by Nick Holt
Nigeria qualified with a point to spare but had to pull their finger out and win their last three games to edge past Liberia, who unexpectedly beat them in Monrovia. Two matches in July, 2001 swung it. Liberia lost at home to Ghana while Nigeria walloped Sudan in Omdurman. A last win over Ghana was enough to get home by a point. Nigeria still had muscle aplenty in the side, but an improved Okocha and Kanu added a bit of subtlety. Liberia’s exit meant we would never see the excellent George Weah in the World Cup. Weah, who had spells at Monaco, Paris St Germain and AC Milan, plus a few strange months on loan in the Premier League, was one of the first African players to make a serious impact in Europe – a real pioneer if not quite the world-beater he was cracked up to be.
North America produced the USA, Mexico and Costa Rica as qualifiers – how terribly novel. The only surprise was that it was Costa Rica who powered through the final group, losing only in the USA and winning seven of ten matches. The key win for them was a 2–1 victory in Mexico City having been one-down. The goals were scored by Rolando Fonseca and Hernán Medford, which was good, because they had been big players for Costa Rica for a decade; Fonseca is third in the all-time appearances list and is Costa Rica’s leading goal scorer, two ahead of Paolo Wanchope who was also in this squad.
You may remember reading about Brazil losing a qualifying match for the first time in 1993. Well the new round-robin format changed all that nonsense. They lost six matches this time around as they went through big changes of personnel between the 1998 and 2002 tournaments. Their home form got them through the section in third place, but away from home they won two, drew in Colombia and lost six. And Japan was a long way from home. Argentina headed the table in fine style, losing only once (in São Paulo) and scoring over forty goals, with fifteen different scorers, chief amongst them Hernán Crespo, of Lazio, one of the most lethal strikers in European football.
Sandwiched between these two big beasts was Ecuador, qualifying for the first time with their own Golden Generation, while Paraguay were still a good side and only behind Brazil on goal difference. Uruguay got the chance to play-off against Australia and won 3–1 on aggregate despite defeat in Melbourne, where a vast crowd filled the famous old cricket ground. Unsurprisingly Uruguay had a man sent off in that match, and six booked in the return, but two goals from Richard Morales saw them home.
Ecuador’s hero was Agustin Delgado, who scored winning goals against Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Delgado was registered to play for Southampton, but curiously seemed to always be fit for international duty and injured when he came back to England. He managed eleven games in three seasons for the Saints, and had Gordon Strachan tearing his hair out. Qualification was sealed with a 1–1 draw at home to Uruguay with a goal from Jaime Kaviedes, who once played four games on loan at Crystal Palace.
Colombia didn’t make it despite winning the Copa América the previous year (which didn’t include a lot of the European-based players), while Chile, who had played quite well at the last tournament, were bottom of the pile.
In Europe, UEFA and FIFA came up with a brilliant new system for seeding the groups, based on all sorts of coefficients and modifiers. It was about as comprehensible as a David Lynch movie in Sanskrit. (I am, of course, dear reader, assuming you are not fluent in Sanskrit – my apologies if I have erred.) Of the nine teams in the top seeded pot, only two won their group and two more came through the play-offs, while six sides made it from pot two, two from pot three and one, Slovenia, from the fourth tier of seeds. Which, actually, is not a complaint, I think it’s a good thing – the same old teams every time gets boring.
Of the top seeds, Spain won a poor group with ease, Austria in second. Spain won their four home games rattling up a goal difference of 15–1 and dropped only two points overall, as did Sweden, who let in only three goals in ten games. Turkey reached the play-offs in Sweden’s group, and had a highly rated striker, Hakan Şükür, thirty now, but a danger. The most remarkable goalscoring feat for the Turks came in the 3–3 draw with Macedonia. Two-down at half-time, Turkey hit back with two strikes from Aston Villa’s Alpay. Macedonia scored again, but Alpay was having none of that and completed his hat-trick. Alpay was Turkey’s centre-half. Turkey beat Austria 6–0 on aggregate (5–0 in Istanbul) and made the Finals for the first time since 1954 when they made up the numbers.
Italy qualified comfortably ahead of Romania, scoring more goals than is their wont. The first choice front three of Del Piero, Inzaghi and Totti looked very accomplished. Inzaghi (then of Juventus, but with Milan by the time the Finals came round) scored both goals in their best performance, a 2–0 win in Bucharest.
Slovenia, with their tempestuous playmaker Zlatan Zahovic, had done really well to reach Euro 2000 and not disgraced themselves in the Finals, but they really weren’t expected to qualify here ahead of Russia and Yugoslavia, especially when they drew their first game 2–2 with the Faroe Islands, conceding twice in the last three minutes. After five games they had one win and four draws, one of these a good result in Moscow. In September, on the day England played Germany in Munich, Slovenia played Russia at home. Milan Osterc opened the scoring in a scrappy game with a terrific back-header from Acimovic’s cross. Milenko Acimovic was Slovenia’s best player in the absence that night of Zahovic; he played for Red Star Belgrade but moved to Tottenham later in the summer, where he spent two years on the bench and in the treatment room. In the closing minutes the referee, England’s Graham Poll, spotted some shirt tugging at a set piece, and Acimovic put the penalty away. As the old cliché goes, there was dancing in the streets of Ljubljana. Why Poll didn’t give penalties for all the shirt pulling that went on throughout the entire match, only he can tell you. A point ahead of Yugoslavia, they needed a point in Belgrade, and got it courtesy of an early goal. No mistakes in the last home game against the Faroes, and then the small matter of a play-off against Romania. Romania weren’t the force they were in the ’90s and a 2–1 win in Ljubljana and a draw away was enough. Good effort from the team seeded fourth in their group.
The best second placed team got an easier play-off, against Iran, and the lucky ones were Ireland. Not lucky in that they didn’t deserve it, but it was better than playing Turkey or Germany. Their group contained Holland and Portugal, so they were up against it, as well as three lesser sides, Estonia, Cyprus and Andorra. It became two mini groups as, unusually, none of the top three dropped a single point against the weaker sides.
Ireland started with a draw in Amsterdam. Jason McAteer set up Robbie Keane – he was still doing that silly forward roll into a bow-and-arrow posture goal celebration – and then McAteer scored a belter, rounding off a superb counter-attack with a lovely left-foot strike. Ireland conceded a poor goal from a cross and an outrageous thirty-five yarder from Giovanni van Bronckhorst, but it was still a good result. Another good draw followed in Lisbon; Ireland conceded first this time, but Matt Holland, a second-half substitute, equalised with a stunning strike low into the corner.
Definitely advantage Ireland and when Conceição and Pauleta gave Portugal victory in Holland, the Dutch were in major trouble. In Lisbon the following spring, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink played for, and got, a penalty early on against Portugal, and when Patrick Kluivert added a second minutes after half-time from Overmars’ fantastic cross, the Dutch were right back in the frame. Portugal mounted one last, desperate attack and Frank de Boer, normally so calm, buffeted Pauleta in the area. Urs Meier, the Swiss referee, gave a penalty, quite rightly, and Figo scored it. The Dutch made a stink, but with no cause. Ireland and Portugal were hard to separate. Figo’s header cancelled Roy Keane’s tidy finish and honours were even again in Dublin. So to a showdown with Holland. Portugal looked likely to win the group, but if Ireland could avoid losing in Dublin, and the other games all went with form, they could at least reach the play-offs. Ireland were largely outplayed and had Gary Kelly sent off for a tackle from behind after an hour, minutes before the referee turned down a penalty appeal from van N
istelrooy when he collided with Shay Given. The Gods were with Ireland; Roy Keane broke a tackle and played in Steve Finnan as he was clattered by the second defender. Finnan switch the ball back to the left and McAteer was unmarked to score against the Dutch again. Holland (Stam, Cocu, Overmars, van Nistelrooy, de Boer, Davids, Kluivert, Seedorf) were out. Ireland did their job against Iran and took their place in the Far East.
Norway were in with the top seeds but they were a poor side now. Egil Olsen had left after the 1998 Finals and had been spending his time getting Wimbledon relegated after fourteen years in the top flight while reminding us how good a coach he was. Most of the good players were gone, too. Poland took advantage and won the group, with Ukraine second; Wales made as little contribution as Norway, they finished fifth and fourth behind Belarus. Emmanuel Olisadebe, a quick young striker, had become the first black player picked by Poland as soon as he adopted citizenship in 2000, and he scored eight goals in qualifying, one fewer than Shevchenko for Ukraine.
Denmark started with a lot of draws in their cosy-looking group, but got going in spring 2001 when they took four points off the Czechs, their nearest rivals. Jon Dahl Tomasson, once of Newcastle (and unsuccessful there) but now a much more complete player, and Ebbe Sand were a dangerous forward combination. Northern Ireland added little except a couple of creditable draw with the Danes.
England and Scotland were both in five-team groups, both tricky. Scotland had Belgium and Croatia; England had their old nemesis, Germany. Scotland started well but were undone by a run of results in spring 2001. At 2–0 up against Belgium they were in control of the group only to concede a last-minute equaliser to the giant centre-half Daniel Van Buyten. When Croatia also got a point at Hampden it meant Scotland needed something from their game in Brussels. They lost 2–0 and that was it; Croatia beat Belgium in their last game with a goal from Alen Boksic, thirty-two now but anxious to make up for missing the 1998 Finals. Belgium lost their play-off against the Czech Republic.
England were making a drama out of crisis, as usual. After a truly appalling showing and a 1–0 defeat at home to Germany in their opening game of this campaign, Kevin Keegan had bid a teary farewell to a job he wasn’t remotely qualified to do. Less involved in the game than most managers who eat, sleep and breathe football, Keegan didn’t watch enough players and didn’t watch enough football outside England to know how to prepare a team at this level. Caretaker manager Howard Wilkinson took the team to Finland, dropped Michael Owen and got a 0–0 draw.
In came England’s first overseas coach, Sven-Göran Eriksson, a studious looking Swede with a bit of nous, a lot of experience, and, we would learn, a canny bedside manner. The first thing Sven did was to restore Owen and the Liverpool man scored in the next two games as England started to pick up points. Germany matched England’s ordinary result in Finland, which helped – they had to come from 2–0 down to get even a draw after Mikael Forssell struck twice in the first half. A good win in Athens left England with two soft home games to finish, but there was still the big test to come; Germany in Munich.
WORLD CUP SHOCK No.11
1 September 2001, Olympiastadion, Munich, Germany; 63,000
Referee: Byron Moreno (Ecuador)
Coaches: Rudi Völler (Germany) & Sven Göran Eriksson (England)
Germany (1–4–3–2): Oliver Kahn (Cpt, Bayern Munich); Christian Wörns (Borussia Dortmund); Thomas Linke (Bayern), Jens Nowotny (Bayer Leverkusen), Marko Rehmer (Hertha Berlin), Jörg Böhme (Schalke 04); Sebastian Deisler (Hertha Berlin), Didi Hamann (Liverpool), Michael Ballack (Leverkusen); Carsten Jancker (Bayern), Oliver Neuville (Leverkusen). Subs: Gerald Asamoah (Schalke 04) 45m for Wörns; Miroslav Klose (Kaiserslautern) 64m for Ballack; Sebastian Kehl (SC Freiburg) 79m for Neuville
England (4–4–2): David Seaman (Arsenal); Gary Neville (Manchester United), Sol Campbell (Arsenal), Rio Ferdinand (Leeds United), Ashley Cole (Arsenal); David Beckham (Cpt, Man Utd), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Paul Scholes (Man Utd), Nick Barmby (Liverpool); Michael Owen (Liverpool), Emile Heskey (Liverpool). Subs: Steve McManaman (Real Madrid) 64m for Barmby; Owen Hargreaves (Bayern Munich) 79m for Gerrard; Jamie Carragher (Liverpool) 84m for Scholes
Cautioned: Heskey (Eng) 54m, Hamann (Ger) 79m
When Germany scored a ridiculously simple goal after six minutes English hearts sank. Ballack’s cross was nodded on by the diminutive but unmarked Neuville for Jancker to knock past Seaman. England fans started looking up who the other likely second placed teams were going to be.
England had Sven’s first choice team out. Owen was a hard player to partner, and he seemed to enjoy playing with Emile Heskey, so Heskey it was; Liverpool bought the goal-shy striker for just that reason. Why else pick a player with a heavy first touch who couldn’t finish his dinner? Barmby got the nod as the more left-sided of a midfield quartet.
The lead only lasted six minutes. A silly foul by Deisler gave Beckham a chance to whip in a free-kick. Germany never cleared it and Gary Neville’s intelligent headed lob reached Barmby, who nodded it into Owen’s path; the striker’s finish was expert, getting his foot high over the awkward bouncing ball. Deisler made another error at the other end minutes later, falling over his feet and screwing the ball wide when presented with an open goal. Both sides looked capable of scoring; a silly back-pass (Deisler again) gave England an indirect free-kick, but it’s hard to beat a wall formed on the line and both Beckham’s first shot and Neville’s follow-up were charged down. On forty minutes David Seaman had to be at his best to reach a drive from Jörg Böhme and tip it round the post, but in the main Campbell and Rio Ferdinand had got a grip on the German forwards.
As half-time approached, and the players were starting to wind down for the break, Gary Neville tried one more charge up the line and was found by a deft lob from Beckham. Neville’s cross was blocked but as Beckham tried to nick the follow-up past Novotny he was brought down. Beckham’s first kick was unusually poor and charged down, his second attempt, left-footed was headed out. Steven Gerrard, hovering on the edge of the penalty area, took the ball on his chest and hit a marvellous low drive into the corner of the goal. It was the perfect time to score the second goal.
Three minutes into the second half England were in dreamland. Beckham harried on the right, won the ball and chipped left footed, into the middle. Heskey rose well and did what he was there to do – give the ball to Owen. His strike partner’s volley was instant and beat Oliver Kahn for pace.
Germany’s best player, Michael Ballack missed their best chance to get back into the game, blasting Jancker’s clever knockdown high into the night sky.
At the other end an England attack broke down but before the Germans could settle into possession Gerrard won the ball back and played an instant pass to Michael Owen, who, like a predatory in-form striker should, still hovered on the shoulder of the last defender. Owen moved up a gear, went clear, and hammered the ball high past Kahn for a brilliantly taken hat-trick. Eight minutes later Scholes played a good one-two with Beckham and put Heskey clear. On any other occasion Kahn would have been too big a presence for such a nervous finisher, but on that night Heskey took one touch to put the ball in front of him and stroked it calmly past Kahn.
Germany were awful, surely, worst team they ever had etc, etc. Er . . . no, that was 2004. Rudi Völler had forged a half-decent side and they had been playing well. In the very even first half they created chances and could easily have gone in 2–1 ahead not 2–1 down. Jancker was in great form and was a real handful, with a good touch for a big feller, and Ballack was establishing a reputation as a world-class attacking midfield player. Admittedly there were a few journeymen in the team, but this was essentially the group that (SPOILER ALERT) got all the way to the World Cup Final a few months later.
England were really good, a couple of moments in the middle of the defence and down the left apart. Beckham and Neville sliced the German left flank open time after time and Owen had the beating of either centre-back on the floor. Engl
and passed their way through; they didn’t bang the ball hopefully over the top. This was the Golden Generation, that over-used phrase – but they looked it here. Gerrard played a little further back, behind Scholes, and they rarely wasted a pass. They needed a better left-sided option than the lightweight Barmby, and Heskey couldn’t stay, but it would do for now: a team with six world-class players and three very good ones could not be ruled out in a major tournament.
After the euphoria of that epic win, England nearly failed to finish the job. They beat Albania easily enough, without playing at all well, and needed to match or better Germany’s result in the last game. It had to be assumed Germany would beat Finland at home.
Greece were not a good side – coach Otto Rehhagel hadn’t yet hit on the formula that would win them the 2004 European Championship – but they could be obdurate and England tended to get jittery at Wembley if the crowd started whistling and getting impatient, which they usually did. And England were missing Gerrard and Owen.
The crowd had cause to whistle in this game. England were terrible; disjointed and sluggish. Paul Scholes, normally such a crisp passer, gave the ball away every time, Nicky Barmby did the same and what Danny Murphy was doing there, Sven only knows. Good club player but . . . Michael Owen was sorely missed – the front two of Heskey and Fowler were woeful. (Fowler was another good Premiership player who could not make that next rung.)
Charisteas gave Greece the lead with an angled shot past an unsighted Nigel Martyn, and Martyn had to make two good saves to keep it to 1–0. One man alone was playing to his potential for England. David Beckham was everywhere, passionate, skilful, prompting, exhorting his colleagues.
Martyn made the second of his saves and threw the ball intelligently to the England captain. Beckham twisted and turned, lost one man and was brought down by the second. Thirty-five-year-old Sheringham came on for Fowler as Beckham prepared to take the free-kick – desperate measures. Sheringham’s first touch flicked the ball over the goalkeeper for an equaliser. Greece were back in front a minute later, Nikolaidis knocking in a smart snap-shot while England dozed off. Sven went three at the back and brought on McManaman but Greece wouldn’t cave in. News filtered through that the Germans couldn’t break down Finland either (Antti Niemi had a blinder in goal), but England just couldn’t get their game together. Nikopolidis was playing well in the Greek goal too, he made one sprawling stop from a Beckham free-kick in the first half and couple of excellent interventions as England pressed for a second goal. Beckham sent a second free-kick sizzling just wide, and Sheringham won another one with the game in injury-time. The Germany game had finished 0–0.