It is undeniable that the FIFA World Cup 2002 in Korea/Japan was a huge success. It will forever be remembered as the "underdog tournament" and the first World Cup held in Asian soil. Two of the bright spots of this success were the co-hosts' manifestation of success in their national teams. South Korea advanced to the Semi-Finals after defeating Euro giants Portugal, Italy and Spain while Japan were eliminated in the Round of 16 after a solid run including defeat of Russia. But while Japan's run has been accepted widely, Korea's hasn't. There are no defining statistics, yet one could surely say the majority of Americans, Chinese and Europeans disliked the Korean NT because of what they call "illegitimate" defeats of Italy & Spain (mainly the latter). Football message boards are a living example of this. Public opinion boards were filled with pure hatred and jealousy when Korea defeated Italy and Spain before losing to Germany.. This kind of hatred also spilled over into real life when an innocent Korean student who wasn't even related to the Korean national team or the FIFA refereeing community was badly beaten in Spain. The Spanish, Italian and Chinese (for some mysterious reason) media started to bash on Korea as a nation and a culture for getting the benefit of some home advantage refereeing (although the Italy match was called fair & square) in the Round of 16 and Quarter-Final knockout matches. A neutral fan would never understand the confusion, and sadness of a Korean soccer fan when they surfed the internet the day after the Spain game. It seemed as though no living soul was appreciating the extreme dedication and hard work the Korean people were committing to the World Cup for the people of the world. The cleaning up of the streets, the unbelievable stadiums, the hospitality to tourists and visitors, the incredible crowd support, the sea of Red, the wolfpack of a football team.. It all came to nothing it seemed. Sometimes it all came to ************. There were times (sitting in the classroom, listening to the racist calls on Koreans after a match the critics decided as being unfairly called) when I wished the Korea juggernaut would just stop. The feeling of being called a "cheat" when kicking a ball around by your friends dosen't exactly feel like a friendly punch in the arm. Korea's success brought out some of the most injustified hatred I've never even witnessed in my life. My conclusion is that Korea as a single nation fulfilled confidence in their international sporting ability, and so did Japan. But Korea will, for years to come, be remembered as the "lucky" team by many pessimistic and biased Europeans, Americans and Chinese. Was it worth it? Living in Korea, hell yes. But for people living overseas, some learned to watch their mouth.
I feel your pain. I was shocked, just reading BigSoccer, how people's attitude towards Korea changed after the Spain match. Before, Korea was the toast of the town, the upstarts who were knocking down the giants, and the next moment, pariahs. I wonder what would have happened if Korea had gotten robbed instead of Spain. Usually, when something like this happens at the World Cup, the losing side receives a lot of sympathy and it is the referee or linesman that get vilified. I've never seen so much hatred targeted towards a team for something that was out of their control. Part of it is racism, I'm sure. But I think it has a lot to do with elitism in soccer, that only a select group of countries are supposed to enjoy success - the Western European powers, Argentina and Brazil. Unless one of those team wins, the World Cup is automatically devalued in some people's eyes, regardless of what happens on the field. In the end, team alleigance and rivalries aside, most fans want to see two marquee teams in the final. I think people accept and welcome surprise results, but they can only take so much. Korea beating Portugal, great. Portugal were arrogant anyway. Korea beating Italy? The diving bastards deserved what they got. But Spain? Maybe three was too many, too much of a good thing. Plus, Spain were sentimental favorites because they had some unlucky results in the past, and with their stellar play in the group stage, maybe fans thought they earned it. Combine all of that with the disallowed goals, maybe it shouldn't have been such a surprise to see so much hatred against a team and a nation. EDIT: I should add that I've only seen anti-Korean sentiments on message boards, not in real life. I have no idea if people in general are accepting of Korea's success last summer or not.
Dude, you're way too sensitive. Just because few people weren't happy with Korea's result doesn't mean that everyone was against our success. Yes there will be some jealous fans who make excuses for their team's defeat but does that make everyone? I do agree with otterulz that Spain did have few calls go against them but guess what? It happens every game. Do not let few idiots ruin your day. I've read many columns written by foreign journalists and fans praising Korea's success. Do you also remember Korea was voted the "Most Entertaining Team" of the WC? Two Korean players were voted into FIFA All-Star team and Hong won the "Bronze Ball". Here's couple of article you might want to read. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/grant_wahl/news/2002/06/24/wahl_insider/ http://worldcup.espnsoccernet.com/story?id=219198&lang=en
I absolutely understand your point and as for me, the world cup changed my life, believe it or not. Korea in special… But lets talk about the way most of the people overseas saw Koreas success first. I think, being the co-hoster and suffering under the opinion of many people that this fact alone is an advantage for them and in addition to that, having great luck is tough to deal with. Sure, Moreno was suspended afterwards because of a few suspicious actions and decisions and I do not want to exclude, that Korea may have been really favoured, but that’s life, my friends. Do you want to say, that Korea did not a good job against Italy? And against Spain? Sure, you can say that in those games, along with the Portugal game Korea had extraordinary luck. Then I will tell you, that if Lee Won-jae wouldn’t had take back his arms every time a referee made a call, all the discussions would have been nonsense, because the ball would not have found his target. And if Korea had scored the penalty, early in the Italy Game, Korea would have lost the match. That’s soccer. It is an endless discussion, but believe me, there were other teams with the same luck, participating worse than Korea and going on and on in a tournament. Living in Germany and being of the strong belief that they would not made it to the second round, if have to ask why nobody is talking about the luck they had? I have never seen a team which had to face such easy opponents, while marching through the final (Saudi-Arabia, USA, Ireland, Paraguay and hey, we are in the semi-finals against inexperienced Koreans ) That’s soccer. But hatred, fighting, racism, should not be involved in the game that is called soccer. Sadly, it was in France 98 where German (Neo-Nazi) hooligans attacked Daniel Nivel, who still suffers under this momentous tragedy. It was up to Korea and Japan to prevent this of ever happen again and they did a wonderful job, didn’t they? Not only on the playground those teams showed how to celebrate a world cup and they became a pattern for modern football. No news about fights, but also, and that’s sad, no news about the Koreans, who cleaned up the streets and organised the tournament wonderfully. (in German newspapers as I can only speak for) Too much time wasted on the explanations of the big teams, why they lost and how that could come. Even Portugal’s opinion changed afterwards they saw how the KoreanNT was verbally attacked, although they searched for the reasons why they lost on their side in the beginning. “Separation of soccer and life” is a phrase I often heard before the world cup 2002. And maybe we should do so, if we are not able to deal with a 90 min football game. A lot of football’s fascinating touch would be perished, if we do so. But ask Nivel on his opinion… And again the Koreans ( and the Japanese ) are a pattern for how you can enjoy a football game. Where was the hatred after the Germany Match? Pure celebrations there was, after the Turkey game also. A match, that is a historic one, for me, as I saw two teams marching hand to hand towards the where the fans were, who you couldn’t separate, also, cause they were all of the same attitude: Enjoying the match and celebrate afterwards with your opponent. One red crowd full of tolerance and peace. Which team can say that they had such an atmosphere without an Asian team participating? Hell, they ( rest of the world ) should feel an enormous gratitude towards Korea and Japan for revealing the true face of soccer again: Die schönste Nebensache der Welt For those of you, who can’t read german ( be ashamed of yourself , here is my free translation): “The sweetest irrelevant thing in the world”, and that’s how we should see it. Enjoying what you see and screaming and cheering your a** for your team. And after the game you meet the other fans and you talk about what they are drinking after a game. Soccer is a game of peace and tolerance and if people appear to see only the potential of causing trouble they should better shut their mouth, be better sportsmen and should stop writing dumb articles bashing on NT’s. To answer your question, I think economically and socially, the world cup is a huge success and a progress for Korea. See, those, who bash on the KoreanNT, would not go to Korea before the WC and won’t go there after. They are intolerant and that fact itself is enough punishment J As I am very young and searching for ideals the world cup came and with them the Korean people. I was impressed as I was never before and every one who has a clear mind should be also. Right now, I am learning Korean, having great connections with the Korean government here in Germany under Hwang won-tak and will be visiting Korea during summer vacations. I am not saying that everyone should devote his/her life to Korea as I do, but hate this country? Hate the people for their accomplishments in a soccer tournament? Hate people for any sport-accomplishment? Come on…
I thought the South Korean team was excellent throughout the tournament and enjoyed watching them play - their energy and passion was infectious. All the teams that were so busy complaining about the refereeing, if they were so clearly victorious, should have run up four or five goals so the outcome would have never been in question. But they didn't - why? Because the South Koreans had an outstanding team and anyone who can't see that just doesn't understand the game. I can also say that the US team was robbed against Germany in the Quarterfinal because of the handball, but the bottom line is that it was a closely contested match and if we should have been the clear winners, again, we should have put a bunch of goals in net where a single incident would never have put the result in doubt. Bravo South Korea.
Am I derlious from my all-nighter or did the guy who posted predict correctly and have KF delete his post? Interesting.
My Personal Experience Like Hwarangdo, I shared similar sentiments about our success in the 2002 World Cup. Living in the United States is of course different from a Korean living either in Italy or Spain. However, I do get the occasional idiot who will run off his mouth about Korea's World Cup campaign. I was waiting to play an intramural football match in our university and a student approached me asking if I was Korean. I explained to him that I was and he then proceeded to tell me that he was in Korea for the World Cup. He was not a Korean but a student of east-Indian descent from Florida. He then went on a lengthy rant as to how he was happy that FIFA had fixed the event for Korea because it meant that Korea went farther and thus, there would be more partying and drinking for neutral fans like him... all I did was listen and just walk away. I wasn't even going to try to stand and say something intelligent to someone incapable of doing the same. It's almost been a year since the conclusion of the World Cup. In that span, I've watched the FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid match twice at a pub and have had the chance to sit amongst true Spaniards to enjoy the match (yes, even among Real Madrid fans). One Real Madrid fan asked me before the start of the derby played in Estadio Santiago Bernebau (home of Madrid) what I thought of the Korea-Espana match. So I told him honestly that while there was controversy surrounding some of the referee decisions, that the better team won (maybe not a good idea to say that since I was wearing a Barcelona jersey). Of course he didn't agree. He accused the match of being riddled with corruption and favoritism while still remaining civil towards me. In order to avoid a mass lynching by any other Spanish fans, I just played it smart and appealed to my fellow Barca supporters and asked how many times Real Madrid had benefitted from questionable or corrupt officiating in the past. I think that really shut him up because in Spain, it is a well known fact that in the 1950s till the late 1970s, Real Madrid were beneficiaries of favoritism by both the federation and by Franco himself. Other Spanish fans sitting with me at the table merely shrugged off the disappointment of that quarter-final defeat to Korea and said that it was a good result for football in general. In my experience, the Spanish people are good sports. Yeah, they were disappointed, but that's football. They learn to move on and aside from this one Real Madrid fan, every other Spanish supporter was accepting of the defeat. The one people that I've found to be very supporting of Korea are the English. Right before the Turkiye vs England Euro2004 qualifier, I asked an English fan (granted I was wearing a Turkish jersey and a Galatasaray scarf) what he thought of South Korea and if he shared the common European continental opinion that we were a bunch of cheats. He lambasted the Spanish and Italians calling them a bunch of, what was the word, "tossers" and "wankers." He stated that Korea had gotten far because they were the hardest working team in that tournament. He accused the Italians of playing "anti-football" by trying to defend a 1-0 lead and that such play will always end tragically (he then pointed to his own country's defeat to Brasil in the quarter-finals under the same scenario when Michael Owen scored first only to surrender two Brasil goals). English fans on football forums have, for some reason, supported Korea and our football. Whether it is because by doing so, they give stick to Italy and Spain, I'm not so sure. But I think that the English admire more easily than other nations the concept of hard work in football. One last note. The people from countries that defeated us, Germany and Turkey, have been sympathetic to Korea. But you have to wonder what would have been the response if we had beaten them. The Turks, in my opinion, were the best sportsmen. Because of my close friendship with several Turkish students, the third-place match was no disappointment at all. There's no shame in losing to the Germans either. What surprises me is the reaction by Polish supporters. They justify their 2-0 loss to us in Busan by riding on this Italian "we were robbed by the referee" bandwagon. But I'm not concerned. No one remembers their team. People will use results and manipulate them as they please to make themselves go to bed easier. If the Italians must do so, let it be. They do this week in and week out anyways. If Juve win, then the federation was bribed by Agnelli. If Milan wins the scudetto, the it's because Berlusconi is the Prime Minister. If Inter win it, then the federation must have been swayed by Moratti's plea to give it to them after such a long drought of scudetto-less years. If Roma or Lazio win it, it was because the south of Italy needed a scudetto..and on and on. What surprises me is that corruption is rampant within the lower divisions of Serie-B and Serie-C football where clubs seeking promotion "buy" the points necessary from lower clubs who are not in danger of relegation. Read Joe McGuiness' "The Miracle of Castel di Sangro" book. Controversy or no controversy, if other countries can show me when they did not benefit from favorable decisions or do not have corruption within their own domestic football, then tell me. Otherwise, it's the same story.
For Italy match, let's just go back to Totti's comment Q: How many goals do you need to score vs. Korea to win Totti: One. Q: How many can your team score vs. Korea? Totti: As many as we want. Not a bad thing that such arrogance and disdain be punished. Instead of blaming the ref and Korean NT, they should have questioned Trappatoni's tactics and Vieri's unmissable miss. For Spain match, it was unfortunate about the disallowed goal, but things like that happen. And it's not the first time the home team got a call (people react like it was the first time ever). Isn't that one of the advantages of "home field advantage". Spain would have gladly taken a victory if they benefited from same situation. As for people's complaint of Lee moving too soon and to the front on Juaquin's PK, Casillas did EXACT same thing to save Ian Harte's PK. You didn't see Spain players storming the ref to allow Harte to re-take it.
Buffon did that against Korea too. Here's my opionion about the Korea-Spain game. I thought Spain deserved to win. Not because of the controversial calls, but because they simply played better(partially benefitting from the extremely fatigued and injured-out situation for the Koreans). As for the two calls, the first one was not so much of a controversy if you see the pics again. The Spaniards fouled Tae-young Kim before the ball hit Kim's shoulder and went in the goal. For the second call, I'd say it's almost impossible to see the truth unless we see the camera shot taken from the sideline. Even IF the ball was in, (and thus the whistle wasn't blown while the ball was in mid-air) nobody can claim that it would have been a 100% goal. Jin-chul Choi wouldn't have just stand there let Morientes jump without guard so no-one can be sure about it. The goalie also released his guard after the whistle blew, so no-one will ever know what could have happened if the ref didn't blow the whistle. As for the overall performance of the Korean team at the time of the World Cup, I don't think nobody can deny that Korea played extremely well in terms of game-play. Forget the scorelines, Korea played well. Controversial call happens all the time and the host nations always get a favorable call. The Koreans weren't treated so well be the refs at WC98, but nobody seems to be talking about that. That's life. I feel bad for Spain for losing the game despite deserving to win, but that's football. Korea could lose like that anyday.
I watched the Korea-Portugal game again last night to analyze the match (and because it's been a year since the World Cup started). If people are claiming that Korea was a beneficiary of biased refereeing, then they must have actually missed the matches and have just read the newspaper dailies from those countries that were defeated. The Portugal match was riddled with bad tackles on the part of the Portuguese. Yeah, some of them were perpetrated by Korean players (who were duly carded). But Joao Pinto's tackle on Park Ji-sung was career-threatening whereas players such as Luis Figo were more concerned with bogging down and ruining the runs of the Koreans. While watching the match I concluded that Portugal had misunderstood this to be the Rugby World Cup and had sent their national rugby team and not their football side. It was that bad. The referee in that match was quite good. He was a gentleman from Argentina who knew how to call the game. Memories of that day. Park Ji-sung gave me a huge birthday present by scoring the wonder-goal to send Korea through.
i think Spain is the only team with a legitimate case for being pissed. the others should just get over it. then again when I think about it, we Koreans have a lot in common with the Italians in terms of temper - I think the Ohno incident and the Italians' tizzy are almost the same thing. except the Olympics were rigged by the Commander-in-Chimp George W. Bush to further his Iraq plan. Ohno's fool's-gold was simply part of that crack-snorting army-evading frat-house daddy's-boy to take over the world, but tha't's just my opinion.
World Cup 2002: good for Japan, great for Korea? I was very impressed by both nations. Korea won a tougher group, and went farther in the competition. They were the hardest working team in the tournament, and like Turkey and the US got a few breaks when they needed them. As I always say, "the harder you work, the luckier you get!"
There is only one thing sadder then an Italian fan whining when his team loses, that would be a Korean fan who whines when his team wins, get over it. I think a lot of the negative comments and bad feelings are a direct result of posts like the one that started this thread. Celebrate and be happy that your team did well in the WC, don't cry about it. Nobody like a "sore winner".
My points exactly. I totally agree with you especially coming from an Italian fan. WC2002 was the greatest memory of my life and both sides should stop whining and get on with their lives.
Spain was flat out cheated by a ref who needed to ensure Korea's passage to the quarter-finals...period!!! That said I have absolutely have nothing aganist Koreans except the Scum Sucking ones in power from the North who torture and starve innocent people, especially children. I thought the "Sea of Salmon Red" was one of the most intimidating crowds I have ever seen. That sound was soooo powerful. The chanting and screaming was unmatched.