As is custom, defending champions France played the first match of the 2002 Men's World Cup. Their opponents, determined at the SAT 01 DEC 2001 draw, were Senegal, playing in their first tournament. The next day, two time winners Uruguay played their first World Cup match in over a decade as they encountered Denmark, appearing for the second time in a row.

FRANCE
A friend of mine, Christophe, is from France, and a couple of weeks before the start of the tournament he said, "Everyone in France is saying: Zidane, don't get hurt!". Within the week, Zinédine ZIDANE went down to injury, a thigh strain suffered in a warmup friendly against the Korea Republic. And if you thought he went down quickly, that was nothing to the breakneck speed with which his teammates plummeted. Les Bleus saw their confidence sapped in the 1-0 loss to Senegal, and when I saw Christophe the next day, I told him that they didn't look like the same team that won in 1998 and 2000. When Zidane finally returned for the Denmark match, they fared no better; by then they had already forgotten how to play alongside him.

URUGUAY
Despite having two championships in their trophy case, this was Uruguay's first time in the tournament since Italia 1990. A goalless draw with France gave them an opportunity to move through, but to do so they would have to defeat Senegal. At halftime, the west Africans had already collected three goals, and the South Americans had already collected four yellow cards.

Substitutes Richard MORALES and Diego FORLAN came on in the second half to pull Uruguay back within one with twenty minutes remaining. Then, in the 88th minute, referee Jan WEGEREEF awarded a penalty to the Charrúas, after Senegal's first goal came on a contentious penalty decision. Álvaro RECOBA equalised, bringing Uruguay remarkably back from a 3-0 deficit. But the fourth goal, which would have earned advancement, evaded them in stoppage time when Morales, three yards from the goal mouth, inexplicably headed a loose ball wide.

DENMARK
Denmark faced two familiar first round foes, defeating both Uruguay [whom they played at Mexico 1986] and France [at France 1998]. Those wins against the defending champions and the African surprise package sent them into the second round on a high. But England paid them a substantial reality check with three goals in the first half. Veteran defender Thomas HELVEG had to be replaced due to injury in the seventh minute, and he proved irreplaceable as his colleagues in the back played in disorganised fashion.

SENEGAL
Senegal arrived in the Korea Republic as a virtual unknown. We knew that they won a challenging CAF Group C to qualify, and that they took Cameroon to a shootout at the 2002 African Cup of Nations, and that nearly the entire team played professionally in France. But their matches against France and Uruguay will surely go down as World Cup classics. After those performances, their overtime victory against Sweden in the second round was an additional bonus. In their next match, though, they gave up a golden goal to Turkey, missing out on a chance to become the first African semifinalists.

"France will have little trouble, setting up what should be an exciting battle for second place." Well, the second half of our prediction was right. The battle for second place did prove exciting, and it gave the rest of Africa a model to emulate for the next tournament. France, of course, gave the entire world a model not to emulate.