The countdown to the 2026 World Cupis on! Each day ahead of the tournament’s return to North America, Yahoo Sports will highlight an insight or moment that showcases just how grand the world’s biggest sporting spectacle has become — even beyond the expanded field of this year’s global event.
The United States enjoyed its time at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea. A win over Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal in their opening group stage match and a draw with co-hosts Korea helped the Americans through to the knockout stage for the second time in three World Cups.
Their opponent in the next round was Mexico, which won its group with two wins and a draw. The matchup would go the way of the U.S. thanks to goals from Brian McBride and Landon Donovan to win against their CONCACAF rivals 2-0 — which would be better known in the future as dos a cero.
Germany was up next for the U.S., a tall task against the European giants. The Americans held strong, but Michael Ballack scored the game's only goal in the 39th minute.
Five minutes into the second half, the U.S. thought they had the equalizer or, at least, had earned a penalty kick and an opportunity to level the score. A Claudio Reyna corner kick was headed back by Germany Christoph Metzelder into the 6-yard box where Gregg Berhalter got onto it with his left foot. Berhalter’s shot went off goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and then off the hand of midfielder Torsten Frings, who was standing on the goal line.
On this day in 2002, Hugh Dallas and Torsten Frings conspired to deny the #USMNT a berth in the World Cup semifinals, and I have not forgotten, nor will I ever forget, and I am making myself very angry just Tweeting about it, even. pic.twitter.com/F0mJ8Y8EpY
— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) June 22, 2019
Despite the furious pleas by U.S. players, and Video Assistant Referee 16 years away from being written into the Laws of the Game, the handball went uncalled, Frings avoided a red card and the match resumed.
"It was a 100-percent penalty," U.S. manager Bruce Arena said afterward. "I hate to say we were cheated out of it. We had the momentum in the game. We controlled the game. We would have beaten Germany and gone on to the semifinals. One of my conclusions out of that is that we still as a country had not earned the respect of the world."
Had they U.S. won, it would have continued its best World Cup ever with a rematch against Korea in the semifinals. Instead, Germany moved on, defeated the co-hosts 1-0 and lost 2-0 to Brazil in the final.
Five World Cups and two decades later and the USMNT is still looking to match their quarterfinal run from 2002.
