Soccer World Cup 2002 / Nigeria

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

qualification

Nigeria played against Eritrea in the first round. After a disappointing draw in Eritrea, a 4-0 win at home allowed them to reach the second round as expected.

There you could prevail in a balanced group against the comrades from Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan. For a long time, the qualification was questionable, only with a winning streak in the last three match days could you achieve first place.

1 round:

Eritrea	-	Nigeria		0-0
Nigeria	-	Eritrea		4-0

2nd round:

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Nigeria	15: 3	16
2	Liberia	10: 8	15th
3	Sudan	8:10	12
4th	Ghana	10: 9	11
5	Sierra Leone	2:15	4th

Nigeria	-	Sierra Leone		2-0
Liberia	-	Nigeria		2: 1
Nigeria	-	Sudan		3-0
Ghana	-	Nigeria		0-0
Sierra Leone	-	Nigeria		1-0
Nigeria	-	Liberia		2-0
Sudan	-	Nigeria		0: 4
Nigeria	-	Ghana		3-0

Nigerian contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Ike Shorunmu	FC Luzern	10/16/1967	2	0	0	0	0
12	Austin Ejide	Gabros International	04/08/1984	0	0	0	0	0
22nd	Vincent Enyeama	FC Enyimba	08/29/1982	1	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Joseph Yobo	Olympique Marseille	09/06/1980	3	0	0	0	0
3	Celestine Babayaro	Chelsea FC	08/29/1978	2	0	0	0	0
5	Isaac Okoronkwo	Shakhtar Donetsk	05/01/1978	3	0	0	0	0
6th	Taribo West	1. FC Kaiserslautern	03/26/1974	2	0	1	0	0
13	Rabiu Afolabi	Standard Liege	04/18/1980	0	0	0	0	0
14th	Ifeanyi Udeze	PAOK Thessaloniki	07/21/1980	2	0	0	0	0
16	Efetobore Sodje	Crewe Alexandra	05/10/1972	2	0	1	0	0
19th	Eric Ejiofor	Maccabi Haifa	December 17, 1979	0	0	0	0	0
midfield player
7th	Pius Ikedia	Ajax Amsterdam	07/11/1980	3	0	0	0	0
8th	Mutiu Adepoju	UD Salamanca	December 22, 1970	0	0	0	0	0
10	Jay-Jay Okocha	Paris Saint-Germain	08/14/1973	3	0	0	0	0
11	Garba Lawal	Roda JC Kerkrade	05/22/1974	1	0	0	0	0
15th	Justice Christopher	Royal Antwerp	12/24/1981	3	0	0	0	0
20th	James Obiorah	Moscow locomotive	08/24/1978	1	0	0	0	0
23	Femi Opabunmi	Grasshoppers Zurich	03.03.1985	0	0	0	0	0
striker
4th	Nwankwo canoe	Arsenal FC	08/01/1976	2	0	0	0	0
9	Bartholomew Ogbeche	Paris Saint-Germain	10/01/1984	2	0	0	0	0
17th	Julius Aghahowa	Shakhtar Donetsk	02/12/1982	3	1	0	0	0
18th	Benedict Akwuegbu	Shenyang Jinde	11/03/1974	1	0	0	0	0
21st	John Utaka	al-Sadd Sports Club	01/08/1982	1	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Festus Onigbinde		??. ??. 1942

Preliminary round

Nigeria was considered the strongest African team in the tournament, but was drawn into the so-called "death group". Opponents were Argentina, Sweden and England. The opening game against Argentina was lost 1-0 and there was no increase in performance in the next two games. They also lost to Sweden, so that they were eliminated after two matchdays. The final game against England fitted into the overall appearance of Nigeria when they parted 0-0 in a weak game.

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