Jason MCATEER had many friends amongst the 32 nations at this Men's World Cup. Was it because of his endearing personality or his dedicated play for Rep Ireland? Maybe, but it mostly had to do with his goal on SAT 01 SEP 2001 that all but destroyed the Netherlands' chances of surviving UEFA Group 2. Thanks to McAteer's boot, nobody had to face the absurdly talented Dutch side at Korea/Japan 2002.

SAUDI ARABIA
Making their third straight World Cup appearance, Saudi Arabia opened under the Sapporo Dome with an 8-0 loss to Germany, a match that was in fact more one-sided than the scoresheet would indicate. The Saudis failed to force a single save from German goalkeeper Oliver KAHN, only firing two shot attempts to Germany's 27. Saudi Arabia lost their other two matches but at least made their opponents work for them, as Cameroon in particular faced several counterattacks. Obeid AL-DOSSARY headed over the bar in the early minutes, Nawaf AL-TEMYAT shot wide late in the first half, and Al-Hassan AL-YAMI shot high in the second half.

Before the tournament started, Prince Nawaf bin Faisal bin Fahd bin ABDULAZIZ had promised coach Nasser AL-JOHAR that his job would be safe even if the team was eliminated from the first round. But sure enough, the last place finish put an end to Al-Johar's second tour of duty with the national side.

CAMEROON
Expectations were high for Cameroon, winners of the 2002 African Cup of Nations, and a 1-1 draw with Rep Ireland and a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia looked like another trip into the knockout stages was imminent. The team even had inspiration from an unlikely source: Tennis star Serena WILLIAMS was outfitted in a variant of the Indomitable Lions' World Cup kits, complete with bright yellow socks, for her opening match at the French Open. Though Williams would win her tournament, Cameroon were not so lucky. They were eliminated by an ill tempered match with Germany, in which referee Antonio LÓPEZ NIETO showed sixteen cards and would have been justified handing out more after a first half scuffle involving ten players. Cameroon lost their cool in the second half, with five bookings coming after Marco BODE put Germany ahead in the 50th minute.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
The doomsayers were vocal after inspirational captain Roy KEANE was controversially dismissed from Rep Ireland's camp in Saipan, JPN. The players would lose confidence in coach Mick MCCARTHY, the squad would be helpless without its best player, blah blah blah. Well, one Keane does not a team make. Rep Ireland drew with Cameroon in their opener and trailed Germany in their next match, at which point McCarthy threw everyone forward, sending in Steven REID and Niall QUINN to supplement the attack with eighteen minutes left. Robbie KEANE, unrelated to Roy, scored the famous equaliser in stoppage time. That, followed by their unsurprising win over Saudi Arabia, earned them a second round date with Spain.

The Boys in Green were handed another golden opportunity for a comeback when Spain, who went ahead after only seven minutes, were content to pull everyone back and defend. Rep Ireland won two penalties in the second half, and Keane converted the latter on the stroke of full time to repeat history. Several spot kicks in the shootout were taken poorly; more of them were by the Irish, and so their World Cup odyssey came to an end.

GERMANY
Germany were full of surprises throughout the tournament, starting with their dismantling of Saudi Arabia. After that match, everyone said, "Well, maybe these guys aren't as lousy as we thought." Then, after the draw with Rep Ireland, we said, "Well, maybe these guys aren't as powerful as we thought." And so on. By the knockout phases, Germany went through on three straight 1-0 results over Paraguay, the United States, and the Korea Republic.

Disciplinary matters continued to be a problem for the side. Michael BALLACK, for instance, received his second yellow of the knockout stage against Korea Rep, converted into an automatic suspension for either the third place match or the final. Having done that, he said, "Well, I'd better make sure it's the final." So he scored with fifteen minutes left. The final was hyped as a duel between Brazil's RONALDO and tournament top goalkeeper Kahn, and in that duel, Kahn lost out, letting a RIVALDO shot skip out of his arms into Ronaldo's path. In the end, it was a disappointing ending for a German team that was greater than the sum of its parts.

"Unfortunately, only one of them can join Germany in the second round. The other two will have their broken dreams to go with their coaches' pink slips." Winfried SCHÄFER was not sacked, despite the extreme disappointment of missing the second round. Otherwise, our prediction was right on.