2002 World Cup eBook: Soccer News, Statistics, Free T-Shirts, Ecards, Posters, Memorabilia, Weather ...

Impressive achievements:

The U.S.A., Senegal, and Japan Squads.

These squads deserve special reference and reverence,
for the much they achieved in 2002!

2002 was a memorable World Cup
for the U.S.A., Senegal and Japan.

Also worth of special mention:

Denmark: unfortunate to cross paths with England
so early in the competition
The Danish Squad started the Cup quite impressively

England: ditto, regarding crossing paths with Brazil

Belgium: might have been ripe to pick up momentum,
when they played Brazil and had to drop out

Mexico: who'd have predicted they'd outclassify Italy?!...

Spain: unfortunate for some vital disputable refereeing.
The Spaniards may have gotten the worst of it;
but they were certainly not alone.

A hard lesson offered every World Cup, at varying degrees:

the Squad that wishes the Title must get themselves ready
to score and win
despite eventual equivocal refereeing.

Marcos finished as the third best goalkeeper:

a feat worth reference, as Brazil is known for their attack.

Worth noting: only Marcos, among the 3 best keepers,
had a clean sheet throughout the last matches

Disappointing performances:

France, Argentina and Portugal:
no doubt the greatest disappointments in 2002.

Italy, albeit protests against the referees,
was in many ways a disappointment as well

The Referees: except for a few matches
2002 will also be remembered for fairly low quality
especially in view of the magnitude of the Tournament

Fatigue was pointed out
as a contributing factor to the failure of many favorites.

Is it a genuine cause?

A bit of reflection won't hurt,
just to ensure the cause has been accurately attributed.
Below are some possible starting points:

Whereas France and Portugal were exposed
to analogous schedules and challenges in their tournments,
this was not the case for every player in the Argentinean Squad.

At the same time, most players (8-9, of the 11) in the Brazilian Squad
play in European Clubs and Championships.
However, they did not seem to show signs of fatigue:
the Brazilian Squad, on the contrary, grew with the Tournament.

According to Maradona, and surprisingly also Cruyff,
2002 was “a mediocre World Cup”
and Brazil “a disappointing or undeserving Champion.”

Sour grapes?...

A token of curiosity:

While public opinion had little faith on Brazil's chances,
the psychic Uri Geller stated at CNN (from Yokohama Stadium),
that he had felt that Brazil was going to win the World Cup

Whether coincidence or not, Uri Geller's statement is impressive:
it was made in early April !