The Hindu : From Bouba Diop to Ronaldo

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 01, 2002

Sport

Sport - Football

From Bouba Diop to Ronaldo - goals, goals, goals

EGGING ON FOR THE PENTA: Fans of the Brazilian team articulate what they want. Goals to ensure that their team returns with its fifth World Cup title. — AFP

SEOUL June 30. Goals, goals and more goals. It's what everyone wants to see at every World Cup - and the 17th edition of the Greatest Show on Earth hasn't disappointed. As always, some have been spectacular, several mundane, others controversial and some more important than others. But it's the spectacular which whet the appetite - and plenty of impressive strikes have hit the back of the net from Seoul to Yokohama over the past month.

Pape Bouba Diop's first goal of the entire finals for Senegal was far from a netbuster, bundled in from close range - but its effect on the competition was massive. It led to the eventual elimination of holder France.

But it wasn't long before the first piledriver arrived. Uruguay's Dario Rodriguez sent a rocket past Denmark keeper Thomas Sorensen in the opening phase but his country still lost the game to Jon Dahl Tomasson's double. The South Americans were at it again when Diego Forlan chested down a high ball and cracked a memorable volley past Senegal keeper Tony Sylva from more than 30 yards. But Uruguay still crashed out after its 3-3 draw.

Every football fan in the world wanted to see what sort of shape Ronaldo was in after years of injuries. A hooked volley against Turkey was the emphatic answer, the first of six goals at the tournament ahead of the final. Turkey and Brazil met again in the semifinal and Turkish keeper Rustu Recber must have been sick of the sight of the "Phenomenon" after Ronaldo toe-poked another effort past him for the only goal.

German star Miroslav Klose's hat-trick of headers against Saudi Arabia were almost identical - although his celebratory forward somersaults don't feature in the coaching manual. Nor does the cartwheel of Robbie Keane of Ireland, whose injury-time effort against Germany came into the crucial rather than cracking category. Finesse and technique were the order of the day when South Korea's veteran striker Hwang Sun-Hong treated watching President Kim Dae-Jung to a virtuoso volley following Lee Eul-Yong's perfectly-weighted pass from the left, the ball flying past Jerzy Dudek in the Polish goal. That sent the Koreans on the way to their first ever World Cup success in 16 attempts and was the perfect way for Hwang to celebrate his 50th international goal.

US defender Jeff Agoos hit another fantastic volley in his team's 3-2 win over Portugal - the only problem was it flew into the wrong net for one of the own goals of all time. In the same match Brian McBride produced a brilliant flying header after meeting a Tony Sanneh cross at the back post.

Ahn Jung-Hwan cemented his status as South Korea's golden boy with his golden goal winning header over Italy - although for his own health he is unlikely to return to his Italian club Perugia after eliminating the 'Azzurri'.

There were a couple of notable deadball strikes as well, one benefiting England - the other knocking them out. David Beckham smashed his penalty home to see off Argentina in the first phase - but Brazilian Ronaldinho, whose mazy run and pass had already set up Rivaldo for an equaliser to the predatory Michael Owen's opener, sent a swirling free-kick over keeper David Seaman's head for the winner. "There is no way it was a shot," said a forlorn Seaman, looking back at his nightmare moment after returning home. But at least England found the target on half a dozen occasions. Poor old France bowed out as the defending champions and if they don't feature in the goals' gallery there's a very good reason. They didn't score any.

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