The 2002 World Cup began with a blast of fireworks in Seoul Friday night, after which the No. 1 ranked team on the planet failed to produce a single spark.
Senegal, which a generation ago was a French colony, recorded a 1-0 victory over France in a monumental upset that got the month-long soccer spectacle off to a shocking start.
Four years ago, Parisians jammed the Champs Elysees to celebrate France's victory over Brazil in the championship game of the World Cup. It was the largest celebration Paris had seen since the end of World War II.
On a gorgeous Friday afternoon in Paris, many of those same Parisians wore long faces as they walked quietly around the grounds of Roland Garros Stadium while attending the French Open tennis tournament.
"Nothing is ruined," said French coach Roger Lemerre. "There are two more games to play and if we win those, we'd be in the round of 16."
Papa Bouba Diop scored the game's only goal in the 30th minute despite the fact that he was flat on the ground.
After years of preparation, the first World Cup began with an opening ceremony that carried the theme, "peace and harmony."
A threat of rain hovered over the ceremonies and a slight mist eventually fell during the game itself, but the festivities came off as scheduled.
Hundreds of Korean men dressed in yellow robes slowly covered the field as the ceremony began while traditional music filled the air. It all ended with the ringing of a bell of peace, after which the spectators were treated to a huge fireworks show.
And then it was time for the game, which produced a very unexpected result.
The goal by Senegal was set up when Elhadji Diouf left France's Frank Leboeuf grasping for air as he zipped past him on the left side.
Diouf then cengtered the ball along ground and it appeared either goalkeeper Fabien Barthez or teammate Emmanuel Petit would easily be handle the situation.
But Petit failed to clear and Barthez had to lurch to his left to get a hand on it. He was unable to control it however, and the ball rolled right to Diop -- who despite the fact that he was lying on his side had only to stick out a foot and deflect in the first goal of the World Cup.
France had chance after chance during the hour of play that remained, but could not produce. The French hit the goalpost once, the crossbar once, had 10 corner kicks to none for Senegal and carried the play almost all night. But there were no goals.
"This is the biggest win for my team," said Senegal coach Bruno Metsu. "It's like a dream. We worked very hard and can take big satisfaction from this and so can the Senegalese people."
Although French superstar Zinedine Zidane missed the game with a strained thigh, and may miss his team's next contest as well, his team was expected to easily deal with Senegal without him.
Now the defending champions face the real possibility that they could be going home after the first round. When France hosted the World Cup four years ago, no team that lost its opening game made it past the opening round.
With the first game out of the way, action will begin in earnest Saturday with 47 matches scheduled over the next 14 days.
Senegal and France are in Group A and the other two members of that group --- Uruguay and Denmark -- will play at Ulsan Saturday.
The World Cup is being co-hosted by Japan and that country will see two games played Saturday --- Ireland vs. Cameroon at Niigaya and Germany vs. Saudi Arabia at Sapporo.
It was Cameroon that opened the 1990 World Cup in the same shocking manner that Senegal did Friday. On that occasion in Italy, Cameroon downed defending champion Argentina, 1-0.
Four games will be played Sunday with injury-plauged England playing Sweden, Paraguay taking on South Africa, Spain facing Slovenia and Argentina hoping to get past Nigeria.
