What if…Ronaldinho really had miskicked in 2002

February 10th, 2010 | by: Rob | View Comments

Its been awhile since i bought you an episode of my never-popular, What-If series, if you missed previous articles, on the 1986 World Cup, 1970 World Cup , or the 1980 European Championships, the idea is to take one of those magic moments in football where there is a flashpoint moment, and try to picture what might have happened had it gone the other way. I’m not a great believer in fate, I believe in chaos (though, to quote Bob Dylan, I’m not sure it believes in me).

Today, I’d like you to cast you minds back to the relatively recent past, and the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. In real-life events, England were knocked out by a brilliant Brazil team in the Quarter Finals, who would go on to win the World Cup. But they had a bit of luck against us – A Ronaldinho free-kick (above) that floated over David Seaman’s head. I like to think Ronnie meant that FK, though the UK press proclaimed it a miskick. What if had really miskicked it, and it floated harmlessly over the crossbar?

England qualified for the 2002 World Cup, as I’m sure you’ll remember, in a quite up-and-down fashion. We started badly, with a defeat at Wembley against bitter rivals Germany, the last game ever played at Wembley, after which manager Kevin Keegan resigned in the soon-to-be-knocked-down-Gents.

We went big for a manager, and despite interest from a certain Fabio Capello (If we’d have got him is a whole other What If, what with where his career went post-Roma) we went for the inhabitent of the managers office from Fabio’s inter-city rivals – Lazio’s Sven Goran Eriksson, who had just won Serie A.

Sven bought us a tactical consistancy, that i genuinely believe lay the foundation for whatever successes we’re having or about to have. After a slow start with a draw against Finland, we went on a run of form, beating Finland, Greece and Albainia pretty comfortably. But then we had to play Germany again, which was always going to be the test.

Like most other England fans, I distinctly remember that night in Munich. I’d been to the chip shop beforehand for a somewhat traditional fish-and-chips with the game, and sat at home and within minutes, England were behind. I don’t mind saying that I absolutely feared the worst, and watched a lot of the first half through my fingers.

Of course, England went on to win that game by five goals to one, turning Sven overnight into the Savoiur, even having a dreadful pop song released in his honour.

We then beat Albania, but still had to get at least a draw against Greece to guarantee qualification (on goal difference thanks to that win in Munich). Of course, as you now know, we played dreadfully against Greece, with the exception of David Beckham who dragged the team by the scruff of its neck toward glory. He scored a last minute Free Kick, which i’ll never forget, partly because the Liverpool supporting chum I was watching with suggested that as Beckham had already wasted so many Free-kicks, Gerrard ought to take it.

Of course Beckham took, and scored the Free kick, and England (as well as Germany thanks to a playoff) were going East to the World Cup.

The 2002 World Cup is defined by the fact it was, well, different. Big teams seemed to be knocked out on a daily basis. We knocked Argentina out of our group (thanks to Beckham for a penalty than occurred from a blatent bit of “sportsmanship”), France went out of their group, Italy went out in somewhat controversial circumstances in the knockouts, Portugal went out in the group (so much for the Golden Generation), Spain had looked good in the group, but you could always count on Spain to self-destruct in those days. They very nearly did against Ireland in fact, I’m pretty sure if Roy Keane hadn’t walked out on the squad he’d have dragged them through a game where the Spanish surrendered and played for penalty kicks.

So its against this backdrop that England play Brazil. Just to give a sense of how open that World Cup was – the other Quarter-Finalists were South Korea, Germany, USA, Spain, Senegal and Turkey.

Still, England didn’t give themselves much of a chance – what other nation would screen a 1-0 defeat from a previous World Cup against Brazil in order to get the country in the mood for a game? Sounds crazy, but the BBC did just that – showing “that tackle by Moore…” amongst other things the night before we played Brazil.

Brazil, looked, as usual, amazing. They hadn’t had the brightest qualifying phase under Scolari, they finished a whole 13 points behind Argentina and had only just about made it (sound familiar, but in reverse?) but had what were referred to constantly as the “The Three R’s” – Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, and Ronaldo.

So it was surprising for some then, when England scored first. It shouldn’t have been, on paper we were in as good a position as Brazil. But back when Michael Owen was a World Class talent, he banged one in.

Brazil equalised, just before the break, a seemingly irresistable passage of play in which Ronaldinho glided (beautifully, admit it) through the England defence before laying it off. Alas, that goal only came about because David Beckham shirked out of a challenge, still worried about his metatarsal. But that’s a whole other what if.

So then came the Free-kick. Seaman stood off his line, expecting a cross (which seems odd nowadays when you automatically expect a player to shoot from a free-kick whatever the angle), Ronaldinho gestured towards his teammates, before hitting it and it floated over Seaman’s head and into the top corner.

So what if his slightly audacious shot hadn’t come off? What if it hit the crossbar and bounced over?

Slightly shaken by the near-miss England defend for a bit, but successfully. England’s defence that year looked quality – Pele picked Sol Campbell in his team of the tournament and Rio Ferdinand was actually better. Before going up the other end to have a good attacking spell. England score a typically English goal to annoy the Brazilians, a David Beckham cross landing on Rio Ferdinand’s head and going in.

Sven 1 – 0 Scolari.

Turkey beat Senegal in our half of the draw, meaning a win against Turkey puts us in the World Cup Final. Buoyed by confidence of beating Brazil in a World Cup for the first time in our history, we ease past a good Turkish side, and into the final. And look who we meet – Germany.

I can’t see England, and England that had beaten Brazil and Argentina losing to a side they beat 5-1 in qualifying for that very tournament losing to Germany in the final. It;d be typical of the Germans to do us in the final, but this wasn’t a vintage German side. The 1-0 loss at Wembley would be forgotten, and that 5-1 would weigh on everyone’s mind. England would surely have won the World Cup.

Sven would be elevated to Alf Ramsey status, there would be parties for weeks. Sven wouldn’t step down as England manager after a World Cup win (as i imagine Fabio would) and would lead England to a European Championships that really we had a good shot at.

Those Euro’s are a whole other what if (our capitulation against France in the dying minutes of the opener is what cost us sadly), but a World Cup winning side could go into that tournament with confidence, and the potential to plant a legacy that would last for years, untill Sven stepped down and handed the reigns to his number two Steve Mclaren.

Damn.