Do they still run like rabbits from player to player in the Korea team ? If they do, we're in trouble. What good team have you played lately and what was the score ?
On CNN they dubbed our group as the group of boredom as every team are boring to watch. What does CNN know about Sawccer anyway...although i must admit we're not pretty to watch right now.
Screw CNN. Like America or Italy is any fun to watch if they go up 1-0 and go into defensive shell. France has more talent, is better team and is closer to home. Probably France will win, but I think Korea is good enough that upset can happen.
We eat more than that . . . snakes, pig's feet. Yummy. And you French eat tons of nasty sh1t too. Anyway, what does this have to do with the game?
I'm sorry, but it's just a bit early for me to start talking tactics and rosters at this point. I need to wait about a month before the game to get excited.....
I don't have a problem with eating snails. French cooking is wonderful. In the end, as long as it can be cooked, tastes good and is nourishing, I really don't care where it came from. I only draw the line at human. But Korean food is fantastic too. And don't knock dog until you've tried it. One great thing about Korea is that we don't have a stray dog problem.
My friends, my brothers, everyone ... Let's imagine, a single time, a single second, an international thread on Bigsoccer which DOESN'T start with ethnic or cultural stereotypes. Is it possible ? Would we simply believe it the day it happens ? After all, we don't NEED to repeat each and every time that Americans are a bunch of fat, greedy, cretinous and homicidal scavengers ; that Asians are fast and industrious little buggers ; that Brits speak like lords and act like thugs ; that Italians could not say a single truth even if their life would depend on it ; that Germans are as unimaginative and dim-minded as they are well organized ; and, of course, that French are natural seducers, overhelmingly dashing and clever. We know all of this for sure already, don't we ? PS : Please note I'm ironic.
Now, back to the point : Like everyone, I guess, I was enthralled by the style of Korea during WC2002 (especially compared with the french boredom). Pesky strikers, lots of passes, fast attack, who-cares-about-defense style .... And it worked ! So, well done, gentlemen. You gave to the world a lesson about how the beautiful game should be played. I hope the France-Korea game will be an opportunity for France to wake up and play an open, offensive kind of soccer. I hope this game will "unlock" us, so to speak. And I'm rather confident that you have the ability to kick the Swiss out of the cup, too.
Pierre, I don't think French or Koreans are going too out of control in this thread. A little bit of trash-talking before the game, sharing pictures of our beautiful women, then the game, then the trash-talking after the game . . . part of the fun. Back to what you were saying about Koreans running around . . . wondering what you guys think about body types for soccer? Being big is huge advantage for aerial set pieces and keeping someone off the ball. I noticed when Korea played the top European teams, the Europeans always had one big, strong guy that Korean defenders just couldn't knock off his dribble. The Korean defender could typically stick with the European dribbler, but couldn't force him to give up the ball. Obviously, such ball control in the offensive zone created some quality scoring chances. OTOH, maybe it's just my imagination, but it seemed that as the game wore on, while the Koreans were still running around like fiends, the European players, particularly the bigger ones, seemed a little gassed. These guys are all world-class athletes so I'm sure they were in top-condition, so I think the difference was due perhaps to the Koreans being slightly smaller and lighter, so had fresher legs because they weren't carrying around as much weight? It was really noticeable that a lot of the European teams were holding back defenders and midfielders when attacking Korea, especially as game wore on, because they were afraid of the speed of Korea's counter-attack. Obviously, that made defense a lot easier for Korea. Throughout WC 2002, I was amazed at how many quality penalites, yellow cards, etc. that Koreans were able to get (in part due to ref calls I admit) but mainly due to a beaten defender realizing he had no choice but to pull down a Korean counter-attacker because otherwise it'd be 4-2 counter-attack and goalie would be sitting duck. In any case, when I was watching guys like Italy's Totti or Spain's Raul go through Korea's defense, I remember thinking, if we only had a guy or 2 like that who could keep possession (because Korea depends on short, quick passing as none of our guys has the strength to hold off defenders to maintain dribble possession or the incredible skill to maintain dribble possession without using strength), we would really kick a$$. Your reactions to these thoughts of mine?
im glad.. i never knew LG was from Korea until i looked in the back of my cellphone and looked it up.. damn koreans are everywhere these days (just kidding) lol here we go with the dog jokes again.. most of my french friends in America are pretty kind people, but im not really offended by the dog jokes.. its true in Korea people eat dogs! shocking isnt it? but thats just a small majority of the population.. you cant assume every korean eats dogs now, can we? most koreans in Korea are against eating dogs and its looked down on now.. but we cant assume that just because theres some gay guys in San Fransico doesnt mean that every guy that comes from SF is gay. lets just stay on football and wish each other luck. France is a strong team and i know 2002 was one of those, "RARE FLUKES" that happens to a powerhouse like France. i respect all of France's players, you guys have a rich football background and i hope you wont take Korea lightly.. i cant think of any recent games, but around December in 2004, we beat Germany 3 to 1, the rest of these games were a little before/after 2002, we beat Brazil 1-0, beat Turkey 2-1, we almost beat France (we had the lead 2:1 in halftime), tied England 1-1, close game against Brazil 2-3.. ever since we got a new coach Dick Advocaat we had a pretty good record so far.. We beat Iran 2-0, we tied Sweden 2-2, and we beat Serbia and Montenegro 2-0. those teams arent anywhere near how good France is, but its pretty decent and productive results. good luck to France and Korea, hopefully we'll both advance to round of 16
As a team, i think Korea can be dangerous with its speed and stamina. From what I heard, France is nowhere near the form of its glory days in 98-2000. But France is still France. Should be interesting what happens.