South Korea managed to reach the semi-finals, beating Poland, Portugal, Italy and Spain en route.

However, the most potent team at the tournament, Brazil, prevailed, winning the final against Germany 2–0, making them the first and only country to have won the World Cup five times.

[4] FIFA leaders were split on whom to favor as host as politics within the world governing body held sway.

The unusual choice of host proved an issue for football fans in Europe, used to watching international matches on or close to their time zone.

[8] With games taking place in the European morning, some schools and businesses chose to open late on match days or set up communal watching events before the start of work.

Defending champions France and co-hosts South Korea and Japan qualified automatically and did not have to play any qualification matches.

South Korea set a record by appearing in a fifth successive finals tournament, the first nation from outside Europe or the Americas to achieve this feat.

Notably, no matches were played in Tokyo, making it the second capital of a host country not to have a World Cup venue after Bonn of West Germany in 1974.

[34] Questionable decisions in the match between Italy and South Korea resulted in 400,000 complaints, and featured in ESPN's 10 most fabled World Cup controversies.

The historic tradition to seed the hosts (Japan and South Korea) and holders (France) was upheld while the remaining five seeds were granted to the other five of the top six teams—ranked by their results in the last three FIFA World Cups (ratio 3:2:1) and their FIFA World Ranking position in the last month of the past three years (equal ratio).

The rules were changed to the above in advance of the tournament, but older versions were still available on the FIFA and UEFA websites, causing some confusion among those trying to identify the correct criteria.

The United States beat CONCACAF rivals Mexico 2–0 in Jeonju with Brian McBride and Landon Donovan scoring the goals.

The other co-hosts, South Korea, defeated Italy 2–1 in extra time in Daejeon with a goal by Ahn Jung-hwan in the 117th minute.

[45] The United States lost to Germany 1–0 in Ulsan by a Michael Ballack goal in the 39th minute, but controversy surrounded the game when United States demanded the referee give a penalty for a goal-line handball by Torsten Frings in the 49th minute, but the referee did not award the penalty.

[48] The next day in Saitama saw Ronaldo score a goal early in the second half, his sixth of the competition for Brazil, to defeat Turkey in a replay of their Group C encounter.

[51] In the final match held in Yokohama, Japan, two goals from Ronaldo secured the World Cup for Brazil as they claimed victory over Germany.

[52] Ronaldo scored twice in the second half and, after the game, won the Golden Shoe award for the tournament's leading scorer with eight goals.

[53] This was the fifth time Brazil had won the World Cup, cementing their status as the most successful national team in the history of the competition.

Brazil's captain Cafu, who became the first player to appear in three successive World Cup finals, accepted the trophy on behalf of the team.

[57] After the tournament, FIFA published a ranking of all teams that competed in the 2002 World Cup finals based on progress in the competition, overall results and quality of the opposition.

[77] For the second round Japan vs. Turkey match in Miyagi in particular, although it was reported by both parties that all tickets had been sold, some 700 seats remained empty.

The official mascots of the 2002 World Cup were Ato, Kaz and Nik (the Spheriks), orange, purple and blue (respectively) futuristic CGI creatures.

The official FIFA cultural event of the 2002 World Cup was a flag festival called Poetry of the Winds.

However, there were concerns regarding the selection of hosts due to logistical issues caused by fans traveling across two separate sovereign nations as well as whether some of the 20 stadiums to be constructed for the World Cup would be ready in time for it or not.

While political and infrastructural problems were eventually overcome, there still remained the issue of East Asia's wet season which could disrupt the play.

[84] The time difference caused issues for fans worldwide especially in Europe, where people had to go to work when matches were played.