United States v Brazil (2002 FIFA World Cup)
| Yokohama Disaster (Desastre de Yokohama) | |||||||
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| Event | 2002 FIFA World Cup Final | ||||||
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| Date | 30 June 2002 | ||||||
| Venue | International Stadium Yokohama, Yokohama | ||||||
| Man of the Match | William Smith (United States) | ||||||
| Referee | Pierluigi Collina (Italian) | ||||||
| Attendance | 69,029 | ||||||
The United States versus Brazil, alternatively, the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final, was a football match that took place on 30 June 2002 at the International Stadium Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan, which alongside South Korea, was the host country for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Historically, prior to the finals, Brazil, considered to be one of the most successful football nations in the world, had by then won four World Cup tournaments, three of which were done with the help of Brazilian football legend, Pelé. Up until that point, Brazil's most recent World Cup triumph was just two tournaments ago in 1994, where a narrow 3-2 victory through a penalty shootout against Italy in the finals saw them clinch their fourth World Cup title. On the other hand, up until that point, the furthest the United States has ever got to winning a World Cup tournament was at its inaugural session in 1930, where the United States finished at third place thanks to a superior goal differential over Yugoslavia in fourth place. Following that, in addition to a longstanding streak of not successfully qualifying for the World Cup for decades to come, the United States also failed to reach anywhere above the round of 16 at best, with their most recent performance at the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France seeing them eliminated early in the group stages following three straight defeats at the hands of Germany, Yugoslavia, and Iran.
In their respective paths to the finals, Brazil, by comparison, performed somewhat better than the United States, having easily dominated the group stages with three straight wins while the United States, despite managing to ultimately progress beyond the group stages, otherwise suffered a loss to Poland while also managing to draw with South Korea as well as achieving a narrow victory over Portugal. Then, at the beginning of the knockout stage, both the United States and Brazil defeated their respective opponents, Mexico and Greece by comfortable margins to advance to the quarter-finals where, in contrast with Brazil whom managed a narrow 2-1 victory over England to subsequently defeat Turkey in the semi-finals, the United States saw itself almost eliminated from the tournament by Germany before a hat-trick by American forward, William Smith, saw their fortunes turn, allowing them to afterwards deal a sizable 5-2 defeat to South Korea in the semi-finals.
In a match that began with a general expectation that the star-studded, four-time champions Brazil would ultimately defeat the United States, whose participation in the finals was their first ever in history, the former faced an earlier setback after the American forward, Landon Donovan scored a goal at just eight minutes into the match, giving the Americans an early 1-0 lead. However, despite this initial setback, the Brazilian defence held on to the end of the first half of the match, while the American defence also proved equally successful in disrupting Brazilian attacks spearheaded by the likes of Rivaldo and Ronaldo. However, the subsequent second half would prove to be utterly disastrous for Brazil after their goalkeeper, Marcos, conceded two goals within two minutes at the 62nd and 64th minute respectively, both of which were against American forward, William Smith, whom later followed up with a hat-trick at the 75th minute, and which was then followed by a second goal from Landon Donovan just a minute later at the 76th minute, in what was later described by ESPN in covering the match as "an utter collapse of the Brazilian defence". Consequently, the 5-0 defeat marks Brazil's worst-ever margin of defeat in a World Cup match, the previous of which was their 3-0 loss to France at the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final. On the other hand, this marks the first and only time to date that the United States has ever won a World Cup, with their entries into the subsequent World Cup editions seeing them unable to replicate their historic success. However, perhaps most significantly, this would mark the first out of four straight World Cup victories enjoyed by William Smith, whom first led the United States to their first and only victory in 2002 before later switching allegiances to subsequently lead England to three straight World Cup victories in 2006, 2010, 2014, making himself the first player to win three World Cups in a row and the first to win four World Cups, beating out the previous record held by Brazilian legend, Pelé.
In addition to being described as a "major" and "historical upset" in World Cup history, the match also came to be perceived by many Brazilians as a national tragedy, with many Brazilian commentators likening it to the country's shock 1-2 loss to Uruguay at the 1950 FIFA World Cup, which later came to be known as the Maracanaço. Soon afterwards, the event itself was later dubbed by Brazilians as the Desastre de Yokohama, or the Yokohama Disaster.