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This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on June 15, 2006 at 3:36 pm, filed under Uncategorized and tagged World Cup 2006. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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36 Comments
i cant disagree with anything the article says, and like the author wrote, football is a physical sport. it also happens to be the sport where flopping happens all the time. sort of reminds me a the stockton/reggie miller days.
as for korean broadcasting of the world cup, of course it is biased towards koreans, so it makes me wonder how other countries are broadcasting it, because i would think all the other countries broadcasting it would favor their countries in their broadcasts as well.
I’d wondered why Park was on the ground so much in Manchester games–he’s going to have a short career if he keeps it up because those falls are going to take a toll on him.
Hey, I don’t disagree with anything Park said, either. Always liked him—good kid, and a talented footballer. It’s the article that was worthy of ridicule, especially if you got to read some of the quality sports journalism that accompanied the Olympics, World Baseball Classic (one of my personal favorites), etc. I expect Korean sports journalists to be biased toward their own team. I don’t expect them to waive the bloody shirt (see this from today—note the headline) and axe grievences every chance they get.
If it makes you feel any better, though, at least the Koreans could make a passible argument that it’s all Japan’s fault, since it’s the Japanese model that Korean sports reporters follow.
No matter what, you have to give credits to Korean reporters and fans for the way they report.
In Malaysia, I remember when I was a kid and we were still a 3rd world nation, our TV commentators and fans would hurl insults and rude remarks at the players for making silly mistakes. Then, it progressed to more ’sarcastic remarks’ like calling our failed players “village champions (jaguh kampung” for being able to win only on local soil and losing on foreign soil all the time or calling them “skinny monkeys” for lacking power. We are more civilize today so we don’t do those things anymore.
Korean fans seem more forgiving. Koreans players should consider themselves lucky that their fans accept them whether they win or lose.
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mahathir, thats exactly why i love korea’s national pride in sports, because they are always embracing the athletes, and showing them love. it seems like it bothers alot of non-koreans though, due to the reports’ exaggerations and bias.
fifa needs to do something about all the fake injuries, rolling around writhing in fake pain, crying, clutching ankles that aren’t hurt, and grasping at vaginas. it’s made soccer a complete and utter farce. watching a world cup match is like going to a ‘days of our lives’ casting call, with all the predictable bad acting and melodramatic bullshit.
it’s one reason few americans can take the sport seriously. the only time you’ll see a hockey player flailing around on the ice in pain is if he’s taken a 100 mph slapshot to the teeth, or had his jugular cut a la clint malarchuk. if you even attempt to fake an injury in football or baseball, you’ll be a laughingstock and off a roster faster than T.O. after a meltdown. the comparisons to basketball players flopping are asstarded. every sport involves a bit of acting to attempt to sway an official into a call. only soccer and pro wrestling involve faking injuries, with players acting like they have a broken leg one minute, and sprinting up the field the next. and if your “sport” has anything in common with pro wrestling, you’ve got a fucking problem.
in soccer, laughingstocks are the rule, not the exception, and are embraced by fans anyway. which is why i can’t figure out why supposed soccer “hooligans,” who are supposed to be bad-ass thugs, spend their lives following a bunch of preening sissyboys who are as far opposite from them as is possible. it would be like the hell’s angels showing up every day for tapings of oprah.
soccer players as a group are the biggest bunch of prima donna panzy-ass queens (not that there’s anything wrong with that Shelton) this side of will and grace. the so-called ‘beautiful game’ these days is 90 minutes of clutching ankles with a few headers thrown in. the solution is actually simple. any player that spends more than 5 seconds on the ground has to sit out the rest of the game. if you can’t decide if your ankle is broken or fine in 5 seconds, you don’t deserve to play. i guarantee every queen that got tackled would be jumping his ass up instantly if he knew his playing time and his paycheck were on the line.
this pretty much sums of soccer as its played today: flipping through a random world cup match a few days back, i saw a player get tackled lightly, dive to the ground wincing and screaming, grabbing his ankle, all without a whistle and foul. in mid-wince, and oh-so-subtly, he bobbed his head up and opened his eyes to see where the ball had advanced to. i had to hit the rewind on the dvr to confirm it. when he noticed that the opposition was making a rush toward his goal, he kept wincing while getting up…limped a couple times to try to convince absolutely no one that he wasn’t faking…and then dead-on sprinted toward his own goal to participate in successfully breaking up a goal-scoring opportunity.
there’s no doubt that if his team had held possession, he’d have remained on the ground, hamming it up like a 4-year old girl that had her teddy bear taken away, until one of his teammates took the drama queen baton of fakery.
soccer in two words: pooftahs.
mahathir_fan—you don’t know jack shit about the way Korean reports report. Please troll somewhere else. Preferably somewhere that actually cares about Malaysia.
Davelee—I think you may want to watch the phenomenon a bit longer. Luckily, this is a good time to observe.
i have been observing (and taking part of the phenomenon) for a really long time, notably since the explosions of park chanho and pak seri in korean media, then of course during the 2002 WC.
although i may not be as knowledgeable in how reporting and journalism may be in korea, i do read several korean papers and online news sites every day, so i will stand by what i wrote in my previous comment. which makes me want to ask you (respectfully), of what part of what i wrote makes you say that i need to observe the phenomenon longer?
I would argue that there is no “showing them love” in exaggerating and bias. I would far prefer a more Hubie Brown (NBA commentator) style of announcing, with an emphasis on knowledge of the game and plays. Let the pride come from a job well done, rather than mindless nationalism.
As always, just one person’s opinion…
Blueballs: Respect. I was gearing up to write something similar but in no way can top your analysis and solution. To me this is soccer’s biggest issue. If you’re at a bar in Itaewon and hear someone say, “Get up, you pussy!” it’s probably me.
davelee,
The Marmot means the wacky phenomenon known as mahathir_fan.
“mahathir_fan—you don’t know jack shit about the way Korean reports report. Please troll somewhere else. Preferably somewhere that actually cares about Malaysia.”
I apologize if I have insulted some of your intelligence in the past. It is not my intention but usually I was merely stating my opinion and most of the time, I will state it if I know nobody else would share that same opinion.
Dave,
I think you need to pick the right source if you want to flush out the biasness.
I have seen some good documentaries about their reporting. There was one documentary on KBS that examined the change in strategy from a 3-4-3 lineup under Coach Hiddink to a 4-3-3 lineup under Dick. It gave very good explanation of the changes and interviewed the assistant coach on it. They also covered the strategies. It is on the KBS website somewhere.
In fact, wasn’t it also a KBS documentary that exposed for example Dr. Hwang’s fraudulent research? If they are biased completely, they would not have exposed Dr. Hwang.
There is no reason why Western benchmark must be used to measure the quality of Korean news reporting on sports.
It is like political news. All political news are biased and controlled by the government, but we read it anyway knowing that it is biased. There are other ways to get unbiased news sources or the other side of the story.
So sports news can be used as an avenue to let off steam, degrade other national teams or to give the teams undying support etc. etc.. Why not? You’re not suppose to do that by Western standards, but who says we need to conform to Western standards? As the great Dr. Mahathir once said, we do not need to be so accomodating to the point of being apologetic because we are not conforming to Western standards. We can use freedom of thought and be creative and create our own standards.
You just need to pick the right program to watch or newspaper to read. In a world where freedom is respected and enjoyed, the newspapers are free to print what they want to print and allow itself to be potentially sued. The people shall cast their votes of approval of the style of journalism by their Wons. Its commercialism. If people like Richard are bothered by the way the news is reported, then they can simply tune it off or not read those papers. Or they can relabel these newspapers as tabloids. Whatever. Serious unbiased reporting that bores many to death does exist for those who seek it.
Rock-paper-scissors everyone. The loser has to be m_fan’s friend.
Park does spend a lot of time on the ground alright.
He “draws” fouls by encouraging players to lunge at him by giving them enough of a view of ther ball to think they can get it cleanly. Most of the time there is enough contact to warrant a free kick
Its a very effective tactic, especially with teams that are good at set pieces. To see it used most professionally watch the way Jose Mourinho employs Arjen Robben/Damien Duff to get free kicks on the wings for John Terry to finish off.
It can also end up in teams losing a player from a red card due to persistent infringement (e.g Togo).
Anyone know how I can change my settings to get rid of the Great Britain (UK) tag on my wordpress account?
I don’t want anyone to associate me with a bunch of yobs doing Hitler Salutes from Nazi historical sites. More offensive than a Hitler bar anyday.
I’d say your bigger image problem is your choice of username.
dogbertt: I bet I can guess what you think it says and I also bet his name is nigel and that shortened version is pronounced nige :D.
blueballs: yeah soccer (particularly the european version) is full of pussies but so are most sports;
gridiron: so much padding my grandma could pay and not get hurt and WTF is with the crash helmets ?
Baseball: gloves ? what sort of girl needs gloves to catch a ball that is moving as slow as a baseball does?
Ice Hockey: see gridiron padding reference, though wearing blades on ones feet and carrying clubbing weapons kinda makes up for it.
I could tell you how rugby league, AFL and cricket are the antithesis of all these and as such true ‘mens sports’ but that might be a bit inflamatory so I won’t ;).
peace.
Whats wrong with the name nig? Is it that my name happens be an abbreviation of a word that people find offensive?
Would it be less offensive if i called myself
bas, cun, spi, shi, wo, fu, chi’pa or ch’ip?
Soccer is actually very dirty sports. If you see a slow replay, you will see players tugging at the uniform, grabbing with arms, intentionally tripping, etc.
Soccer needs changing. It needs more umpires, at least 2 more, to watch players when the umpire’s back is turned.
I am glad that FIFA mandated tackling from the back is automatic yellow card. FIFA needs to set up more rules like this. I think outlawing slide tackle altogether might be a good start.
but slide tackle is so efficient! and when it is a clean slide tackle, that is art.
I’d wonder what kinds of rants will be posted if Korea sinks French squad on Sunday.
‘i wonder what kind of ranting there will be if korea beats france.’ poster
doesn’t matter if korea wins against france; the alcoholic expat is going to find something negative to say about korea and koreans. that’s his specialty. if korea wins, he’ll be whinning about how korea cheated, bribed, or got lucky. if korea loses, he’ll be jumping for joy.
so expect the usual come this sunday.
‘i don’t like the way koreans support their team! whined the ripple loving expat
no, what you don’t like is that koreans are just as arrogant as you. think about that as you get drunk in the land of the yemaek.
ok?
‘korean journalism! korean journalism!’ bellyached the expat
this from a fox news loving kind of guy, huh?
ps marmot, 2500 soldiers now have died in iraq. just wanted to let you know as you sit there comfy in seoul.
I like Dick Advocaat, because he doesn’t care about who the Korean media hypes and thus seems to be the public’s choice to start or be included in the team. Kind of like Gus Hiddink. South Koreans need a foreigner at helm to win. I am told by my friend, a true Vietnam Vet fighting from the South Korean side, that South Korean national teams used to be made up of Koreans who were sponsored well by Korean companies, not necessarily by skill. Park Joo Young, may be as good as they say, but I’m fine with him keeping the bench, if Dick decides that’s best for the team.
Regarding the South Korean’s team tactic of drawing yellow and red cards and kicks by exaggerating contact and fouls, I personally think it’s dirty, and sissy, but legal.
But, they do it all the time in, say the NBA.
I personally got more enjoyment watching the Germans play than the South Koreans who seem to fall here and there and keep slowing down the game.
regarding Apollo Anton Ohno, acting isn’t part of the competition in his sport. That’s all I have to say about him.
In 2002 Worldcup, Korean team was voted the team with most fair-plays from participants.
When I look at replays, I see Korean team members do clean plays. If you doubt this, just look at other teams, especially European teams. They are used to all kinds of “tricks” and they proudly use them in the World Cup.
The game definitely needs more refrees and severe rules. I like to see soccer becoming a cleaner game.
I still think Korean team commits less fouls than other teams and use less of “tricks” to win the games. I think this reflects the core value of Korean society - the golden rule.
Many will disagree because one bad experience negates ten good experiences in Korea. But if you spend enough time with the right Korean people, you will find Koreans to be very decent people inside.
Have you ever considered that it might not be the most natural thing in the world for an American or Brit to root for the French or that the behavior or Koreans just may have something to do with this unlikely scenario?
I know a thing or two about annoying fans and media coverage having suffered through the 2002 Totti Cup in Totti’s hometown and all I can say is the Korean euphoria after scraping by the worst team in the tournament only after they were reduced to 10 men makes the Italian discussions of the merits of the now infamous red card look calm and rational.
I want Korea to lose and lose badly because of experiences I’ve had in Korea such as a) trying to convince a group of Koreans a couple weeks ago that the tournament would start on a Friday rather than a Tuesday or b) observing the willingness of Koreans to attend 4 am street cheering events relative to their willingness to watch any game that does not include Korea, Japan or Hiddink.
lol thorin, this is what i think of the difference between people of korean heritage and and non-korean heritage on this site.
i feel that people of non-korean heritage look down on the korean street cheering style, their “arrogance” (if u can even call it that, i’d rather call it extreme patriotism), lack of knowledge for the game and not caring about other countries, etc.
i feel that people of korean heritage, are proud of their nationalism, and how we are all crazed about our nation in football. Whether they are cheering because they love football, or simply because they love their country, i find that cool, and i get a rush from the nationalism and national pride. im sure this is the same for any other country. as a football fan, you might denounce these fans that dont know anything about football and only cheer for their country without knowing anything, but in the end they are still cheering for football, and bringing more publicity to football, which is good for the sport. so i really dont understand the beef you guys have, unless you are jealous that your country doesnt have the same amount of national pride.
btw, togo is not the worst team in the tournament, and even if they are, so what? whats wrong with corea celebrating a victory? its not like corea is a favourite to win the WC, they are underdogs as well. its not like brasil beating down a scrub team and then celebratin wildly, its two scrub teams beating each other, i would think corea would have the right to celebrate. i think its stupid to complain about a country celebrating, thats none of your business. if you dont want to take part in the celebrations, either dont pay attention or leave the country.
My point was that they’re not.
Yangki go home. How original.
Only thing worse than a Korean football fan is a German Football fan (and TV commentators)
I guess every other nation is very well behaved and provides unbiased commentary. Well done rest of the world.
pawikirogi: I don’t watch FOX; I read the Dong-A Ilbo.
I’m not sure exactly what that has to do with the discussion at hand, but thanks for the head’s up. And to return the favor, I’ll let you know that at least two fingers have been severed, one belly punctured and a man stung by like 200 bees in the struggle against Japan while you sit comfortably in the United States. Why don’t you get your ass over here and start sacrificing some digits?
the alcoholic expat is going to find something negative to say about korea
Yeah!! Woohoo!!
he’ll be whinning about how korea cheated, bribed, or got lucky. if korea loses, he’ll be jumping for joy.
Yeah!! Double Woohoo!!
‘i don’t like the way koreans support their team!
damn skippy!!
what you don’t like is that koreans are just as arrogant as you.
i’m far more arrogant i’m sure, and damn proud of it.
in the land of the yemaek.
awww, the yemaeks are all extinct. these dudes here now are just squatters from other parts of asia.
2500 soldiers now have died in iraq
as if u give a rats ass, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your TROLLOPS. u’d help make the number bigger if u had the balls.
And to return the favor, I’ll let you know that at least two fingers have been severed, one belly punctured and a man stung by like 200 bees in the struggle against Japan while you sit comfortably in the United States. Why don’t you get your ass over here and start sacrificing some digits?
LOL!!!! owned!!111!!11!!!1one
Unlike you, who has to resort to picking on a Maori to denigrate Japanese. Ass.
With nothing near as much to be arrogant about. At least we’ve got air travel, a moon landing, and splitting the atom to our credit. But I grant you the “turtle boat”. W00t! Pa-i-ting Corea
NULJI FOOL, NULJI PRIDE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ckr.....conspiracy
thats part one of the fox broadcast broken into four parts on you tube, just type “moon conspiracy”
any thoughts on this? looks very convincing to me.
the only knock against it is that FOX made it.
As long as we’re posting links to silly stuff…
http://www.partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1089
Nulji, you’re going downhill in your comments — and you started in a deep, dark hole.