well, for most of the 48 million people on the peninsula who live south of the 38th parallel, the 2006 world cup is effectively over, for there will no korean side–in fact, no asian one, either–in the knockout rounds after they went down, 2-0, to switzerland in the final match of the group stages.
in the pub where i watched this morning’s switzerland v. korea match, there was a lot of optimism before kickoff. however, nearly from the very start, it was evident that the swiss had brought their “a” game and the koreans had not. the swiss outplayed, outdefensed, outpassed, and outhustled the taeguk warriors almost from the beginning. philippe senderos’s 23rd minute bullet header put the red-clad swiss deservedly in front and, despite a furious korean push to end the half, that was the scoreline at the break.
the restart saw the koreans pushing just as hard as they had to end the first half, but it left them vulnerable to swiss counterattacks. korea really never seemed a threat to score, though they came closest in the 66th minute when jae-jin cho headed a chun-soo lee cross toward the goal, only to have it cleared at the last by swiss ‘keeper pascal zuberbuehler. this came several moments after the koreans had appealed to the ref for a penalty kick for a handball on a swiss defender in his own box, but the ref correctly ignored the korean protests.
at this point, france were ahead of togo in their match, 2-0, which meant korea had to score two goals to win to be able to advance; a korea draw with france ahead, 2-0, would do the asians no good, so they poured forward seeking, first, the equaliser first and, second, the winner. but the match’s second goal would not come from the white-clad asians.
instead, the europeans scored the next goal and it, scored 13 minutes from time, was not without controversy, albeit undeserved controversy. deep in the korean end, a pass from a swiss player was deflected inadvertently by a korean defender to teammate alexander frei, who tiptoed around korean goalkeeper woon-jae lee and slotted home from an acute angle. the linesman on the side closest to the play raised his flag for offside, but was correctly overruled by the ref because of the korean defender’s touch on the ball, which negated the offside. the koreans vehemently protested, but to no avail; it was karma coming around for payback for some of the calls in ‘02 that went korea’s way.
in the end, though, the controversy was unwarranted and of no consequence to the outcome, as switzerland were the better team and, as france got the better of togo, 2-0, the ‘02 semifinalists, whom everyone here thought had started so well to beat togo and draw with france, were left to rue their slew of poor finishing and suspect defending (woon-jae lee excluded) in all three matches. in the end, to be fair, korea didn’t deserve to advance and will be trudging home shortly with lots of “what ifs” running through their minds.
in the early matches of the night, from group h, a second-string spain side saw off saudi arabia, 0-1, and ukraine struggled to put away ten-man tunisia, 1-0, but with the spain result, the ukrainians only needed a draw to advance, anyway.
thus, the final two fixtures of the round of 16 are now set: spain v. france and switzerland v. ukraine.
and the knockout stages begin later tonight with germany v. sweden at 11:59pm, korea time, and argentina v. mexico in the early sunday morning 4am fixture.
now, the fun really begins…
46 Comments
Two fantastic outcomes this morning. The over-ruled “offside” call will live long in Korea’s memory. Somebody call a waaaaaambulance.
Gives Koreans food for thought about referees after Vieira’s goal…
Nulji: OUR EARLY EXIT! OUR LACK OF FINISHERS! OUR POROUS DEFENSE! OUR PRIDE!
Conspiracy theorists: Plenty of red meat.
The Korean desire to “prove” that 2002 was no fluke with Korean success: Just took a dump.
The critics desire to “prove” that 2002 was a combination of home-cooking, generous calls, more home-cooking and more generous calls: Just found its smoking gun.
Pawi: EVERY TIME YOU FURRINERS SAY KOREA WILL FAIL, WE PROVE YOU WRONG!
The critics repeated point that Asia lags far behind the rest of the world in football: Looking rather solid with no Asian teams advancing.
Prediction 1: Koreans will point to Hiddink’s run with Australia, blame Advocaat for not putting nice enough pearls on the Korean pig, and start begging Guus to come back ASAP.
Reality 1: Hiddink wouldn’t have mattered.
Prediction 2: The offsides goal just earned scapegoat status and becomes the ready-made excuse for the failures of this craptastic team.
Reality 2: Even if the offsides goal were disallowed, not a chance in hell Korea scores 2 goals against a rock-solid Swiss defense that hasn’t conceded a single goal yet.
Prediction 3: The “hand ball” in the box in the first half will be battling the “offsides” for the title of “most replayed clip of the 2006 World Cup.”
Reality 3: It wasn’t a hand ball. The Swiss player did not deliberately handle the ball, and the rules state that if the ball inadvertently hits a players arm, and the player makes no motion toward the ball, it is not considered a penalty.
Prediction 4: Thousands of amateur Oliver Stones will have their offsides and handball photos posted within hours of the end of the match, “proving” that Korea should retain its title as perpetual victim of the big-nose conspiracy.
Reality 4: The World Cup will get little to no coverage in Korea from this point forward. Yes, games and highlights will be shown, but no one will give 2 shits. Koreans are not football fans. They are Korea fans.
Final Reality: Team Korea, like Team USA, simply wasn’t good enough. Their inability to create solid chances, combined with their woeful lack of skill and finishing ability around the goal, in addition to their below average defense, meant that they very simply couldn’t compete with teams that can lock down their own end when they need to and more importantly, do have finishers.
The rabid cult of Korean football is dead, at least for 4 more years.
Meanwhile, the cult of Korean victimhood is alive and well, and shall live on forever.
The offside call by the ref was spot-on - not so sure about the handball… was watching France regain their form instead at that point.
Still, at least we now have conclusive proof that Korea and the USA are both as bad as each other at football, which is heartening.
Does this mean there’ll be no more car-sex?
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=924002006
A controversial second goal from forward Alex Frei sparked screams of “offside” as the Seoul crowd vented their frustration at the massive screens set up to broadcast the match.
“We could have come back but the second goal broke our backs. It was not fair,” said Kim Sun-wha.
-Looks like it has begun. Corean raaagge.
The reaction will be interesting to see.
The World Cup brings out the best in the Marmot crowd, I see.
C’est fini..
Looking forward to see better performance in 2010.
Swiss were impressive but after their first scorer went off a second time I thought Korea might make some headway. It was a very exciting game. The Keeper and Lee chun soo were so pissed. Park ju young seemed to do nothing right.
The hand ball? yeah the player was protecting himself from a kick. His arm was across his chest. I wasn ’sure about the off side call but I thought the ref did a great job during a wild match.
So much for all the hype over just a game which led to a big letdown. It’s over, just like that.
“So much for all the hype over just a game which led to a big letdown. It’s over, just like that.”
I think everybody that follows sports has experienced this many times.
In reality a loss was so much more needed than a win. It’s time for us Koreans to pull our heads out of the ass of fantasy and assess the realities of the world. Reactionary leftism, arrogance, complascency, self-isolationism and whining is undoing all the progress of Park Cheong Hi’s forward thinking.It’s time we realize that it was our emergence from our self aggrandizing cultural isolationism that empowers us.
A word about the victim mentality iheartblueballs so properly identified. There is no need to portray ourselves as the victims of anything other than ourselves. Historically, it was our own isolationism and that caused us to become victims - that made us ripe for colonization, for instance. Hard as the Korean Conflict was for us, it opened the doors to international influence and precipitated our current prosperity. The more we emphasize our uniqueness and self-reliance, the more we have been losing our edge.
In that context our World Cup defeat is just what we needed. Now, are we smart enough to get it?
I’m sure the lot of you had responses already typed out, ready to post as soon as the match ended. Doesn’t it feel great?
Official FIFA rules are:
A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play by:
* interfering with play or
* interfering with an opponent or
* gaining an advantage by being in that position.
Here’s an interpretation of the rules:
http://asktheref.com/Soccer%20.....ion/13059/
Since Frei clearly gained an advantage by being behind the defenders, I don’t think the goal should have counted. Even if not, any controversy surrounding the second goal would be well-deserved.
In 2000, Hiddink led a bunch of Korean younsters to a journey. They lived together, played together and learned soccer the right way. All that hard work paid off in 2002 Worldcup.
Since then, Korean soccer lost direction. They have gone through Koelu, another guy and then Sir Advocaat. He was only in charge for 9 months.
In this world cup, major players had less than three months to work together to play as a team. Too short. In this last game with Swiss, the lack of coordination showed. Passing was problem. Midfield play was problem. Nobody was running into an open space because players know no pass will be given to them. Disarray.
I hope Korean soccer association have learned the lesson. You cannot have three different coaches in four years. The job must be given to one man for four year term.
And, for the World cup year, the team has to be assembled at least six months prior to the game to live and play together as a team.
Korean players did a good job, beating Togo (the best team from Africa) and drawing a tie with the mighty French team. However, Swiss team was too good. They play the same style of game as Korean team: accurate passing, solid defense and hard running. They just did everything a little better than Korean team.
Off-side call? I believe it is not important. I saw Swiss playing Togo and predicted Korea team would lose by 2-0 or 2-1. Swiss team never got tired even after 90 minutes continuous running against Togo. They have been playing together as a team for long time. Lots of backheel passing (similar to no-look pass in basketball) because they know how to play together.
In actual game against Korea, Swiss blew several easy chances. If those have materialized, Korea would have been in much worse shape. 2-0 is lucky for Korea. I think Swiss plays much better than Korea and the real score should have been 3-0.
For the next time, Korean soccer association should hire a good coach and stick to the same man for four years. And, players should stop playing for the Korean league or English football league six months prior to the Worldcup.
Baduk, you’re correct about the coaching situation. The instability of hiring and firing several foreign coaches within such a short span is never good for a team. The mentality of quick turnover came from the ridiculous expectation that Korea is an elite team. When Coehlo and Bonfrere did not get the results equivalent to a top soccer power, they were deemed to be the problem. In fact, Korea is not an elite team, and never was. The massive self-delusion that the football organization, media, and country went through after the 2002 Cup did more to harm the team than any other factor. Hopefully now that fantasy is over.
By the way, Togo was not the best African team, not even close. In fact, they were the worst. 0 wins, 3 losses, outscored 6-1.
Ghana has proven to be the best African team, without question. Tunisia, Ivory Coast, and Angola all managed to win or draw at least 1 game and get points in the standings. Togo and Costa Rica were the only teams in the tournament to go 0-3.
Togo was the first place finisher in African regional games. Ghana was the second.
Korea has come a long way in soccer as evidenced by Park Jisung and Lee youngPyo playing in the Premier league.
However, you are correct in saying that Korea does not rank within the top ten teams in the world as shown by this Cup result.
Korea needs to regroup. If not, Korean soccer could go downhill from here. I hope that does not happen. And, it will not happen. Korea sometimes produces good athletes, evidenced by Cha BumGun and two Olympic Marathon gold medals. Korea just need four to five good soccer players who can carry on the miracle of 2002 World cup.
“Doesn’t it feel great?”
Amen, brother.
The cult of 2002’s goose-stepping over achievers is finished.
Add the “handball” and the “offsides” to Korea’s dark closet of Han; nothing more comforting than that boogeyman gnawing at your psyche.
Pity Japan didn’t make it through.
“Korean players did a good job, beating Togo (the best team from Africa) and drawing a tie with the mighty French team.”
The best team from Africa? Are you blind?
“Togo was the first place finisher in African regional games. Ghana was the second”
please elaborate as to what the “african regional games” are.
if you are referring to this past winter’s CAF (african cup of nations continental championship, similar to the european championships held every four years in even years when the world cup is not played), then togo was NOT the best team, as they did as poorly there as they did here at the world cup.
otherwise, what are “the african regional games”?
togo were not the best african team here, is not, and will not be for a long time. the best african team in the world cup was ghana, as post #16 pointed out. in fact, even if togo were the best african team, they were in a fairly weak group when compared to ivory coast and ghana–and of the three teams, only poor togo went 0-for-3.
oh, and the french haven’t been “mighty” since ‘98, so that draw isn’t as good right now as it once looked. if france win the world cup, then perhaps the draw will look better…
the reality for korea is this: they were in a group from which a better team would have won or at least advanced, but they weren’t good enough, as we all saw.
given the KFA’s past, it wouldn’t surprise me if they prove they’ve not learned their lessons from the past and they let go of advocaat. if the KFA blindly continue to make the korean manager’s post a revolving carousel, then koreans should expect their team to keep being a mid-level international squad with lots of potential, but no clue as to how to take advantage of it.
You’re wrong. There was no “first place finisher” in the African preliminaries. There were 5 individual group winners. Togo won its group, as did Ghana, Ivory Coast, Angola, and Tunisia. The fact that Togo scored more points within its group than did the other winners means absolutely nothing. The 5 group winners were not ranked or seeded according to the points they scored within each group. You’re making that up on your own baduk.
Besides, preliminaries mean jack shit. Ghana scored victories over the #2 and #6 ranked teams in the world, and lost to the #12 team. They played great football against 3 solid teams, and they’re MOVING ON TO THE NEXT ROUND while playing in the toughest group in the World Cup.
Togo got manhandled and lost to the #5, #31, and #37 ranked teams. The only team they had a chance of winning against was Korea…which tells you more about how poor Korea was than how good Togo was.
With the exception of that “best team in Africa comment,” your last post was the first one in a while that was reasonable, without any references to grand conspiracies, trailer bunnies, and racist newspapers. Try and build on that instead of clinging to ridiculous notions about Togo that you can’t back up.
Before someone corrects it, the rankings in above post are off. I used the February rankings. Most recent rankings:
Togo lost to #8, #29, #35
Ghana beat #2 and #5, lost to #13.
No contest.
I saw the entire game. I thought South Korea played better than in the French game. In the France game, they had zero shots on goal, or almost, during until well into the 2nd half. In the Swiss game, the Koreans shot a lot, but the Swiss goalie either caught them all, or deflected them. Lee Chun Soo played the best. He had great shots and crosses. I could see why Advocaat used Lee Chun Soo to kick every corner kick, goal kick, etc. He’s pretty good at it. Sad, yes. But, they played well. Park Ju Yong was another media hype, and Dick was right not to use him in the first two games.
iheartblueballs, some spot-on football posts today (and one hell of a hilarious avatar)
mizar5, i’m not into ‘reactionary right-wing’ politics either, not that a bit of reality has hit how about Korea trying to find some middle ground for a change, balance may be better than always gravitating towards extremes. Other than that an excellent first post.
Baduk: “However, you are correct in saying that Korea does not rank within the top ten teams in the world as shown by this Cup result.”
Baduk, I’m sorry as I know you’re a big fan but please, reality check. Korea’s usual FIFA ranking of 25-35 is more accurate than not and to the best of my knowledge they’ve never been anywhere near the top 10. But like any team in the world, maybe some day, who knows? So long Korea. Ghana is ranked in the high 40s. Go Ghana! Win one for Africa!
Sonagi wrote:
The World Cup brings out the best in the Marmot crowd, I see.
How about, uh, too bad, but I wish you all the best for the next World Cup, Korea… but I don’t care what the gloating blokes has to spout… 괴로우나 즐거우나 나라 사랑하세!
Indeed a disappointing performance of Team Korea at this tournament. Without a win over Switzerland they clearly haven’t deserved to qualify for the next round. That’s football.
But the World Cup is in no way over for me. I’ve a great team on my reserve bench to root for: GERMANY. Come on, Deutschland, I want to see the fourth star stichted on the shirt!
And dda, my friend, isch ach et dir, ihr Franzooossen kütt oooch net vill weiter. Isch hann dat so im jefühl :)!
“isch sach et dir”
Loss mir nit lamentiere, loss mir eenfach fiere!
korea got their asses handed to them
and rightfully so
stop whining about calls you stupid pathetic idiots
the US had by far the worst penalty kick of all time called against them and the media and players both shrugged it off and said we are to blame we dug the hole for ourselves and never got all the way out!!!
korea should have the pride enough to bow out gracefully!!!
but they wont!!
they will be typical koreans blamining anyone but themselves for their own shortcomings
I am sooooo glad you remembered the call from Spain 2002. I think koreans could now exercise the feeling the spaniards felt at that time, when they WON the game but the referee gave an undeserved path to Korea to semi-finals. Last night’s game was even not so bad, since the Swiss had the 1×0 score already, so the offside/non-offside discussion feels really like just an excuse for Koreans.
I am a soccer fanatic, and that game back in 2002 was for me the worst “refereewise” in all world cup history, the worst ever. Spain won, but had to swallow it and move on. Now it’s time to Korea swallow it and move on. Maybe next time they will be able to show better soccer. Learn with the Spaniards, please.
I must say unfortunately I feel relieved, because good soccer prevailed for round-of-16’s 2006 tournament.
As you, I feel now world cup really begins.
I would hardly go so far as to say that Spain or Italy took the decision(s) with class. They were bitchin and screamin too.
Zucker Shienbein kann och Schweetzerdootsch sprechen?!
Isch gooet, dasch. Grooetzee.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
The Goat, they didn’t, but they moved on anyway, and that’s the lesson I hope Korean soccer gets it. I live here for 3 years now, and I am still impressed by the amount of times they replay the SAME games from 2002 - countless times I’ve watched on TV them. I come from a very traditional soccer powercountry, and have been in Spain and Italy too, and never saw in any of these countries the replay over-and-over-and-over of games, even the ones they win. We just forget the past, and move on, prepare for the future. Korea, this meantime between 2002 and 2006, seemed to me it was living in a dreamland of the semifinals - a dream not true. No other good soccer country does that, that’s what I am saying. Now it’s time to pack it all on the bag and prepare for 2010.
I have faith Korea can come back with a very good team next time. At least, I hope so, because it would be thrilling to watch the Taeguk warriors beating with world-class soccer and fairness a power team like Germany, Brazil or Argentina.
Zucker Shienbein kann och Schweetzerdootsch sprechen?! jefferyhodges
Nit Schienbein, sondern scharf!
“Zucker Scharf”, lieber Professor Hodges
Actually, I tried to transcripe Kölsch, the Cologne dialect, cause dda is a profound expert in that language.
PS: I liked the dualism of my chosen pen name, too.
Sugar Shin, so you’re not the anatomical “shin” but the “divine spice” of life. Well, that’s not bad, either.
I spent over a year in der Schweitz, first in Fribourg (like the Big Ho), then in Basel — and 6 years in Germany (where I met my fabulous Korean wife on a train) — but I still mistook the Koelnische Akzent for a Schweetzerdootsch dialect. Ach, weh, Ich bin einfach dumm.
Hey, if you ever come to Seoul, look us up. The three of us could have a great time talking about Germany and the places that we’ve lived.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Dang… USA was #5? Did they know that?
I’m rooting for Mexico for the next round (since I’ve got to basically adopt a team at this point) since they’re the only CONCACAF team that made it through, and it would be a kick to see a non-South American, non-European team win the damn thing for once.
Sugar Shin, mohl sihn, ming Fründ, mohl sihn.
Funny, still, how *one* bad [or not] call gets all the focus. Had the referee granted Vieira’s goal – but *back then* FIFA and the referees were wight, always right – loss or draw against the Swiss wouldn’t have mattered, they’d been out anyways…
All the rage on Naver about the foreign press saying the referee was wrong, and the netizens blasting this away. And now..? 180° around, and blast the referees….
Needless to say, I am enjoying all this.
… and 6 years in Germany (where I met my fabulous Korean wife on a train)… jeffereyhodges
So, you had the time of your life in good old Germany. Thanks for your kind invitation, I’ll take that offer when I’m back in the homeland and my hometown again!
dda, et kütt wie et kütt!
I wouldn’t know about the hand ball (didn’t see it), but i think Frei wasn’t offside. It’s just offside if, when the pass is made to player X he is past the last defender. In this case the pass was not made to Frei. It was going to another Swiss player, it was the attempt to cut that pass by the Korean player that made the ball go to Frei. Hence, no offside.
lucia,
Thanks for the kind words about the future of Korean soccer.
Why do Koreans show the same games over and over? Worldcup 2002 was a dream come true for Koreans.
Do you know what the goal for Korean soccer going into 2002? To win one game. That is it. To win one world cup game. Prior to 2002, Korea has gone to World cup several times but never won a game. Not even one game.
Coach Hiddink changed all that. He trained Korean team in the right way. How to pass, whom to pass, how to defend, etc. But, in the friendly matches prior to 2002, Korean team lost a lot of games. They did not look good.
I was pleasantly surprised that Korea beat Poland in the first match. It was the first time Korea had won a world cup match!!!! The very first time in history of Korea.
I remember in 60-70s when Korea could not even qualify for the world cup. They lost to Malesia, Australia, Iran, Iraq and SoudiArabia.
Korean soccer has come a long way. I hope this journey continues. And, as you said, the world cup will be a lot more interesting when new teams like the US, Ghana, other African nations or even Korea becomes a powerhouse.
Avocaat was right in his assessment that the KLeague needs to improve drastically for the national team to improve.
and just a correction, there is still one Asian team in the cup…….Australia.
Yes, we are now part of the AFC!!
look out Asia Cup
Gentlemen and Ladies, I was under the impression that when an opponent touches the ball before it immediately negates any offside position. This was the rule we used in NCAA Div II and high school in the US. I am almost positive it was the rule in FIFA…at one time. HOWEVER, in looking up the rules there is a significant “Decision” by the International F.A. Board which tells me that this rule has been changed. Plockhoy mentioned the “advantage” clause of the offsides rule. Here is the “Decision’s” definition of advantage: Gaining an advantage by being in that position means playing a ball that rebounds to him off a post or the crossbar having been in an offside position or playing a ball that rebounds to him off an opponent having been in an offside position.
http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/Laws11_01.htm
I think this has not gotten the attention of many people yet and I imagine it must be a fairly new distinction but I’m afraid I have to start thinking the call might not have been so good…Not that any other local fans (specifically netizens) out there knew of the old rule or of any change but, anyhoo….I need to find out when that decision was put into the rules.
on the above link go to the 3rd page (3rd of 3) of law 11 for offsides and the definitino of advantage
as for being heartbroken, oh well, I cried when the Patriots got the crap spanked out of’em in ‘86 by the big bad Bears. I got over it. I was 12 and my Dad told me I was too old to cry and got pretty ticked off at me for my “immaturity” as he put it.
I hope Korea’s team continues to progress and that league play takes off more as well. I just wish so much of people’s lives didn’t revolve around the failure or success of a sports team. It’s too much drama, really.
What is done, is done, and overall I think the Swiss created better chances at scoring.
However, I would still like to see some definitive analysis on this issue. According to this web page dated 6/19/2006 (so quite recent), if the ball is deflected off a defender, the receiving player is still offsides:
http://asktheref.com/Soccer%20.....ion/13082/
Does anybody have a good explanation/rebuttal of this?
I’m also wondering where I can find the rule that defenders’ deflections negate the offside penalty. Can Mr. dissidentdave or anyone else refer me to some sources?
G.M. Jeonuchi, I’m thinking that rule is outdated. Check out the FIFA decision at:
http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/Laws11_03.htm
Read all 3 pages for offsides…