Hangook! Woooooooehoooooo! Hangoooooook! Wooooehooooehoooo! (Hangook means "Korea" in well, Korean. Woooo has no meaning, you knucklehead). Today's entry is all about Korea's national soccer team, aka the Red Devils (see the jerseys).
Prior to the 2002 World Cup (hosted jointly by Korea and Japan), South Korea had played in 5 World Cups and never made it out of the first round. In 2002, they made the final four, losing to Germany 1-0 - but Korea's been football mad even since. One of their players, Ji-Sung Park, plays on Manchester United.
The fans....
Outside City Hall - about 1 block from my office.....
In 2002, Korea had a Dutch coach, Guus Hiddink who instantly became a mega star in Korea.....
In fact he was so popular that he was offered Korean citizenship.......
In fact, Hiddink is still popular enough, 4 years later (he was Australia's national coach in the 2006 World Cup), that he is the lead endorser of Papa John's here in Korea.....
10 minutes of Red Devils highlights from the 2002 World Cup. Notre Dame, Green Bay Packers, European soccer – don’t stand a chance against Korean fans when it comes to the World Cup. Must be something about the conformity thing here. Pretty amazing. Oh, and dig the overly dramatic Korean film style. Good times.South Korea scores against Italy in the 2002 World Cup – the city goes bonkers (yes, bonkers – my English is regressing since I’ve been here). [2:30 seconds]
In case you're curious, in the 2006 World Cup, they beat Togo, tied eventual runner up France, but then lost to Switzerland (hugely controversial refereeing) - never making it out of the opening round.
Oh, and just to make you feel better, I installed a counter on this page (thanks for reading!).....and as a result of this I can see (to some degree) who is viewing this page. Thanks Jack - glad to see you're working hard (note the Honeywell domain)....
1 comment:
They have Papa John's in Korea?! Well, it could be worse...they could have Domino's.
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