South Korea/Japan '02 ended with redemption for Ronaldo and in the end, despite, and apart from, all the controversial refereeing decisions it was his World Cup.
But it all started with Pape Bouba Diop and the rest of his Senegalese team mates. Their 1-0 win over France in the opening match was a quite spectacular upset, but it was similar to Belgium's win against Argentina in 1982 and Cameroon's win against Argentina in 1990. So there was history of opening upsets, or maybe it was just an Argentina thing until France succumbed to an unexpected defeat as World Champions.
Senegal became a favourite amongst neutrals for the fun they seemed to have when they played. They went on to be involved in two golden goal matches, in the last World Cup that it was used. They beat Sweden in the last sixteen with the sudden death decider in extra time. They then went on to to lose by the same way to Turkey, who became an even bigger surprise than the surprise team.
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