World Cup Diary

The surreal feeling of celebrating a 3-1 pounding.

By Andy Mead
Special to SoccerTimes

SEOUL, South Korea (Sunday, June 16, 2002) -- In all the hundreds or possibly thousands of sporting events I have attended in my life, I can't remember anything as surreal as the scene at Daejon World Cup Stadium where the United States and Poland finished World Cup Group D play on Friday night.

There were three sets of fans in attendance (Poles, Yanks, and South Koreans), all were cheering their own cheers, and when all was said and done, everybody went home happy. Okay, nobody actually went home. The streets of Daejeon were still wall to wall with people when I finally crawled back to my motel room in the wee hours of the morning.

The game itself was heartrending. I was standing in the Sam's Army section with the main block of American U.S. supporters. When news started circulating that South Korea had scored, we joined in the chants of "Dae Hun Min-Guk" (Republic of Korea) and "Oh, Pilsung Korea" (Victory to Korea) that were circulating the stadium.

At the end of the game, U.S. midfielder Cobi Jones walked over to us and wiped his brow indicating just how lucky the U.S. was, having advanced to the second round on the strength of the Koreans 1-0 decision over Portugal rather that from its own defeat at the hands of Poland. It definitely felt strange celebrating a 3-1 spanking, but I'll worry about that later! Now, if I can only locate tickets to the Italy\South Korea match on Tuesday, I'll be set.

Speaking of tickets, Nadir Uddin wrote and asked how I got tickets to all of the games. World governing bidy FIFA conducted three ticket phases. The first was last summer and I ordered a seven-game U.S. plan. The second phase was last December, at which point I was able to get five additional first-round games. Finally, FIFA put all remaining (or so they said) tickets online on a first-come, first-served basis on May 1, and I picked up six more games. I was able to buy a France\Denmark ticket at the ticket booth before the game and I ordered my Germany\Paraguay round-of-16 ticket at a web site that the Korea organizing committee set up to dispense tickets that magically appeared out of thin air.

To be honest, scalps are readily, and cheaply, available for all non-Korean games. The U.S.\Mexico game could be quite poorly attended. I can't walk around Seoul without someone trying to sell me one. The Koreans planned on finishing second to Portugal and bought the game out. Now that South Korea is playing in Daejeon instead of Jeonju, they are dumping the tickets. If anyone has any ideas on how I can get tickets to the South Korea\Italy game, or the quarterfinal in Gwangju, please let me know!

Missing. I have now been in Korea for two-and-a-half weeks and I have yet to see a shower curtain. Korean bathrooms are designed to get wet. This sort of thing would likely destroy an American bathroom. I think that, all things being equal, Korean bathrooms are cleaner.

Additionally, not all Koreans bathe at home. In many residential areas, Koreans use public bathhouses. In the cities, these tend to have an unsavory flavor, often associated with the sex industry. In most of the country, however, they are a part of community life. The ones I've visited all have shower stalls, steam baths, and saunas.

Directions. It's a very good thing that the trains run on time and that the subway systems are easily figured out. Why? Because getting useful directions in Korea is all but hopeless. I think the reason that everyone has a cell phone is so that they can call where they are headed and have someone lead them in. I have pointed to a dot on a map representing a motel and the owner of that motel did not believe that was where we were. I was right.

Wade Jackson and I have figured out that the best strategy is to get within two blocks of where you are going, then ask three or more people and head in the majority direction. The main streets are fine, but the back alleys are incredibly complex mazes.

No Kim-Chi, No Cry. That's one of the chants Sam's Army has been singing at games. While I mentioned earlier that a little bit with every meal was fine, I am beginning to rethink that. I really do love the food here, but I have all but stopped eating the kim-chi. At the end of the day, it is still cabbage, and I really don't like cabbage.

Jeju. Wade and I made an in-and-out trip to Seogwipo on Jeju Island for the Germany\Paraguay match. While the stadium is quite beautiful, it is possibly the biggest mistake of the World Cup.

The island itself cannot support a 40,000 seat stadium. The logistics of getting people to the island is bad enough without factoring in that the stadium is on the opposite side of the island. It takes an hour by bus or taxi. I am pretty confident that quite a few folks missed their flights out last night because they couldn't find post-game transportation in time. And that was at a game that barely saw the stadium half full, with much of the crowd being school kids that were bussed in at the last moment.

If you have questions or extra tickets to the Italy\South Korea match, e-mail me at footy@ibiblio.org. I’ll try to answer the questions.

Andy Mead is editor of the Emerald City Gazette. Subscription information can be found at http://www.mindspring.com/~andymead/ecg/.