GERMANY 1  SOUTH KOREA 0

The German line up was: Oliver Kahn, Thomas Linke, Carsten Ramelow, Christoph Metzelder, Torsten Frings, Dietmar Hamann, Bernd Schneider (Jens Jeremies 85), Michael Ballack, Marco Bode, Oliver Neuville (Gerald Asamoah 89), Miroslav Klose (Oliver Bierhoff 70)

The South Korean line up was: Lee Woon-Jae, Choi Jin-Cheul (Lee Min-Sung 57), Hong Myung-Bo (Seol Ki-Hyeon 80), Kim Tae-Young, Song Chong-Gug, Park Ji-Sung, Yoo Sang-Chul, Lee Young-Pyo, Cha Du-Ri, Hwang Sun-Hong (Ahn Jung-Hwan 54), Lee Chun-Soo

Germany beat Paraguay 1-0 in the second round, beat the USA 1-0 in the quarter final (rather fortunately) and have now beaten South Korea 1-0 to reach the World Cup final - please click here to see the full German squad.

In the first ten minutes of the match, goalkeeper Oliver Kahn (who has easily been Germany's best player in the tournament) had to save superbly from Lee Chun-Soo's shot. Germany then started to take control with Dietmar Hamann giving a man of the match performance in central midfield.

The goal came in the 75th minute of the match when Oliver Neuville ran down the right side of midfield before passing the ball across to Michael Ballack inside the penalty box. Ballack's first shot was saved by Lee Woon-Jae but the ball rebounded straight to him and he made no mistake with his second attempt.

Just before this goal, Ballack had received a yellow card when fouling Lee Chun-Soo just outside the German penalty area to prevent a possible goal - this was his second yellow card in the latter stages of the World Cup and he will now miss the final.

After the goal South Korea stepped up their game and had a great chance to equalise right at the end of the match but Park Ji-Sung messed up his shot. The South Korean manager, Gus Hiddink managed to get the domestic league cancelled at the start of the year to let the team prepare properly for the World Cup (including a friendly match against England which ended 1-1) - they got much further in the World Cup 2002 than even their most optimistic fans could have hoped for before the tournament began.

After the match the German manager, Rudi Voller said that his side would try and win the trophy for Michael Ballack but his absence will be a significant loss to the side as he scored the winning goals in both the quarter final and semi final.
 

BRAZIL 1  TURKEY 0

The Brazilian team that played was: Marcos, Lucio, Edmilson, Roque Junior, Cafu, Kleberson (Belleti 85), Gilberto Silva, Edilson (Denilson 75), Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo (Luizao 68), Rivaldo

The Turkish team was: Rustu, Fatih, Korkmaz, Alpay, Ergun, Davala (Izzet 74), Basturk (Erdem 88), Tugay, Emre (Mansiz 61), Sas, Sukur

Brazil had beaten Belgium 2-0 in the second round and England 2-1 in the quarter final before beating Turkey 1-0 to qualify for the World Cup final.

Brazil dominated this game but the Turkish keeper Rustu had an excellent game. After 18 minutes, however, Fatih put in an excellent cross from the right and Alpay's header forced a good save from Brazil's goalkeeper, Marcos.

Rustu then saved well after a shots from Cafu, Rivaldo and Ronaldo. Brazil had already beaten Turkey in an ill tempered match at the group stages of the World Cup 2002 and the players were almost fighting again just before half time.

Four minutes into the second half, Brazil were 1-0 up. Gilberto Silva ran down the left wing and passed to Ronaldo who toe-poked the ball into the net despite Rustu getting a hand to the ball.

Towards the end of the match, Brazil defended well in numbers and although Hakan Sukur (who had been disappointing in the tournament) had a great chance saved by Marcos near the end of the match the game finished 1-0 to Brazil.

Ronaldo is now favourite for the golden boot after scoring six goals in the competition but Rivaldo and Klose (both scored 5 goals) could yet get the golden boot too if they score in the World Cup 2002 final. Germany and Brazil are the most successful teams in the history of the World Cup but this will be the first time that they have met in the final.