Tuesday, June 25

corea 0 - 1 germany

too bad.

i woke up at 6:20am after going to bed at 3:30. quick shower, brush, and a red shirt (which my most excellent neighbor/friend chuckie loaned me. dude, what a nice guy). bj, chuck, and i met up with some of the other ppl (approx 10) from my class and we headed out to k-town.

empire korea, on 32nd opened its restaurant to the public. there were at least 8 large screen tvs and two projected throughout the restaurant. though we were early, the place was filling up rapidly with red-shirted fans, and we found room on the floor to sit in on the upper floor. for the hour before the game, there were guys dressed in flags and red, leading cheers.

there were several drums (played excellently, i thought) dispersed throughout, which were very effective in getting people's blood boiling.

game time:
as they show the players, everyone goes nuts. shouts, screams, cheers, clapping. i'm a little in awe of what's going on.

for the entire game, strong cheers of dae han min gook! with a rhythmic clapping routine erupted. every move, every step was followed.

halftime: everyone takes a deep breath, and cheer. corea was hanging, and hanging well.

2nd half:
when the goal was scored. screams of shock and dispair, and odd quiet. many clasp their heads. it's over. korea was doing well, but not creating great goal opportunities.

korea plays a little more desperately, and have several decent shots, but it was not meant to be.

game over:
pause, then clapping. corea played well, and proved it could hang with all the soccer powers. offensively, corea needs to develop some individual skills. but what a showing. something that coreans can be proud of.

you could feel the pent up energy as people filed out. at least 300 people in there, all had come, ready to flip out and go nuts if corea had won. I had come, ready to go crazy.

still, it was awesome to be part of this living organism of fans. koreans and korean american, and even absolute non-koreans, all became one, for 2.5 hours. what a wild experience. no regrets, even if i DID miss my morning class.

i only feel bad for the ah juh shi's out there. i know i mentioned this before, but i'll say it again. all those ppl in empire korea were mostly like me, young, excited by corea's success, maybe opened a little to what soccer is like, happy to join together with absolute strangers for a purpose. we're just youngsters having a good time.

but what about the group of men that are older. seriously, i've seen years slip away from every korean man. i've seen them jump, shout and move joints that had been dormant for years. i'm sure wives and children have also noticed this change in their husbands and fathers.

i wish there was more for these guys to cheer about. i'll always have my lakers. they'll keep me young forever. most young ppl have things to get excited about. but the golden oldies? i wish i could give something to the older generation to permanently restore what shone through for the past couple of weeks.



yakob at 10:21 AM

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