Topic: 20 years since the 2002 World Cup - What are your memories?

[Kekule]

Do you reckon Ronaldinho meant that? Still looks like an over hit cross to me. I know he’s was absolutely brilliant so everyone assumes he meant it but I don’t know.

Inspired another generation of lobbed Seaman from 40 yards jokes that didn’t quite work to take over from Nahum though.

I don’t know, but the celebration smacked to me of someone who didn’t mean it but was trying to kid on that they did. “I’m great me, what a fucking goal that was, yeah…totally meant that.” type celebration.

[Drinks Sangria]

Will always have a special place for me this one, as the first World Cup I was old enough to get excited about in the anticipation of the build up. I also still have fairly vivid memories of all of England’s games, as well as the final and some of the smaller teams putting together good runs.

In 1998, I can bizarrely remember Scotland’s boring opener v Brazil and Owen’s goal v Argentina but I was barely 5 so didn’t appreciate the context. By the time 2002 rolled around I was Football crazy and enjoyed it massively.

[bradders1011]

Watching the final few minutes of Senegal beating France in the window of a Media Markt in Cologne during a school trip. We thought it very, very funny.

Only other thing is probably the special school busses being put on an hour earlier than usual because they were showing England v Brazil in the sports hall and then spending the rest of the day with a tit lip because of David Seaman (I was 13 at the time)

[oojason]

20 years to the day - 'Revisiting Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy's infamous World Cup bust-up':-

www.irishpost.com/sport/roy-keane-mick-mccarthy-world-cup-bust-up-155134

^ '"Mick, you're a liar … you're a fucking wanker. I didn't rate you as a player, I don't rate you as a manager, and I don't rate you as a person. You're a fucking wanker and you can stick your World Cup up your arse. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country! You can stick it up your bollocks.”' - Roy Keane.

[Elisha S]

Can anyone remember a humorous book about two Irish lads who head off to the 2002 World cup on a scooter? Cant remember the name of it  at all and Google is not helping.

[Brain Potter]

I recall it more as it was on at the same time as Big Brother which for this series only I watched incessantly.

[classycarra]

Ballack taking one for the team and getting suspension for the final

[Crosby Nick]

Can anyone remember a humorous book about two Irish lads who head off to the 2002 World cup on a scooter? Cant remember the name of it  at all and Google is not helping.

Was that how they got Keane’s replacement out there?

[darragh85]

Being from Ireland, the Roy Keane incident was the main one

How we did well without him and should have beaten Spain the second round

Watching games early in the morning

Certain teams flopping, in particular France, Portugal and Argentina

How I felt Brazil were going to win it despite most people having Argentina as favourites.

The dodgy refereeing

Senegal win over France in the opening game

Zidane not fully fit and how it highlighted Frances reliance on him.

The quality in that Brazil team. Ronaldinho's goal v England, ronaldo putting his demons from the previous 4 years to rest.

Rivaldos terrible play acting v turkey

Miroslav klose's goal tally

Being so impressed by joaquin for Spain

[Iska]

Getting absolutely no sense of what the host countries were like.  Other than the Korean fans being up for it, I don’t remember much/anything in the way of features, idents, local colour and so on.  Maybe ‘cos it was on early in the morning, I dunno?

Makes me wonder how exactly they’re going to do that angle for Qatar?  They presumably won’t be leading with migrant worker features, and what little else I know about it makes it sound like the most boring place on earth.  It doesn’t even have a football heritage to talk about.

[Rob Dylan]

It was one of those World Cups - like 1990 - where the overall quality of football wasn't great (1998 and 2006 were both better), but it was just a memorable occasion, because of the venue and the time difference as much as anything else. The novelty of watching three matches before lunchtime was great.

One of the highlights for me was South Korea beating Italy - I remember it being controversial at the time, but it just seemed to me like a big nation being upset / embarrassed at losing to a small team. No doubt that throughout the tournament Korea had some luck and help from the referees, but I thought the decisions in that game were fair. Totti got a 2nd yellow for diving - it was rare at the time, but FIFA had literally just introduced a directive telling refs to book players for diving in the tournament. Then they had a 'disallowed goal' which was basically just a marginal offside decision which you would see all the time, and the Korean keeper stopped playing as the flag had already gone up.

Really enjoyed watching Korea play in that World Cup - they were obviously massively helped by the conditions though.