Berlin, June 29 (DPA) Here's how June 30 has shaped up in World Cup history:
1954 - The semi-final matches are played. The overwhelming favourites Hungary played against the defending champions Uruguay and needed extra time to beat the South Americans 4-2. In the other game, Germany had no problems in beating Austria 6-1. Only the 1930 semi-finals between Argentina and the US and Uruguay against Yugoslavia provided more goals. Both games ended 6-1.
1975 - Swedish goalkeeper Rami Shaaban was born. The Stockholm-born player was expected to play for Egypt, but was called up into the Swedish squad for the World Cup finals in Germany after impressing for his Norwegian club Fredrikstad. He played in Sweden's opening group game against Trinidad and Tobago. In 2002, Shaaban was poised for a career in the Premiership with Arsenal after signing for the club.
Three matches after taking over as first choice keeper he injured himself in a match against Manchester United and was out for two weeks. As he was coming back from the injury he broke his leg in training and his Arsenal career was over before it had properly started.
2002 - Brazil beat Germany in the final at South Korea/Japan 2002. Ronaldo scored twice in the second half, benefiting first from German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn's mistake in the 67th minute before putting matters beyond doubt in the 79th minute. Brazilian captain Cafu became the only player to appear in three World Cup finals. It was Brazil's fifth title.
2002 - On the same day as Brazil faced Germany in Japan in the World Cup final, Bhutan and Montserrat met in an international friendly in Bhutan. The game - called 'The Other Final' - pitted the two weakest teams in the world against each other. Bhutan was at that time ranked 202, while Montserrat was ranked one place below.
The players from the Caribbean island took five days to reach the Himalayan kingdom for the game, which the home side won 4-0. A crowd of 15,000 is in the stadium. The then population of Montserrat was less than half of that. After the game the players from both sides watched the World Cup final between Brazil and Germany together.
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