Match Number: 718 Date: 14.06.2002 Location: Seogwipo, Korea Competition: World Cup, Japan/Korea 2002 GERMANY: Kahn - Frings, Rehmer (46. Kehl), Linke, Metzelder (60. Baumann) - B. Schneider, Jeremies, Ballack, Bode - Neuville (90. Asamoah), Klose Coach: Völler PARAGUAY: Chilavert - Arce, Caceres, Ayala, Gamarra - Bonet (84. Gavilan), Acuna, Struway (90. Cuevas), Caniza - Cardozo, Santa Cruz (29. Campos) Coach: Maldini Scoring: 1:0 Neuville (88., assist Schneider) Referee: Carlos Batres (Guatemala) Red card: Acuna (90.) Yellow cards: Schneider, Baumann, Ballack - Cardozo Attendance: 25,176Another rather lame performance by the DFB squad, but it was capped by a nice effort by the two best players on the pitch. Bernd Schneider raced down the right flank and crossed in to an on rushing Oliver Neuville, who hammered home. Up until that point, it had been one of the more boring matches of the whole World Cup, and the german effort, while solid, was crap.
Paraguay was content to let the Germans possess the ball, but created the clear chances in the 1st half. Linke and Rehmer were total crap, but luckily Roque Santa Cruz got injured, so he wasn't available to embarass them. Oliver Kahn was his usual solid self, but overall, the Germans were somewhat flattered by having a draw going into the half.
In the 2nd half, Germany started a lot better, and created a few chances. But then the game degenerated into a boring kick-a-bout, that soon had the fans, yours truly included, snoring. It took that blitzschnelle Aktion by Schneider/Neuville to wake everybody up, and then the game was over.
Nevertheless, despite this crap performance, Germany advances to the quarterfinals.