Germany in the World Cup Final - 2002-06-25

The German national football team reached the final of the 2002 World Cup by defeating South Korea 1-0. Today, the German team faced the host team in front of 65,000 Korean spectators at the Seoul Stadium. Although the team's striking power was not at a very high level, Rudi Völler's men presented an organized game and stood firm against the bold play and confident performance of Dutch coach Guus Hiddink's men. Both teams had almost equal control of the ball and field, and defensively, they made almost no significant mistakes until the 75th minute. However, at that moment, a mistake by the Koreans proved costly, and the three-time world champions took full advantage of it. The only goal of the match was scored by Michael Ballack, who netted a shot from Oliver Neuville from the right side from close range. This was the second consecutive match in which Ballack scored the winning goal for Germany. In the final moments, South Korea had a chance to equalize, but Park Ji-sung's shot from 15 meters went wide of the right side of the goal. Thus, the German team advanced to the final with a 1-0 victory over South Korea. Germany's opponent will be determined on Wednesday with the match between Brazil and Turkey. This is the seventh time in World Cup history that Germany has reached the final. South Korea still has one more match in this tournament, which will be for third place against the loser of the Brazil-Turkey match. That match will take place on June 29 at the Daegu Stadium in South Korea.