Apparently the Koreans are potrayed as villians in this video. Tommasi's offside call, Totti's 2nd yellow in the box and both Spain's offsides. Other features are Maradona's handball and some other shiat. What do you guys think?
Well, they made a list of 10 most controversial decisions/events of WC history, and those incidents you mentioned involving Korea in WC2002 were placed 6-9th. It do not necessarily mean that Korea NT is being portrayed as a villain - after all, after Italy/Spain matches there were lots of things to be said about some of the calls (both criticising/defending), and this DVD simply stated that such things happened. I don't think we need to feel victimised, however - I don't see many Argentinians feeling particularly vilified and/or guilty about Maradona's Hand of God Incident, for example - if anything it was the ref's fault for making the wrong call. Even if some or all of those decisions that favoured Korea were indeed wrongfully made (I still think all of them were 50/50's at least), Korea NT didn't do anything wrong and simply enjoyed luck/home advantage during those games.
Yep, I believe it's more a case of FIFA pointing out what they believe are some of the poorest refereeing decisions in the history of the World Cup. Korea aren't being portrayed as villains, they just happen to have been the team involved in a few high-profile controversial decisions... then again, it's quite possible there were a few 'worse' decisions made in previous World Cups that due to the poor quality of (or lack of) the footage just aren't talked about. FIFA's "Top 10" or "Top 100" lists of anything these days are usually to be taken with a pinch of salt anyway
Did they mention Tore Andre Flo's dive against Brazil that earned them the penalty? Rekdal converted it and Morocco were sent packing as a result even though they beat Scotland 3-0. Did they mention that Cameroon match in France 98? Can't remember who they played... but a Cameroonian player scored the winning goal but it was ruled out for offside even though replays showed he was onside by forever. By the way, Totti deserved that 2nd yellow. So that DVD can go s**** itself. Did they show De Pedro's two footed tackle on Song Jung-guk that went totally unpunished?
you know, whenever there is some poor refereeing decision, the fifa/afc/whoever suits go around making statements about how "we should not get caught up in that" or "referees have the discretion", and so on. but when they decide to make some money selling dvds, of course they are going to put in these controversies -- put some "meat" on the bones of an otherwise rather predictable and self-congratulatory product.
Well you know that Korea being a non-white country has a lot to do with the "controversy" .. because it's decided before any ball gets kicked that Korea isn't "worthy" of beating european countries. All the calls were very marginal at best .. no worse than you see in any major tournament.
I HATE bringing race into the reasoning but I think in this case it is the case. If an Asian or African team goes out because of a bad call it's nothing. If a European team goes out because of it, then it's nothing. Remember the amount of calls that strangely went the way of Brazil?? What about that?? Nothing! Ha Seok-ju deserved to get sent off unfortunately. Then again Totti deserved to get his card.
Most controversial of ALL TIME? If it was titled most controversial calls of WC 2002, ok, fine. Yeah, those calls in Korea's matches were contentious but are they saying they cannot come up with calls more controversial in the looooong history of the World Cup. That's a joke. Well, they don't want to list too many calls involving European or South American superpowers, lest they upset them.
No! Ha would only have gotten a yellow these days. That WC was the first one FIFA tried to enforce a RED card of any back tackles and was looking for a first victim. Ha WAS stupid to be the first one to oblige. These days, no refs would give automatic RED because of a back tackle. Ha's ejection turned 1:0 lead against Mexico to 3:1 loss for Korea eventually. I am still pissed at that.
I trot these articles out at various intervals, but they give an interesting perspective on the whole 2002 "conspiracy" claims... (and the "Whose Conspiracy?" article makes reference to Ha's red card in 1998) http://www.footballinkorea.com/html/conspiracy_.html http://www.ddanzi.com/ddanziilbo/worldcup/gisa/0624_refereeing_en.html Discuss
I have watched Italy, Spain matches number of times. Yes, Korea was lucky to win but it is no more or no less than what you see from other games. Because the games are played at high speed and refs must make subjective calls a lot of times, these things do happen. Unless soccer want to use replay video scheme for questionable calls, these conspiracy theory will always be there. BTW, in many WCs Korea was at the wrong end of "luck" mainly because we had very little credentials in WCs. Mexico vs Korea game where Ha got the first straight RED was a good example. In WC02, conspiracy theory on Korean NT was plausible to many (especially among Italians and Chinese) because Korea did miraculously well and had 2 "lucky" high profile games in a row against world class teams. It's called home advantage and I thank our "RED" fans for that. This happens all the time: France won the WC in their soil. Argentina won in their soil. Chile placed 3rd in WC held in their soil. China placed 2nd placed in the latest AC in their home. The list goes on and on. And btw, good teams will take advantage of "luck" and do well. Bad teams can't.
By the laws of the game, a backtackle is still an automatic red so you cannot complain about that. Often I've seen back tackles go unpunished. I'm afraid the ref got this one right.
Of course. And remember Portugal in Euro 2004? Finalists and not all calls 100%. Netherlands in Euro 2000... they earned two penalties against Italy. Not often that happens. France 98. France wins. Dodgy final. USA 94. Largely untested team does really well and narrowly loses 1-0 to eventual champions Brazil.
I wasn't questioning the ref's call. He called it by the book on that play so I don't blame him. I was just pissed because it happened. My other point is, it was rarely enforced before, and rarely enforced now. Ha was wrong place at the wrong time so to speak.
Well yeah. The other thing was how they made a big deal about Lee Woon-jae moving a bit early. It happens everywhere all the time. Happens there and the whole world acts like it's the first time it's happened.
I agree. Goalies moving illegally early happens all the time and noone enforces it. Whoever picks that one out either don't know soccer or just hate Korea. Oh, well, you can't win them all.
Don't forget England at home in 1966. They beat West Germany 4-2 in the final. The final was highly controversial because of England's third goal by Geoff Hurst. The ball hit the bar and the ball bounced onto the ground. To this day, tv replays have failed to conclusively prove if the linesman was correct. If I recall correctly, Hurst recently attended a ceremony dedicated to the unveiling of a statute of the linesman who awarded England that goal.
Well when it comes to the second yellow, I'd say Totti didn't deserve to get sent off. Was there contact? Yes. Was there enough for him to go down? I would think so. But everyone takes a little dive, especially on contact. Only kicker is that you rarely see it go against the player who fell. Believe me, I'm not sad to see him go and he had it coming. But deserved in that case? Not too sure about that. I do agree though that I find it amazing they can't find anymore controversial things in there. Hell, I'm surprised they have a stupid dvd with this stuff. Can't they just put this crap up on the FIFA website or something as part of a multimedia feature? Next up I believe is "FIFA's Greenest Pitches" dvd.
Yeah, I mean seeing it in replay I was more surprised that they didn't award Italy the PK. But of course I'm definitely not complaining. I think it has more to do with the ref than anything else. I think we can all agree that Moreno was crap.
And the most amazing thing about Korea vs Italy, and Korea vs Spain ... Despite everything that went on, Italy and Spain blew many, many chances themselves. They cannot pin their loss just on refs. IMHO, the single most reason why they did not advance past beyond Korea was themselves.
Oh definitely. Vieri missed a friggin sitter with his right and someone on Spain hit the post. At least Puyol came over after the final whistle to shake hands. That guy oozes class.
Thats what I would like to tell all of the complainers. You blew your chances and God was with us that day. About that Lee Woon Jae moving early, I think the reason why most ref's won't call it is because its an advantage to the kicker. Hell, the advantage is always to the kicker anyways and Joaquin missed badly.