Monday, June 10, 2002. 740pm. Seoul, Korea.
well, just got out of the shower and now i am sitting down for the first time in about 10 hours. the reason that i have been on my feet this long is that i went to gwanghwamun to watch the game between korea and the US. no, no. this isn't the stadium. i went to watch the game on the large television screens there. anyway, sarah chung, her sister, and cheryl hitosis were with me so that was fun. man, the mood of the crowd was really tense. this was a pivotal game for both teams and things were already pretty tense due to the speedskating incident at the salt lake games. the crowd was getting pretty rowdy and were cussing the american team. when they scored, it was pretty scary. later on, when mathis was substituted out, the crowd was cheering and flashing their middle fingers towards the screen (because he scored for the american team). later on, the koreans scored a goal to make it a tie and after ahn scored, he ran to the corner and mimicked the actions of a speedskater, making a pointed reference to the salt lake games. the crowd cheered, they loved it and i was a little frightened to see the ability the koreans possessed to hold such a grudge after such a long time. i have to admit, i would have liked for korea to win, but i think the tie was the best thing. they ended in a draw and the negative feelings were kept at a minimum. but before the americans can complain about the koreans, they weren't being that fair either. when o'brien and a korean player collided, the korean got up first and offered his hand to o'brien, only to have it pushed away. talk about a wasted opportunity to patch things up a bit. the crowd saw that and became indignant and voiced their anger.
but aside from the bitterness and the inability for both countries to realize that they need to work things because they are allies, it was pretty fun. yes, it was pouring and i got soaked, including my shoes and yes, we had to walk around and push through immobiled crowd, but this was definately a good experience. it was really something to see an entire nation bond together. one thing the american soccer team can't claim is great fan support. even from my vantage point, all i saw was red. everyone cheered together and yes, everyone abused the other team together. this will sound corny, but too bad the whole world can't be this united.

  posted by me @ 5:54:00 AM