THE ROAD TO RUSSIA: 2002

■ The 17th edition of the World Cup was co- hosted by South Korea and Japan from May 31 to June 30. It was the first World Cup played in Asia and the first to be jointly hosted. It was also the last to use the golden goal rule.

■ Brazil won the tournament a record fifth time beating Germany 2- 0. It made them the only country to have won the World Cup outside their own continent. They beat hosts Sweden 5- 2 in the 1958 final, Italy via a tie- breaker in United States in 1994 and then the first World Cup in Asia. Brazil won all seven of their matches — a finals first — every victory coming in 90 minutes.

■ In the third place play- off against South Korea, Turkey won 3- 2 in only their second ever World Cup final. China, Ecuador, Senegal and Slovenia made their first appearances at the finals.

■ The 2002 World Cup saw 32 teams play 64 matches and score 161 goals, 10 down from the 171 scored in France four years earlier.

■ Interestingly, none of Brazil star Ronaldo’s tournamentbest eight goals came from the penalty spot. Davor Suker, the adidas Golden Shoe winner in 1998, scored one of his six goals on a penalty. Ronaldo’s total also broke a 28- year streak in which every top- scorer had scored six goals in the finals. “The Phenomenon” had a total of 12 finals goals to his credit at just 25 years of age, matching the career scoring record of the great Pele and just two behind Gerd Muller’s all- time mark of 14.

■ As many as 161 goals were scored by 112 different players in 64 matches at an average of 2.51 goals per match. There were three self goals. Two of those were in the same match, marking the first time in World Cup history that own goals had been scored by both teams in the same match. — S. PERVEZ QAISER