Korean Sports Thread

[jlee]

6/12/2010: Korea 2 Greece 0.

[Mussoda]

that was nice, muhahaha..

[BREVIN117]

^ that was very nice but I think Fifa's ranking of South Korea is ridiculous. I mean how can south korea be ranked 47th and japan is 45th yet japan has been literally losing every game and south korea has never lost to japan. Even when you look at all the teams korea has recently beaten. Ivory Coast 27th Ecuador 44th Greece 13th. All these previous teams Korea has beaten 2-0 and they are still ranked way higher. What is this nonsense!

[jlee]

6/15/2010 DPRK 1 - Brazil 2

[jlee]

image hosted on flickr

[jlee]

Korea 1 - Argentina 4...


should of never played yeom and oh.

[CorliCorso]

Does anybody know of a good (English language) site for keeping up to date with K-League stuff?

I'd have thought newspaper sites like Korea Herald or Korea Times would be good for that kind of thing, but K-League news is rare at best & for some reason there tends to be more news items that have no relation to Korea at all.

[jlee]

ROKfootball.com is a decent place to start. It's a forum that seems to be run by expats living in Korea.

Kleague news sources in English are rare. There really isn't the demand for information outside of Korea. Anyways, the league's on summer break right now, so information will be scarce with the exception of some transfer tidbits.

[jlee]

pics
http://sports.news.naver.com/wc2010/...=19214&order=0

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/cult...03800315F.HTML

(World Cup) Korean football body wants military service exemption for World Cup team


By Tony Chang
DURBAN, South Africa, June 23 (Yonhap) -- The head of South Korea's football governing body said Wednesday it will recommend exemption of mandatory military duty for the players for advancing to the second round in an away World Cup finals for the first time.

South Korea reached the knockout stage after a tie with Nigeria on Tuesday that placed it second in Group B. The last time it advanced past the first round was at the tournament it co-hosted with Japan in 2002.

"What the players want is to be exempted from their military duties," Cho Chung-yun, chief of the Korea Football Association, told reporters after the Nigeria match. "They were exempted when they made it to the second round at home. It is much more difficult to achieve the feat (away from home)."

In South Korea, all able-bodied men above the age of 20 are required to serve in the armed forces for at least two years. Olympic medalists and gold medalists from Asian Games, however, are exempted.

In 2002, Seoul revised the law to also relieve national footballers from military service if their team reaches the second round of the World Cup. But the revision was dropped in 2007 after public sentiment turned negative.

One team official said that players "shouted in joy" in the locker room after being told by Cho that he will make the recommendation.

Team captain Park Ji-sung, who was exempted in 2002 when the team reached the semifinals, also argued that the players should be exempted in order to increase their career prospects and to ultimately raise the level of football in the country.

"I was exempted after the 2002 South Korea-Japan World Cup and was able to tap the European stage," Park said.
Park currently plays for Manchester United.

odissy@yna.co.kr

Lee Seung Ryul, Kim Dong Jin, Park Chu Young must be rejoicing like no other. Though Kwak Tae Hwi's probably like, wtf...I get hurt days before the World Cup...

[jlee]

Korea v. Nigeria 2-2

[jlee]

DPRK 0 - Portugal 7

[jlee]

Little vids about folks watching the World Cup.


think this was done by some expats...don't know why...

[Koreansentry]

Originally Posted by jlee

image hosted on flickr

She's looking very serious...

[jlee]

More Korea fan watching...


after the Nigeria game.


after Park Chu Young's goal. @COEX


before kickoff against Nigeria @COEX


Korea v. Greece. @Yongsan


Korea v. Greece. @COEX


Seoul City Hall


Seoul City Hall


Staples Center, Los Angeles


Staples, LA Live, Los Angeles


NYC


Daegu

[dhuwman]

SK soccer squad is looking pretty good this year. But their plays have been somewhat disappointing especially in the last couple of matches. I hope they can pull off whatever they have to win the match against Uruguay

[jlee]

Mixing sports with religion here in SoCal.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...tory?track=rss

Soccer a shared religion in South Korean churches
Hundreds of South Korea soccer fans gather in community churches to watch the World Cup games. The churches provide fans comfortable venues to socialize and cheer on the South Korea team.

Victoria Kim and Corina Knoll, Los Angeles Times

June 26, 2010

It was, by church standards, irreverent.

Beating drums thundered through the sanctuary as the crowd waved flags and pumped fists. Young men and women in face paint jumped up and down near the pulpit, leading hundreds of faithful followers in cheers. Grandmothers in pews gasped in horror and screamed with excitement.

Traditionally a house of quiet worship, Grace Korean Church in Fullerton became a raucous party on Tuesday as hundreds arrived to watch South Korea play Nigeria on three giant screens.

Some were members of the congregation, still with Bibles in hand from morning's devotion. Others attended church elsewhere. A few weren't churchgoers at all. Yet in that moment, soccer was their shared religion.

By offering up their halls as an alternative to dimly lighted smoky bars or crowded restaurants, Southland Korean churches are hoping to woo potential congregants caught up in soccer fever.

The Korean American community has been fanatical about the South Korean national soccer team since the team notched its first World Cup victories in 2002 and advanced to the semifinals. Korean-owned bars and cafes welcome throngs for World Cup games at any hour, and thousands decked out in the team's color, red, swarm Koreatown's outdoor screenings. The games strike a nerve in the highly nationalistic and intensely proud culture.

The drawing power of the game has not been lost on Korean churches.

"It's an indirect way of spreading the gospel," said Paul Gihong Han, a pastor at Grace Korean Church where an estimated 1,000 fans gathered to watch Tuesday's match between South Korea and Nigeria. "I'm hoping this will be an opportunity for people to come closer to the church and come closer to God."

The church has long been a pillar in the overwhelmingly Christian community, and many Korean Americans build their social lives around their congregation. The numerous churches that dot the landscape in Koreatown and in pockets of Orange County and the San Fernando Valley vie for influence and new parishioners. And during the World Cup, the evangelical leaning of many of the churches align perfectly with the religion-like devotion of soccer fans.

At least seven large Korean churches, from Northridge to Lincoln Heights to Irvine, have broadcast Korea's matches in their halls, doling out bandannas, T-shirts and food. Oriental Mission Church in Koreatown hung a banner outside advertising its pre-game meals of seollangtang, a soup made of ox bones.

"This is where I can go to be around other Koreans," said Kristina Choi, 22, at Oriental Mission during halftime of the Korea-Nigeria match." A majority of my friends are not Korean and not into the World Cup."

Church leaders were probably happy to see people like 17-year-old Franklin Lee.

Lee, a self-described atheist, had watched a previous game with thousands of people on an outdoor screen, but said he preferred Oriental Mission, where he was greeted warmly and offered plates of rice cakes and hard-boiled eggs. He was, however, relieved the event involved no overt proselytizing.

"I would have felt a little disturbed if they had tried to convert me," he said.

Joo Young Chang, a pastor at Oriental Mission, said they purposely made the gathering free void of Christian undertones.

"If we try to preach to them, they'll think they got cheated and it will backfire," Chang said. "If they come here for just the game, next time they come to worship."

Although church elders were initially opposed to the idea of hosting the games — two of the games forced the early-morning service to relocate to an adjacent chapel — Chang said deacons convinced them the World Cup offered an opportunity to expand a congregation that has been dwindling for a decade. Many churches hoped the games would bring in second-generation Korean Americans, a population they have struggled to attract.

At Grace Church, the religion was a little more manifest. Christian music blared from the loudspeaker as fans filtered in, and a public prayer was held during the first game, when South Korea beat Greece 2-0.

For the second game against Argentina, however, they skipped the prayer so that non-Christians wouldn't feel pressured, said Pastor Han. "We wanted them to come and enjoy the match comfortably," he said. Then he said with a smile: "Maybe that's why we lost."

Whether faith played a role, South Korea advanced to the Round of 16, and will face Uruguay on Saturday. But in terms of winning over newcomers, the results were mixed.

Dong Soo Han, a 53-year-old house painter, watched quietly from his seat near the back of Grace Church, as if ready to take off at a moment's notice. It was the first time he had set foot inside a church. As impressed as Han was with the slick, modern sanctuary, he said he wasn't interested in the religion and will probably watch the next game at home.

"It's just more comfortable," Han said.

But Peter Kim, 43, a Cypress hedge fund manager, was sold.

"I saw the size of the TV screen … and I liked that they had nice cushy chairs instead of wooden pews. It seemed ideal for World Cup viewing," he said. "I think I'll go to this church from now on. It's large and has nice facilities. People look for things like that in a church these days."

victoria.kim@latimes.com

corina.knoll@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

[hakz2007]

Korean soccer

South Korea failed to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals when it lost to Uruguay 1-2 in Port Elizabeth on Saturday (June 26). But there is no need for regret for Korea because it had already achieved what it aimed at before coming to South Africa -- reaching the knockout stage for the first time in foreign territory.

Moreover, the odds were in favour of Uruguay, whose pre-World Cup FIFA ranking was 16th, with Korea way behind at 47th. Before the start of the World Cup, not many anticipated Korea would make it to the second round, let alone the quarterfinals.

True, Korea progressed to the semifinals in the 2002 World Cup, which it co-hosted with Japan. But there was no denying that Korea owed much of that success to home advantage -- the psychological support of its fans in and outside the stadiums.

Again this year, so many Koreans came out to the streets throughout the nation to support their team when it took on Greece, Argentina, Nigeria and, finally, Uruguay on the other side of the globe. The knowledge that enthusiastic fans were rallying in the streets for the Taegeuk Warriors must have been a psychological boost to their morale.

In a nation that has few outdoor festivals or parades for amusement, Korea’s competition in the World Cup provided a rare occasion for Koreans to have fun on the streets. It also united Korean people, both at home and on the streets, in their support for their team.

Few would dispute that manager Huh Jung-moo and his men gave better-than-expected performances. For this alone, they deserve to pat themselves on the back. Moreover, Huh proved that as a homegrown manager, he can be as reliable as any renowned foreign soccer figure.

http://www.asianewsnet.net/home/news.php?id=12787&sec=3

[jlee]

eerrr....guess we lost to uruguay.













i'm sorry, but i gotta blame jung for the 1st goal. he's the goal keeper and he has to stop balls from crossing in front of him.

[Mussoda]

that's very sorry,, at the moment.. hmmm.

we actually should get a real goal-getter, I think, not just the better defense..

[jlee]

[IMG]http://i46.************/300coet.jpg[/IMG]