the tournament however, far from it. One memory as a fan was watching matches over breakfast before trying to find a way to watch or consume mid morning and lunchtime games. To this end, every boy at school came into possession of a small portable radio, with earphones fed up sleeves for optimal, secret, listening pleasure during Physics and Geography.

The great France team of the era, reigning World and European Champions kicked off the tournament against the relatively unknown Senegal. The African side shocked the world by beating the French and setting up the rest of the tournament for relative underdogs to thrive.

Yes, ultimately Brazil won the final against Germany which doesn’t seem to fit in with the “underdog” tag, but there was plenty for the neutral toget excited about throughout the rest of the tournament. As well as the vibrant and ultimately relatively successful Senegal side and the Turkey team who travelled deep into the tournament, there were the co-hosts South Korea – led by a certain Guus Hiddink who was to establish himself as something of a coaching messiah for emerging national teams over the next decade with successful spells at Australia and Russia to follow. Here however it was South Korea who he steered through to the Semi Finals of the tournament where they lost out to Germany following victories against Spain in the Quarters and Italy in the last 16. The Italian victory was made more memorable by the fact that the Extra Time winner was scored by Ahn Jung-hwan, who