Jun 25, 2002
Unabashed cheese
My unabashed cheese that I posted over in yellowworld:
Korea is a small country. Historically, its been picked on by a bunch of neighbors. My grandmother spoke Japanese, since she was old enough to live through the colonization, when the Korean language was prohibited. Ive even said in another thread that S. Korea has basically been a puppet for the U.S. ever since WWII.
And so, almost accordingly, for 48 years, S. Korea had never even won a single tournament game. Prior to the tournament, they were slapped around by France, 5-0, and the entire nation was begging for a single victory this time round.
Im still not quite sure what happened, but before we knew it, S. Korea suddenly took control of their own destiny, going on to beat European powerhouses Poland, Portugal, Italy and Spain. I wasnt even aware S. Korea was playing in the tournament until recently. I remember my best friend had come down from up north to visit about three weeks ago, and we were awake all night, yapping away, when we starting hearing this ridiculous roar from outside. We spent some time trying to figure out whether it was from someones garguantuan tv set or whether a protest rally was being staged in downtown LA.
Over 8,000 Koreans gathered in Ktown to watch the game against Spain!
Although the loss was definitely a bummer, I was reminded of how special this entire stretch was when immediately after the game ended, I could hear fans outside my apartment still chanting Daehan minguk…
Before their Super Bowl match up with the New England Patriots in 1986, Chicago defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan said to his crew, after they had compiled a magical 15-1 season, Win or lose, youre still my heroes.
Thats exactly how I feel about the Reds.
