The Archive

David O'Byrne saw the Turkey outdo all World Cup expectations despite Hakan Sukur's baleful influence

Before the start of the World Cup, few Turks had ex­pec­ted their team to last as far as the semi-finals. After the first two group matches, that number had shrunk con­siderably. As a scenario of failure, relinquishing a one-goal lead not once but twice had a distinctly familiar ring. A decade of senselessly chucking away pro­m­ising positions was capped last November when Turkey gifted Sweden two goals in the last three min­utes of the final qualifying match, leaving them to face a play-off against Austria.

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The US saw their maserplan for World Cup domination fall into place. Rich Zahradnik offers an insight on their tournament

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The sound inside my head when the alarm clock goes off at 1.20am for Argentina v Nigeria. One -twenty in the morning. I am not meant to be awake now. I am old. My living room is dark, quiet, empty. I don’t even bother to turn the light on. Daytime from the TV is strange at this hour, filling the room with Asian sunshine. I can’t have a cup of coffee because I need to go back to bed in a couple of hours for another couple of hours, so that I can wake up and watch England v Sweden then drive for an hour and a half to play for my Sunday league side and then talk intelligently with my team-mates about these games I’m probably not even going to remember.

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France's previous triumphs have shielded both players and coach from too much derision after their embarassing exit, says Neil McCarthy

It is worth underlining just how bad France were. Reigning World Cup champions have frequently dis­appointed, but never to this extent. Despite boasting the leading strikers of the French, Eng­lish and Italian leagues, they didn’t even score a single goal. It was the worst performance of a World Cup holder, surpassing the 1962 winners Brazil, who at least managed to score goals and win one of three matches in 1966.

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Phil Ball looks back on a strange tournament for the Spanish team, in which they missed out yet again, but for once did not take the rap

Getting beyond the World Cup quarter-finals would have represented a major image problem for Spain. The whole country would have been required to change its mind-set, from might-have-been-if-it-hadn’t-been-for-the-refs to something else less com­plicated, less open to the historical shrug. There had been signs that the country had been preparing for this, the press beginning to break its self-imposed vow to keep all op­timism and flag-waving to a minimum.

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As the world looks east towards the World Cup, England could be on course to righting the wrongs of 1998

You never really know until it starts, of course, but it feels as though this World Cup is going to be very different from the last one. Some of the differences are obvious, notably the fact that it is be­ing held much further away from Eng­land. While you would not want to rule it out, it seems implausible that hooliganism will be as big a theme as it was in France. Perhaps more interestingly from England’s point of view is the way the culture of the team itself has changed, lar­gely, though not entirely, due to the in­fluence of Sven-Goran Eriksson.

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