2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Road to the final, Brazil
With this win, Brazil also knocked the Chinese team out of the World Cup with their second loss. In their final game against Costa Rica, Brazil was very strong offensively. In a 5–2 win, Ronaldo scored two goals, one of four Brazilian players to score in the match. Brazil finished in first place in their group with nine points and scoring eleven goals, advancing to the round of 16 with ease.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Road to the final, Brazil
Entering the elimination round with a perfect record, Brazil faced Group H runner-up Belgium in the first stage. The game remained scoreless at half time, as both teams had good goalkeeping. In the 67th minute, striker Rivaldo scored for Brazil. Ronaldo added on a second goal in the 87th minute, solidifying the win for Brazil at 2–0. England faced Brazil in the quarterfinals, and got ahead early with a goal by forward Michael Owen in the 23rd minute.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Road to the final, Brazil
The scores were levelled in the first half's stoppage time, when Rivaldo scored in his second straight match just before the half was called. Following half time, forward Ronaldinho scored for Brazil, putting them in the lead. Only seven minutes later, Ronaldinho was red-carded by referee Felipe Ramos Rizo of Mexico and therefore suspended for the next match. Although they played with only 10 men, the Brazilians were able to prevent a second goal from their English opponents and advanced into the semi-finals to face Turkey.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Road to the final, Brazil
In the semi-final, the sans-Ronaldinho Brazil faced Turkey for the second time, at Saitama Stadium. The game, unlike the first meeting between the teams, had a strong showing of defense by both sides. The game was a scoreless tie at half-time, but this soon changed. Only four minutes after the half in the 49th minute, Ronaldo again came through for Brazil, scoring what ended up being the only goal of the match. With this low-scoring victory, the Brazilians moved on to attempt to win a record fifth World Cup title, against the aforementioned German squad.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Background, Broadcasting and venue
Over 200 nations and territories broadcast the final over radio and television. In totality, 232 television channels broadcast the match, which was a new record for a World Cup Final (only later to be broken in 2006). The final had the highest television audience of the entire tournament, attracting over 63 million viewers in Nielsen-measured countries. The Germany-South Korea match was a close second, as much of the host nation viewed the game to support their team. It was the highest-viewed non-finals match in World Cup history.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Background, Broadcasting and venue
The game was played at International Stadium Yokohama, where three other matches in the World Cup were previously held. The stadium was the largest in the tournament as well as the largest in the entire nation of Japan, seating over 70,000 spectators. In all, about 260,000 people attended matches in this stadium throughout the World Cup, which, at the time, was a new record.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Background, Match ball
The match ball for this game was the Adidas Fevernova, a ball specifically made for the World Cup. The ball's design was different from the normal "Tango" type of three-pointed shapes connecting each hexagon, instead introducing a different, triangle-like shape on four hexagons. This look and color usage was entirely based on Asian culture. It also featured a refined syntactic foam layer, to give the ball superior performance characteristics, and a three-layer knitted chassis, allowing for a more precise and predictable flight path.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Background, Match ball
However, this ball was notoriously criticised for being too light, yet some spectacular goals were scored with it during the tournament. The ball was also blamed for a number of upsets that happened in the knockout stages. Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon called the ball "a ridiculous kiddy's bouncing ball," while Brazil's Edilson criticised the ball as being "too big and too light".


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Match, Summary
Coming into the match, Germany looked to have an uphill task to beat Brazil, as although they had scored fourteen goals by the time of the final, eight of those goals were scored against Saudi Arabia, and the Europeans were coming off back to back to back 1–0 wins. Adding to the German hardship, midfielder Michael Ballack who scored the winning goals in both the Quarterfinal against the United States and the Semi Final against South Korea, would miss the game due to a suspension. Still, the Germans could take solace in their shot stopper Oliver Kahn who was in the midst of what is considered one of the greatest individual World Cup performances of all time. Kahn had only conceded one goal, to Robbie Keane of Ireland, up to this point in the tournament.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Match, Summary
Brazil would claim their fifth, World Cup title; over the resilient German side. Ronaldo missed a chance in the 19th minute when he was put through on Oliver Kahn by Ronaldinho, putting his shot wide of the target. The next big chance of the game would fall to the legs of Ronaldo in the 30th minute, as he was once again put through by Ronaldinho, this time he was unable to put much power on the shot as he was put under pressure by Thomas Linke, and Kahn saved his effort.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Match, Summary
Kléberson would have the next  chances of the match, putting the first wide in the 42nd minute, and hitting the bar from long range in the 45th minute. Ronaldo missed his third scoring chance in stoppage time, when a Roberto Carlos pass evaded all the German defenders, this time Ronaldo hit the shot well, but Kahn saved it with his outstretched foot. Germany had their first major chance of the evening a minute into the second half, when a corner found an unmarked Jens Jeremies, but his header was blocked by the foot of Edmílson.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Match, Summary
In the 50th minute, Germany almost scored when Oliver Neuville struck a free kick from long range, Marcos tipped the brilliant strike onto the post. For the majority of the match, Brazil's dominance in the middle of the pitch forced attacking midfielder Bernd Schneider to spend most of his time helping the German defense. This left Neuville and Miroslav Klose isolated against the three Brazilian central defenders Edmílson, Roque Júnior, and future Captain Lúcio.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Match, Summary
Save from his brilliant free kick, Neuville had little impact on the game, and Klose was unable to make any notable impact against the tight marking of the Brazilians. Brazil would open the scoring in the 67th minute in a sequence that started with Ronaldo winning the ball from Dietmar Hamann in the German half of the pitch. Ronaldo passed to Rivaldo who struck a low shot towards goal. Kahn attempted to catch the shot, but he was unable to, and in doing so spilled a rebound.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Match, Summary
Ronaldo, who had followed Rivaldo's shot, and despite the rebound being relatively short, took advantage of Kahn being off balance, scoring the rebound into the bottom corner before Kahn could recover. The Brazilians scored their second goal twelve minutes later, after a mazy run from Kléberson from just beyond the halfway line caused confusion in the German defense, this run lead to Brazil having a four attackers against Germany's three defenders.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Match, Summary
Kléberson passed towards Rivaldo, who was in the center of the pitch and a yard outside the German penalty area, and Linke came from covering Ronaldo to pressure Rivaldo, but Rivaldo let the ball pass through his legs, and the pace on Kléberson's pass found Ronaldo, who now had a chance from the center edge of the German penalty area.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Match, Summary
German forward Gerald Asamoah tracked back well, and he was almost able to block the shot, but Ronaldo used his first touch to take the ball away from Asamoah, and passed the ball into the bottom corner of Kahn's net with his second.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Match, Summary
Germany had their best chance of the game in the 83rd minute when Oliver Bierhoff hit a first time shot towards goal from the penalty spot, but Marcos got down brilliantly to save the shot, and Germany were unable to threaten for the rest of the match, marking the first time 'Die Mannschaft' failed to score in a final.


2002 FIFA World Cup Final, Post-match
Despite being present, the Japanese emperor Akihito did not join the ceremony of presenting the winners the World Cup trophy as it was against Japanese customs. FIFA president Sepp Blatter and former Brazilian World Cup winner Pelé handed the trophy to Brazilian captain Cafu on the pitch stage.