while sitting under some steps next to the cheonggye stream that meanders through the jongno district of seoul in hopes of catching a glimpse of the meaning of the universe from under a short skirt, here are some thoughts on last night’s this morning’s one and only match of consequence here on the peninsula:
on these world cup commentaries–whether they be mine, robert’s, or andy’s–the “comments” section is beginning to become just how it should be–nasty, felonious, and confrontational. i can only hope to live up to what’s already been established for this match.
in complete fairness, the france-korea match was, for the majority of the time, a pitiful bore. for the first ten or fifteen minutes, france were the better team and were well-deserved to be ahead in the 9th minute on thierry henry’s goal–france’s first world cup goal of the 21st century. from shortly thereafter until about fifteen minutes from time, the game was a yawner, which isn’t good when kickoff is only an hour before sunrise.
there is no use crying about france’s “goal” that wasn’t because if the two teams can play like shit, then so can the ref have a crap day. france didn’t not win because of that non-goal, but it is fair to say that had the goal been rightly counted, the entire complexion of the game would have gone from pimply and pock-marked to glamourous and photogenic because the koreans would have had to up their game to get back in it. as it was, france were content after that to sit back and play conservatively and, until a quarter hour remained in the match, korea looked as likely to score as a lesbian on a naval carrier lost at sea.
*a comment or two on the “goal” that wasn’t: goalkeeper woon-jae lee’s entire body was behind the goal line when he scooped the ball out of the goal mouth, so it was clearly a goal, available replay angle or not.
it is clear that FIFA have got to do something to remedy these sorts of situations. it’s bad enough that neither the ref nor the linesman had position enough to witness the ball’s clear crossing of the goal line (and for all you korea-backers out there, clam it; just once, i’d like to hear koreans admit that there was a blown call that went in their favour instead of their being yellow and hiding behind the mantra of, “the referee didn’t see it.” i guaran-damn-tee you that were the reverse ever to happen to korea, the amount of sound from all the whingeing in this country about it would be enough to alter the earth’s revolutionary orbit around the sun), but how bad is it going to be when this such a thing (and it is a case of when, not if) happens in a knockout stage game or, even worse, in a semifinal or final (spain’s bad luck with the refs in ’02’s quarterfinal match with korea notwithstanding)?
be that as it may, that lack of call didn’t lose the match. refs make mistakes, just as players do. france seemed to tuck their tails between their legs and saunter back on defense after that.
i don’t know about “sir” advocaat’s genius, but korea certainly pressed the issue late in the match. just before ji-sung park’s goal levelled the match, comments at our table in the pub were along the lines of, “france are holding on, but it looks to be a matter of time before korea level, given how the match is going currently.”
and, then, as in the togo match, park was monumentally instrumental in getting korea level.
park’s goal was one the ugliest the talented midfielder will ever score, but all goals look the same in the match report and many koreans (jung-hwan ahn, in particular, as well as members of the england squad–frank lampard, i hope you’re paying attention via ESP) would be well-served to recognise that sheer blasting of the ball when presented an opportunity is not always the most effective, though it can be the most glamourous, way to score a goal. a well-place sidefooted shot or diligent persistence in front of the goal mouth or merely tapping in a rebound all count the same.
and i would be remiss not to shout kudos regarding park’s goal to (i think) jae-jin cho, who’s header toward the front of the goal mouth while pedalling backward to get to a tad long cross resulted in panic amongst the french defenders and allowed park to poke at the ball. cho deserves as much credit for the goal for his diligence to get a head on the ball as does park for his diligence to bundle the ball over the line in seemingly slow motion.
i have some thoughts on this group G of korea’s, but i think they’re better served to simmer until at least the finish of tonight’s switzerland-togo, provided there is a match.
for god’s sakes, this togo saga is as bad as a reality TV show back in britain or america–or any drama here in korea. the togo football federation is beginning to make the korea football association–one of the main reasons i detest korean football at the moment–look like an association of innocuous nuns who always keep their word, feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and are truly benevolent every minute of their lives.
god, i hope togo don’t boycott tonight’s match. what a blight on togo’s football federation, on this world cup, and on football in general were that to happen.
62 Comments
Lee Unjae did not scoop. He punched it out.
France should have stopped playing. And, raise arms and cried out “goal”. They didn’t do that. They kept on playing when Lee punched it out. A French player kicked and the ball went outside.
Even the French team didn’t believe it was a goal. Only the ABC TV was making a big deal.
It was not a goal.
Sugar Shin from Germany wrote:
I have to admit, that Vieira’s header in the 28th minute was CLEARLY behind the line. Every TV replay showed it!
Dunno, what the Mexican referee had smoked, but lucky me, he didn’t acknowledged the goal. me
Dave, I’m Korean and I have admitted. Do I get a prize now, or something like that ;)?
Dave, I’m korean as well and I admitted i think at least twice in different comment sections. oh well, too bad for the french. you are right, if it happened to koreans, i media/fanbased riot would have broken loose.
I have faith that Togo will rebound from their loss to korea, i really believe they have a decent team, contrary to many football fans’ beliefs.
what i look forward to the most, is a focused togo team fairing against Les Bleus without one of their best strikers and one of their best defenders.
Regardless of the apparent “goal”, Lee Woon-Jae was absolutely heroic in the game, whoever thinks otherwise needs to lay off the crackpipe.
davelee and sugarshin, kudos to making me eat my words. too bad your compatriot, baduk, still doesn’t get it. your prize is an all-expense-paid trip to the best seat under the steps at cheonggye stream!!
will you paypal me my 1100won? ^^
having seen the ABC telecast cut away several times to the gathering of 20,000 Americans of Korean ethnicity at the Staples Center cheering on the country which holds their true allegiance, i can’t wait until thursday.
thursday being the final group match for the United States, and surely at least 20,000 of those Americans of Korean ethnicity will show up at Staples to cheer on the AMERICAN team, right?
i mean, it is the country they chose to live in. the country they pledged their allegiance to. the country that gives them and their children everything they have. it’s not too much to ask to have them cheer on the ol red, white, and blue is it?
oh wait, sorry. i just remembered an event i witnessed in 2002. that would be tens of thousands of KAs crying in their beer after the US scored against Korea in their group match. followed a while later by wild celebrations spilling onto Wilshire when Ahn equalized.
Americans indeed. it’s times like these that pat buchanan actually sounds rational.
I have seen many soccer games since 1968 world cup games. I also saw many English premier league games.
Those situations are rarely called goals.
If the situation is reversed (Korean shot and French goalies punched out), I would hold the same opinion.
I know the rule book. However, if the goalie punches out the ball before it lands, unless it was done deep inside the net, refrees usually do not declare it a goal.
That is way things are in the real games. I have seen them in real games three or four times in my life. None of them are called a goal.
IMHO Baduk has it right: This diagram taken off of FIFA’s official web site seems to back him up.
http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/images/lawimg13.jpg
you know, neither the game nor my commentary about the game was entirely about the non-goal…
As for the game itself, I agree with your assessment, the “goal” part notwithstanding.
dave, of course, but that is obviously the most controversial part because the rest of your commentary was pretty much the same as the universal spectator’s opinion. now speaking of my full-expense paid trip (1100won) lol!! jk
iheartblueballs,
When Italian team plays in World Cup, little Italy in NewYork goes berserk. In the same way, Irish national team is celebrated in NewYork bar frequented by IrishAmerican clientele.
Why are you picking on Koreans only? I know. Look different.
It is called “racism”.
i don’t have a paypal account, but i did give the 1100원 to my good friend, jeon ji-hyun, for her to deliver to you, in private and in person…!
baduk, it may be racist, but i think jealousy is a bigger part of it. seriously, why would anyone care, all the americans cheer for their respective heritages, but koreans are the ones that stand out, cheer, and party the most, and everyone else wants to have what the koreans have. i feel like im gonna get flamed for this post, but its an unspoken truth.
perhaps because this is a blog about korea. for the record i’ll say the same thing about the wops or micks. koreans just happen to be the only ones dumb enough to put it on display and advertise it. maybe because they’re aware that the general perception of KAs is one of…how shall we say…questionable allegiance. the rep is already out there, so i guess it’s better to embrace it than fight it.
oh, and it’s called “bullshit.” stone up baduk. you wouldn’t go out of your way to attend a cheering event for the american team, and neither would the rest of the clan on wilshire and olympic. it’s the reality, whether you like it or not.
hey, i know you! you write headlines for all the major korea portal sites, don’t you! yes dave, all americans want to be korean. it’s why there are mile-long lines outside the korean embassy, with americans clamoring to get korean citizenship. and american parents are sending millions of their children to korea to be educated at the far superior schools. not to mention the flood of american mothers that fly to korea to give birth to their kids on korea soil so they can have a chance at that valuable korean passport!
if only we could get a few koreans to come to america. oh, we can dream though. maybe one day.
i dont kno about baduk, but i am a korean american. this is a bit of personal information, but if it werent for all the racism i received from whites and blacks while growing up, i might as well have become a 100% true american and cut off my ties to my korean heritage. sadly, this is not the case. many hardships have eventually led me to flee to “my people”, where i can feel more comfortable and not be discriminated against.
however i was brought up cheering for usa in all events (my parents are naturalized citizens), as well as cheering for korea (my parents are also proud of their heritage).
when it comes down to it, if i really had to choose a team (such as 2002 group play), i would choose south korea.
whenever i am not forced to choose a team over another, i am always rooting for both usa and korea. i always have, and always will root for usa.
Lou Dobbs just popped a vein.
Blueball: “having seen the ABC telecast cut away several times to the gathering of 20,000 Americans of Korean ethnicity at the Staples Center cheering on the country which holds their true allegiance, i can’t wait until thursday.”
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Lol, Blueballs is back. Where have you been? You’re lucky this isn’t real war.
Seriously,
Most Koreans in general tend to be 1st Generation and they still have fond memories of their Motherland.
Not to genrealize, but, I notice Asians
in general tend to be fiercely Nationalistic.
Anyway, It’s just a stupid game.
Wasn’t Henry off side when he scored that goal?
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/
“When I encountered Thiery Henry one on one in the last minute, there was no fear. Henry has a tendency to curve his shots towards the far post with his right foot. I could see what he wanted to do. If you watch the English Premier League, you can’t miss it.” - Lee Woon-Jae
study pays off ^^
davelee:”i dont kno about baduk, but i am a korean american. this is a bit of personal information, but if it werent for all the racism i received from whites and blacks while growing up, i might as well have become a 100% true american and cut off my ties to my korean heritage. sadly, this is not the case. many hardships have eventually led me to flee to “my people”, where i can feel more comfortable and not be discriminated against.”
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LOL, you sound like a five year old.
Just curious,
What did Black people ever call you?
i’m twenty-two years old, and educated. perhaps my lack of proper capitalization suggests a younger age.
to answer your question, they used the word chink. for some reason i found it very offensive. i think it may be due to the fact that not only is it a racial slur, but it also shows ignorance in their part of not being able to distinguish an asian race from another.
actually, i have no idea why i would sound like five year old to you, my vocabulary or the profundity of my statements do not suggest it.
“i might as well have become a 100% true american and cut off my ties to my korean heritage.”
This is not the right way to become an American. To first be an American, you must first be a Korean and embrace your Korean heritage. Then you need to take that heritage and merge it into American culture and make Korean heritage part of American culture. If you cut off your ties to your Korean heritage, and embrace ‘America’ culture, you are nothing but a clone - a copy - with nothing inside.
Attitudes like this, is often part of the problem of American approach with dealing with multi ethnicity is their tendency to ‘require’ the immigrants to ‘assimilate’ into American society by learning English, doing things that are ‘american’, and forgeting their own culture. It is similar in model to countries like Indonesia. They expect new immigrants to cut off their ties to their heritage and this is absolutely wrong. It is the wrong way to foster nationalism.
I am a Malaysian Chinese. We are a diverse ethnic group ourselves. But in competition between China and Malaysia, we definitely support our nation Malaysia even though we are Chinese Malaysians as can be seen in the Thomas Cup(badminton world cup).
Many Malaysian chinese are very patriotic about being Malaysians. Part of it, my opinion of course, is that we have avenues to pursue our own agenda. We still have Chinese schools for example where Chinese language is the medium of instruction. The government recognizes our Chinese holidays, such as Chinese new year and they are public holidays. Our main opposition leader is the great Mr. Lim Kit Siang who is Chinese. So we are involved in many ways the everyday running of our adopted nation. Yet, even though we are Malaysians, we are not in any way less Chinese and at the same time we truly consider ourselves Malaysians.
davelee:”actually, i have no idea why i would sound like five year old to you, my vocabulary or the profundity of my statements do not suggest it.”
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I’m talking about your lack of emotional maturity. So you scurry back to Korea because someone called you a name?
Seriously, I wouldn’t consider name calling as anything really all that difficult to overcome. I mean you seem like a person who would never go outside if you ever get stung by a bee.
I’m really not too sure if you ever consider what a typical Black person or Hispanic person has to deal with on daily basis. You really should have considered yourself lucky.
“thursday being the final group match for the United States, and surely at least 20,000 of those Americans of Korean ethnicity will show up at Staples to cheer on the AMERICAN team, right?”
Don’t be silly. I know of several New Yorkers who lived in New York a long time ago, and after moving to LA, were still cheering for the Yankees instead of the Dodgers. According to your theory, these people should be booted out from LA.
mahathir, what the heck would you know about living in the US? I was brought up as an American, my friends are all American, but due to my experiences, it has led me to do historical and cultural research on my heritage. I blend in perfectly into American society, with the exception of the color of my skin.
As for your comment Origami, racial slurs are but one of the ways i was discriminated against. In many countries, racism is blatant, but in the US, it is more subtle, due to the sensitivity of the issue because of the plethora of immigrants.
If by now you still have no idea what i am referring to from my writing, you either aren’t a minority living in the states, or you may need to improve your reading comprehension skills.
I was downtown before the game…whew, I wondered, is all this madness is a release from the “Hwang Woo-Suk shock” of last winter? There is a bit more “Han” behind these celebrations than in 2002.
And when all this nationalism starts annoying me, like people screaming “Dae-Han-Min-guk” at me (Do they have to do that?), I go home and read about what really matters, American football.
And in defense of Korean Americans,
mainstream America doesn’t care about international sporting events, so what fun is there in cheering the US? Where is the emotion? It seems more natural to put one’s emotions behind a team (in this case one’s own ethnicity) that people actually care about.
davelee:”If by now you still have no idea what i am referring to from my writing, you either aren’t a minority living in the states, or you may need to improve your reading comprehension skills.”
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Sorry, for not following your exciting life of blogging.
You sound very pathetic.
if your definition of exciting life of blogging means working 9-6 mon-fri for the summer, gettin paid for doing nothing but waste time on internet sites such as this one, then i guess you are correct.
not so pathetic now is it.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Korea hews solely to the principle of ius sanguinis — bloodline connection to a Korean citizen — in determining whether a person may be entitled to claim Korean citizenship by birth.
And until a Supreme Court decision in 1997 the line of descent was patrilineal only; no child with Korean mother and foreign father could claim Korean citizenship, except in the case that the father was unknown (i.e., foolish girl got knocked up and can’t remember which soldier is the father) and denial of citizenship would leave the child stateless. Even so, many government offices refused to recognize the court precedent. Which is how my wife ended up in the Yongsan District Office in December 1997 pretending to be an unmarried mother.
So don’t come here for the passport. It may not be too late to cancel that plane reservation, blueballs!
Gettin’ paid for doin’ nuthin’! Awesome, dude. Hey ppl, davelee got mad skillz y’all! Can I get a whut-whut?
“I blend in perfectly into American society.”
That is precisely the problem. By blending in perfectly, you are not contributing any thing new to American society or the American Experience.
One of my most admired Asian American is Bruce Lee. He did not learn from a book how to be an American. In many ways, he did not even blend in. He didn’t speak English with an American accent. He was himself. He introduced martial arts to a lot of Americans, taught them and made movies. Yet, he was very bit still Chinese at the same time he was also an American.
If you are claiming that you are an American because you speak English like an American, listens to American pop songs, or watch American movies, then you are a fake. Surely, your culture and upbringing must have molded you into a different variant of an American. But if you claim you are not a different variant, but just like any other Americans, then you must have made a concious effort to cut off your Korean heritage. Then you are without foundation and principles, a fake, a pretender. Ain’t real.
alethia: “And in defense of Korean Americans,
mainstream America doesn’t care about international sporting events, so what fun is there in cheering the US? Where is the emotion? It seems more natural to put one’s emotions behind a team (in this case one’s own ethnicity) that people actually care about.”
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You know,
People are making a mountain out of a molehill.
It’s just a stupid game.
Tell you the truth, I get this feeling Blueballs needs to take a chill pill and go see a psychiatrist. She’s clearly suffering from an obcessive-compulsive behavior problem. I’ve seen it.
A stupid game of football shouldn’t upset people like this. So, she clearly has some serious issues. Zoloft does work.
Ok, so thousands of Americans who live an “American life” that just enjoys American culture, music, and the way of life and don’t particularly “add on” to the American culture, are fake Americans?
I guess there are way fewer Real Americans than I thought.
If Togo or Saudi Arabia or Botswana had the ‘luck’ with referees that Korea has had the last two World Cups they’d have won it by now.
Hey,
mahathir_fan are you a sociologist?
I never baught into that whole multicultural crap.
The type of debilitating problems America is facing right now is far beyond the scope of the type of silly problems you might deal with in Malaysia. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
I hope you’re not a professor?
The second French goal: Baduk and the canucki have it wrong. The ball passed the line; it’s a goal–thanks for the FIFA link. I was loving Cha Bum Guen’s color commentary during the reply; how quickly did he shut up? His stammer and abrupt silence were priceless. Notice that no Korean TV stations have bothered to replay it in the highlights? Don’t show us that because we’ll be confusing (Deliberate). Even better that French fouls are shown ad nauseum though the Koreans outperformed the frogs in the foul tally. The frogs probably won’t match the Koreans’ death-threats-to-those-who-wrong-us tally either. World best at that, aren’t they?
Cool to see the kyopos reprezent. Typical.
BrendonCarr: “Gettin’ paid for doin’ nuthin’! Awesome, dude. Hey ppl, davelee got mad skillz y’all! Can I get a whut-whut?”
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LOL,
I’d pick up and move to Congo and speak Swahili if someone offered me that kind of job. Now, we know.
Only in Korea!
(They use to say that about America, but, I seriously doubt he would have gotten that job if his resume didn’t spell out Born in America…etc…)
M. Fan after his lobotomy has been very confused about where he is from and his own ethnic background.
Now he is Malaysian Chinese and is spilling this dribble.
Why is he regurgitating something he has read elsewhere as if it is from his own personal experience.
Why do you tolerate such a phony?
“Born in America,” Membership has it’s privileges…
I no longer will. I think we can officially write him off as a troll.
Isn’t the World Cup the perfect time for Koreans to express some nationalism/patriotism/good feelings about their country? After all, it’s the national team that is out there playing. I really don’t see how that’s that different from Koreans getting excited about the performance of their national athletes in the Olympics. Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems perfectly normal and appropriate to me.
Regarding gettin’ paid for doin’ nuthin’, generally that means you’re a useless piece of crap and your employer cannot find any value from you. Be proud, young man.
Mahathir_fan is an interesting case. Most of the Malaysian Chinese I’ve known have been intensely proud of being Chinese, but none have had anything good to say about the Malaysian state, nor about Mahathir.
Was it a goal or not? The ball definitely crossed the line, that’s for sure. But did the entire ball cross the line? According to FIFA rules, the entire ball must cross the line entirely. The replays I have seen were inconclusive. The part of the problem is that FIFA bans replay decisions, and another problem is that there were no cameras mounted on top of the goal post. To be fair to the refs, why didn’t the French players protest? Because they too were fooled.
well, it’s hard to tell how far across the line the ball was. i only figure it was across the line because of the position of the goalkeeper when he knocked back into play. as for the non-protest by france, it’s very difficult to protest vehemently while play is continuing because that could cost your team. if you’re bitching about a call while play continues, that’s not good. at the first dead ball, i think the french players did give the ref an earful, but, by then, it was too late. korea got a break and cheers to them for it. these things happen and what comes around goes around…
“i think the french players did give the ref an earful”
I was watching the BBC broadcast feed but I did not see any French players/coaches protesting on the field. Did they really protest? Apparantly most of the vehement ‘we wuz robbed’ protests from the French came AFTER the game, when all the replays were shown.
or, brendon carr, i found a really good internship that boosts my resume and pays me well for the summer. i really dont care if im not helpful, or if they find me useless. fact of the matter is, im getting paid, and the current job i hold is very good for my resume. thanks! way to jump to dumb conclusions.
‘i just wish one korean would admit that a call that went in their favor helped them tie the game.’ expat
yeah, korea tied the game and that’s that. koreans don’t need to admit anything. korea tied. that’s that. get over it. go lick your pride-by-french-proxy and stop crying.
ok?
OUR PRIDE OUR REDS
‘to be chinese is to live with your own pigs and ducks and thus give the world bird flu and sars.’ gao li bao zi
‘first bird bones found in china prove birds are chinese .’ the people’s daily
just once, i’d like to hear koreans admit that there was a blown call that went in their favour
There are some in the comments section here.
If you can sift through all the “photographic evidence” that it was a no-goal, that is.
Would it kill the author to use capital letters in his pieces?
davelee,
We, KoreanAmericans, are going through the same immigrant experiences that other groups have gone through. Racism, hate, slurs, job discrimination, putdowns, mating difficulties, etc. Other groups, the Polish, the Irish, Italians, Germans, Jews, Eastern Europeans, the Chinese and Albanians, have gone through the exact experiences that you are facing.
You can choose to be all-American, 1/2 American-1/2 Korean or any combination you are comfortable with. But, our children at some point will be full Americans. There will have no ties with Korea. As we intermarry with other groups in the US, our Koreanness will be gone.
But till then, enjoy and celebrate “Korean” heritage. There is nothing wrong with it.
Interesting that protest = legitimacy. Guess those who subscribe to such logic may have to re-think their opposition to Ohno’s gold medal. Anyway, a Swiss 2-0 win vs Togo. Congrats to the yodelling cuckoos. Here’s hoping for Swiss and French victories in a few days. Wondering if Korea will resort to past pouting (ex. ‘90 & ‘94) and stop broadcasting the World Cup’s round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals once it’s sent packing.
Mating difficulties?! Didn’t know being an immigrant took so much out of you.
And for Albanians, with the greatest certainty I state there are absolutely no Albanians in the US. It’s the one group all Americans are unanimous in declaring, “Not them!”
It was a bad call in team Korea’s favor, but I think French squad knew team Korea would keep coming, and it was their fault for not putting it away.
Team France should have simply scored more goals and simply they were not as sharp as expected.
Again one goal, as Dave described ” park’s goal was one of the ugliest”, screwed France up right at the end!
That is all about World Cup. Goal rules!
whew, what a party at the marmot comment section!
‘wops and micks’. dang, bluebells, nice one. go ahead and add ‘krauts, frogs, nips and spearchuckers’. go on, get it out of your system. whatever credibility you had before, you just injected it into yourself for a quick rush.
origami, you’re all over the place. i couldn’t even follow what it is that irks you so. really, it’s just lazy teasing and bullying, isn’t it.
brendan, sorry to hear of your experiences. unfortunately, most countries require consanguinity for citizenship, including japan, germany, denmark and italy. and it’s a bitch to get french citizenship. the u.s. is an exception. it’s unfair and that’s why the u.s. is so cool. i’m sure canada is even cooler about it.
dissidentdave, i found it a little comical and sadly spiteful that you needed koreans to admit the ‘goal’. in the heat of the game, it appeared that the goalkeeper made a brilliant save. i’m sure it was a lot more ambiguous on the pitch and the referees rightly made a conservative ‘non-ruling’. yes, in a lot of the replays the ball looked in. but jeez, that’s sports, dude.
i just saw the togo-swiss game, and it looked to me like two obvious fouls by the swiss on togo as aberdayor tried to score in the penalty box. but again, that’s sports. and in the end it’s just a game.
i know it must feel overwhelming to be in korea surrounded by what seems like overzealous fans in full support of their team with controversial such and such about their players and socca orgs. but i assure you it is no different in any of the other countries. just in group g, togo has been less than admirable and just a mess. and there were huge riots in switzerland after their league championship.
no doubt, if you lived in any of the other world cup countries, you could find fault with at least one preening selfish forward (aderbayor has disturbed team chemistry and my french friends can’t stand henry), some of their insufferable fans and the inane politics of their football association.
but otherwise, i’m liking the blog and stand in unity with you on the no caps thing.
i’ve got plenty of mick, and a little bit of wop in me, so take your credibility and stuff it lengthwise.
my grandfather used to tell me about the whip his father used to crack on him during their first few years off the boat. he was forbidden from speaking anything but english, and got a beatdown whenever he was caught playing with other immigrant children. his father repeated one phrase to him over and over: “We left for a reason and we’re not going back.”
thank jeebus he’s dead, because the sight of hundreds of thousands of “Americans” marching through the streets waving mexican flags, or 20,000 “Americans” proudly and publicly displaying their devotion and loyalty to South Korea without even an afterthought of doing the same for the US and A probably would have killed him.
Ach, make it stop - it’s football, not an immigration issue. Bottom line is that France AND South Korea are much worse than they were 8/4 years ago and whoever goes through will get stomped by the mighty Spanish.
And it’s not like Americans to get so worked up about ’soccer’, is it?
I was watching the broadcast on SCTV here in Indonesia and they showed the replay a few times after the goal line incident but didn’t make a big deal out of it. It was a close call, either way. These things happen in futbol.