Continuing our look back at West Ham United’s presence at previous FIFA World Cups, we head back two decades to 2002, when Trevor Sinclair made his mark after receiving a late call-up...
Three Hammers became Three Lions at the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea. But while David James and Joe Cole had been automatic inclusions in Sven-Goran Eriksson’s 23-man squad, the originally omitted Trevor Sinclair found himself going the long way round.
Just as the disappointed West Ham wide boy was preparing for a family holiday in St Lucia, an injury to future Iron Kieron Dyer saw him placed on standby.
But after flying, via Dubai, to Jeju Island in the South China Sea, Sinclair decided to return to Chadwell Heath to train alone. Injuries to Steven Gerrard and Danny Murphy then opened the World Cup door once again and Sinclair took another long-haul flight back to the Far East to rejoin the squad, where he was handed the No4 shirt vacated by the luckless Liverpool midfielder.
With David Seaman installed as first-choice goalkeeper, there was to be no tournament participation for James, but Cole did appear as a 73rd-minute substitute in England’s Group F opener against Sweden (1-1), for whom future West Ham loanee Niclas Alexandersson wiped out Sol Campbell’s opener.
But with just 17 minutes of football under his belt, Joe would have to wait until 2006 for his next slice of World Cup action. For Sinclair, things would turn out differently.
It was the wide midfielder’s turn to step from the bench in the second game against Argentina, though, as David Beckham exorcised the horror of his dismissal four years earlier, by slamming home the winner from the penalty spot.
“When Sven told me that I was going on I had a whole mixture of feelings – excitement, fear, expectation. You name it, I felt it!” revealed Sinclair, after replacing the injured Owen Hargreaves just 18 minutes into England’s 1-0 victory and collecting his sixth full cap.
“Having proved myself in the Premiership, I knew that it was a massive chance for me to show that I could do it at international level in the biggest football tournament in the world.
“I looked around at Hernán Crespo, Javier Zanetti, Juan Sebastián Verón and all the other Argentinians and I knew that I mustn’t be afraid. If I’d thought: ‘Oh God, what am I doing here?’ I would’ve frozen, but I truly believed in my ability.
“The pressure was off, I’d been on standby, then I’d made the squad and now I was actually being brought on to play for the team itself. Without any doubt it was the highlight of my career.”
While Cole and James sat out England’s subsequent goalless draw with Nigeria and second-round victory over Denmark (3-0) – in which ex-Hammer Rio Ferdinand scored and future Upton Park capture Teddy Sheringham was introduced as a substitute – Sinclair was, by now, an automatic starter.
But England’s World Cup dream was famously ended by Brazil in the quarter-finals, despite Michael Owen putting the Three Lions ahead, as Rivaldo equalised and Ronaldinho’s free-kick floated over Seaman and into the top left-hand corner.
“Although we went ahead through Michael, we have to accept that the better team won,” admitted Sinclair, after the 1-2 defeat at the hands of eventual winners Brazil. “There were a lot of good teams at the 2002 World Cup who were sent home early, while we came through the so-called ‘Group of Death’ and put in some decent performances along the way.
“And don’t forget, Brazil went on and won the tournament, too!”
Elsewhere, a Republic of Ireland squad containing one-time Academy of Football youngster Matt Holland – who scored in a group-stage draw with Rigobert Song and Marc-Vivien Foé’s Cameroon – and future West Ham players Gary Breen, David Connolly and Robbie Keane made it into the second round, where they lost to Spain on penalties.
Former Irons striker Paulo Wanchope also saw Costa Rica fall at the first hurdle but, alongside James, Cole and Ferdinand, he was, at least, destined to have another crack at the World Cup in Germany in 2006...
