americans at the last World Cup. The game ended 1-0 for England. Beckham converted a penalty into the winning goal in the 44th minute. In the last game against the Nigerians, a 0-0 win was enough to finish second behind Sweden. The second round was reached.

Play England in the preliminary round
date	encounter	Result
2th of June	England - Sweden	1: 1
June 7th	Argentina - England	0: 1
June 12	Nigeria - England	0-0

Final score group F
rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Sweden	4: 3	5
2	England	2: 1	5
3	Argentina	2: 2	4th
4th	Nigeria	1: 3	1

Finals

In the last sixteen, the team met Denmark. After a mistake by the Danish goalkeeper, England took the lead in the fifth minute. The Danes never got involved. Michael Owen scored the 2-0 a little later, and in the end it was 3-0.

As in the previous finals, FIFA had designed the game plan so that the favorites would only meet towards the end of the tournament. However, since England only finished second behind Sweden in the preliminary round, they had to face Brazil in the quarter-finals. The English initially took the lead when Michael Owen took advantage of Lúcio's mistake . Just before half-time, Rivaldo equalized. The winning goal for Brazil came after a free kick by Ronaldinho , whose shot hit the Kreuzeck behind David Seaman, who was a little too far in front of the goal . A few minutes later, the goalscorer was sent off for foul play. The English did not equalize in the remaining 35 minutes.

England	-	Denmark		3-0
Brazil	-	England		2: 1