The Italians did not take defeat with good grace and Perugia, Ahn's Italian employers, through colourful chief Luciano Gaucci, sacked him immediately for his act of treason, saying: "That gentleman will never set foot in Perugia again. He was a phenomenon only against Italy. I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian football."

Referee Byron Moreno, too, was not a popular figure after sending off golden boy Francesco Totti for a dive in extra-time, dominated by the lively and physically resilient South Koreans, when he tumbled in the box vainly searching for a penalty. Struggling to top each party, expecting it to be the last, over a million people poured out onto the streets of Seoul alone, but it was not long before more face-paint and fireworks were required -

again, in some part, thanks to a benevolent official.

Spain, their quarter-final opponents, had two 'goals' chalked off, one for a debatable offside call, the second denying the Iberians a golden-goal winner after an assistant referee wrongly flagged that the ball had gone out of play before Joaquin crossed for Fernando Morientes to head home. Penalties were needed to setde the game and, after Lee Woon-Jae had saved Joaquin's spot-kick, it fell, appropriately, to South Korea’s captain and most capped player, Hong Myung-Bo, to convert the winning penalty. South Korea thus became the first Asian side to make the semifinals and added fuel to the fire of both Korean street parties and calls for reform of the method of picking match officials.

A policy of inclusion of officials from the breadth of FIFA's family meant Moreno (Ecuador), the referee from the Spanish game, Gamal Ghandour (Egypt) and Peter

Prendergast (Jamaica), who had missed a legitimate Belgian goal in their match against Brazil, were selected ahead of mainly European whistle-blowers with more match experience. Such a policy was scrapped for Germany 2006.

Elsewhere, Turkey edged out Senegal in a match between two largely unfancied sides, the only goal a golden one from Ilhan Mansiz and Germany, despite being second-best for large passages of play, scraped past Bruce Arena's USA to book a record ninth semi-final appearance.

With a number of the big teams fallen by the wayside, the victors of England's clash with Brazil had a very real chance of ultimate glory and England expected once Michael Owen had seized on a mistake to put them one up. But a moment of brilliance from Rivaldo just before the break was followed by Ronaldinho deceiving David Seaman from distance by lobbing the ageing keeper from a free-

kick. The Brazilian was later sent off but Sven-Goran Eriksson had no response to the opportunity presented and the English meekly bowed out, another chance gone.

Korea's fairytale came to an end at the hands of the Germans, who paid heavily for their 1-0 semi-final victory by losing Michael Ballack to an accumulation of yellow cards. A professional foul when South Korea looked to be building towards goal was a selfless act but one that put his side at a huge disadvantage in the final against Brazil, victors over Turkey by the same scoreline in the other semifinal.

Brazil took the honours but the people of Japan and South Korea won the plaudits for the warmth of their welcome and the flawless way they conducted their responsibilities with the eyes of the world trained upon them - and for providing some breathtaking excitement and colour both on and off the field.