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The light rain started a few hours before the USA-Korea match on Monday was probably a good thing. Taegu in southeastern Korea was already baking. Tension over the match was also running at fever pitch, at least on the Korean side. In a country with a long love-hate relationship with the U.S., this match was always going to be about more than just soccer. But anti-American sentiment has been running higher than usual here since the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, when American short-track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno won the gold after Korean star Kim Dong Song was disqualified for blocking his way. That race may be long forgotten by most Americans but it seemed to light a fuse under Korean anger over what many here see as America's bully-boy ways (Koreans are convinced the U.S. somehow fixed the race, never mind that it was an Australian judge who disqualified their hero). For the millions of Koreans who stayed away from school or office to watch Monday's soccer match up with the biggest bully on the block, this was a chance to even the score. There was loud, sullen booing as the Americans strode onto the field and more booing as their names were announced: this was a match that could have turned ugly if Korea had lost on a bad call. As it was, the Koreans outplayed the Americans but could have lost.
Pumped by deafening crowd support, the Koreans attacked and pressed, stole the ball and outran their opponents. Time after time, they created danger around the goal for U.S. keeper Brad Friedel. But it was U.S. star Clint Mathis who skillfully punched home the first goal 24 minutes into the first half. Shortly after, Friedel made a huge save against a penalty shot hit by Korea's Lee Eul Yong. The Koreans stayed on the offensive in the second half, constantly creating opportunities but always coming up just short. Finally, Korean coach Guus Hiddink sent on star striker Ahn Jung Hwan, who headed home a desperately needed goal at 78 minutes. Ahn made for the corner of the pitch but instead of somersaults, shirt-over-the-head routines or a Senegal-style celebratory dance, Ahn pretended to skate on the grass while teammate Lee Chun Soo stood behind him mimicking Ohno, throwing his hands in the air as Ohno did after Kim supposedly blocked him. (Koreans think Ohno was just trying to get the attention of the judge and the gesture has become a standing joke in Korea). The crowd, roaring approval, didn't need any explanation. Later, Ahn told the Korean media: "People felt bad about the Ohno incident. I wanted to fix that feeling."
Who knows what another Korean goal could have done for U.S.-Korean relations? It would certainly have done wonders for Korean's hurt pride. But the goal never came. The Koreans came excruciatingly close: Choi Yong Soo had a clear shot in the closing minutes and popped it high. But they couldn't close before the whistle blew. In the press briefing room, they marched through stone-faced, too angry to speak to reporters. Coach Guus Hiddink tried to put a good face on it but he was clearly frustrated: "We deserved to win 3 or 4 to 1. We created such beautiful chances." But, he added, "from 5 or 6 chances, you have to score at least one." The Americans, for their part, seemed pretty happy to have hung on. Said Mathis: "It was good to get out of here with a point."
Korea had almost shut down for the match, with schools letting out early and businesses closing or at least letting their employees out to watch the game. President Kim Dae Jung presumably watched it from the safety of the presidential Blue House ? fear of embarrassing and possibly violent anti-Americanism apparently him away from the stadium. In the center of Seoul, thousands watched on giant outdoor screens, despite the torrential rain that descended on the city during the match. Everybody had been ready to party, as they had after the heady 2-0 victory over Poland last week. But for countless Koreans, the tie against the U.S. had the empty, aching feel of a loss. The crowd, soaked with rain and disappointment, dispersed quietly. Said 16-year-old Chung Woong Shik, who escaped the rain to watch the match in the basement of a downtown office complex: "We really should have won." Then, after listing the reasons he doesn't like the U.S., he concludes: "The most important thing is I don't like Ohno." Skater Kim Dong Sung hasn't commented yet.
Korea Team Fighting!
Thus the war cry of the hosts. And if the USA had a patron saint, they would do well offering him/her a bunch of flowers tonight for having watched over them. The USA is definitely making it into the upper echelons of world soccer, along with the Italys, the Germanys and the Englands, who can win by doing nothing and taking advantage of a lonely chance. Mathis is a crack shot, and thank God he is back! If Korea had scored half of their clear chances, the score would have been 4-1.
Portugal blew past Poland, literally. The poor Poles thought that scoring a goal early would bring down Portugal; that's why they came out with 3 forwards. Nobody told them, apparently, that Portugal loves open spaces and free pastures to roam. Ole Pauleta!
Ohno Who?
Hey Korea, whatever floats your boat, but nobody on the U.S. team, or in the
country, gives an ice chip about Ohno incident. And just what are the Koreans
use going to motivate them against Portugal? Did they get some bad olives on
their last European tour?
The U.S. were indeed fortunate to get a point — and fortunate that a clearly intimidated referee didn't award another penalty for playing defense. And under this kind of pressure I tip my hat to them — and to Freidel, their great GK. And what is Arena going to do with Jeff Agoos? Here is Goose's two-game summary: one own goal, one penalty kick called against him, and one goal scored by his man to give up the lead against Korea. I guess things can't get much worse, can they?
Decline of the Empire?
Is this the end of Empire? Europe and South America have dominated the World Cup since the first competition was held in 1930. Odds are that a team from one of those two continents will win the latest competition. But the last week has shown that the Big Two's dominance is on the wane. At USA ?94 four teams from outside the Europe-South America footballing axis made it through to the final 16 — a record. At France '98 only two "outside" teams made it. This year we could be looking at eight. Okay, so it probably won't end up being that many. My bet is 4 or maybe 5 will get through. Still, it shows that the power, while not shifting altogether, is being spread around a bit more. Just take a look at Group D. Portugal, who many (including me) tipped as an outside chance of going all the way this year, and Poland, the first European team to qualify for the tournament, are languishing in the bottom two places (irrespective of their encounter this afternoon). On top are USA and South Korea, both given only outside chances of making it beyond the group stage. Then there's Group A topped by Senegal with current champs France just holding on to position 3. Mexico tops group G, ahead of three-time winners Italy and last Cup's third place getters Croatia. And Japan top Group H ahead of Russia (who they beat) and Belgium (who they drew with). The critical tests will come this week. France, Portugal, Poland, Germany, Russia, Argentina, and Italy — past winners or teams tipped to do well in this Cup — are all teetering on the brink of elimination.
Some talking points:
Amandla, Ngawethu!
Amandla, ngawethu! (as we used to say in the old anti-apartheid struggle days — "the power is ours!") Bafana Bafana continued to confound expectations with an emphatic win over Slovenia on Saturday, South Africa's first ever at the World Cup finals. To be sure it was, at times, a characteristically seat-of-the-pants affair. Take Siyabonga Nomvete's winning goal, for example: He rose majestically to head home Quentin Fortune's cross, but our celebrations turned to nervous giggling when the replay showed he'd completely missed with his head and the ball had luckily cannoned in off his thigh. Inelegant, but decisive. And Fortune worked his magic on the left side of midfield for most of the 90 minutes, while Sibusiso Zuma showed flashes of brilliance on the right and my man Macbeth once again owned the middle of the park. Benni McCarthy created a couple of scoring chances he should have put away — like the great Liverpool striker Ian Rush, Benni can be quick and deadly on the deck, but don't expect him to head past the keeper. Suddenly, it's not inconceivable that we make it as far as an encounter with Germany in Round 2.
Talking points:
In Praise of Duds
The frequently-aired criticisms of soccer —and the primary explanation for
its failure to enter the big time of American Sports Biz — are the
low-scoring, and its frequency in producing what many pundits consider the
ultimate dud in sporting events: the tie game. But while that logic may be
true in the categorical-loving mindset of many in the U.S. (and even in
Europe), today's World Cup matches — and indeed, this entire first round of
Play — are proving that stand-offs not only create some of the most
impassioned play in this World Cup, but are also making the struggle to make
it into the elimination round a real cliff-hanger.
Both the USA-Korea and Tunisia-Belgium games were examples of draws — the scratching to preserve them, and furious scramble provoke them — making "micro" play as well as group competition far more interesting than the more final, definitive win/loss. Ditto, in many ways, the France-Uruguay tie, and Senegal's dramatic battle to equalize against Demark. In both groups, virtually anything remains possible (providing Group D's Portugal doesn't lose its current three goal lead of Poland. For the record: I told you all you Pauleta was a god). Costa Rica-Turkey, Germany-Ireland, and England-Sweden were all games whose tension was owed not so much due to a thirst to win, but rather the urgency to tie (or avoid that from happening). Not sure what previous Cups turn up, but by my count, there've been nine draws in the first 31 games (again, pending the Poland-Portugal encounter) — a 29 percent — rate that largely explains why the race for the elimination round is still wide open in most groups. Gimme more duds like this any day.
I know none of this is anything my football-savvy comrades here will not have already known and appreciated on their own, but I figured it was high time someone stand up and hail the excitement being produced by "les matchs nuls" (which in colloquial French means "lousy games", but which have been anything but). At this rate, we may well see the finalists being not teams who won the most games, but who lost the fewest thanks to ties.
The Happiest People in Japan
The four happiest people in Japan Sunday night?
INAMOTO'S AGENT. Junichi Inamoto, the pudgy-faced 22-year-old bottle-blonde bomber of Japan coolly smacked a goal high into the net from close range, six minutes into the second half Sunday night — the only score Japan would need to defeat a bigger, stronger Russian squad. Suddenly, with two goals in two games for Japan, Inamoto is a hot property again. He nearly vanished after warming the bench for the English Premier League's Arsenal team this past season. So invisible had Inamoto become that the English took to calling him "T-shirt" since his only real contribution to Arsenal appeared to be boosting sales of soccer jerseys. There was some poetic justice to Inamoto's triumph on Sunday; Arsenal manager Arsen Wenger was watching from the media section. Is Inamoto having such a fabulous World Cup simply because he is hungrier? "Yes, yes, say that, yes," the 180-meter tall midfielder said smiling after Sunday's game. "The Japanese fans haven't been able to see me play for a long time," he added, "so I am very happy they can see me perform so well now."
No one is happier about Inamoto's redemption than PHILIPPE TROUSSIER. The melodramatic, megalomaniac French manager put his career on the line when he took charge of Japan's team four years ago, after its feckless showing in France. Expectations were huge that Japan would make history and win a game in this World Cup, and qualify for second round, especially after the co-hosts (with South Korea) were placed into one of the weaker groups. Troussier was dancing on the sidelines after Sunday's victory, relieved, no doubt, that his charges had turned up the intensity volume and finally figured out how to score a goal. But the win, and Japan's tie last week against Belgium, also boost his bargaining position when he goes looking for his next job.
Job preservation probably wasn't far from the mind of JUNICHIRO KOIZUMI, either. The beleaguered Prime Minister nearly leaped from the rafters in Yokohama after Japan's victory. His popularity has sunk so low he is desperately hoping the soccer team's success will give him a residual boost. It doesn't hurt, either, that the victory came against Russia. Although the historical enmity isn't as well known to soccer fans as the animosity between Argentina and England, like the Falkland Islands that t divide those two rivals, there are islands — the Kuril Islands off the coast of Japan's northernmost Hokkaido prefecture — which both nations have claimed as theirs since the end of World War II.
So those are three happy people in Japan. The fourth? My TAXI DRIVER. Inexplicably, Japan Railways didn't run any late trains from Yokohama to Tokyo Sunday night. So hundreds of fans — and me — found locked gates at one of the main stations. Instead of taking the one-hour train trip home, I had to hop in a taxi. The driver grinned the whole way back to Tokyo, and was still smiling after I paid him the 8,820-yen fare (about $70). Who says the World Cup won't help the economy in Japan?
Azurri Blues
How is any self-respecting football expert expected to do his job is the best
teams in the world won't do theirs? You spend months tracking the form of
individual players, analyzing the performance of teams, watching qualifying
games, friendlies and practice sessions. You pore over all manner of
statistics, factor in heat and humidity, injuries and fatigue. Then, and only
then, do you stick your neck out and pick your likely semifinalists. But all
that research goes down the tubes when a team of players — highly trained, in
full command of their powers — decides that it is too damn good for the
opposition, and that victory is a foregone conclusion.
Hubris, humbler of France, Portugal and Argentina, completed the quartet of likely Final Four teams by handing the arrogant Italians an unexpected defeat at the hands of Croatia in Ibaraki. Okay, let's be fair: the Balkan boys raised themselves off the floor after a supine performance against Mexico, and came out swinging against the Azurri. The Croatians played with a verve and inventiveness and a sense of purpose reminiscent of their 1998 fairytale run to the semis. But in the end, it was the Italians who threw the game away.
It's almost as if they used the first half to practice for the letdown of the second. After an opening 20 minutes of near-total domination, during which Francisco Totti showed off the full range of his beguiling skills, the Italians inexplicably sat back and invited the Croatians to attack. This they did, taking 7 shots at goal, to just three by Italy. Buffon didn't have to make any spectacular saves, to be sure, but the Croatians were given time and space to find their range. This would come home to roost in the second half.
After some ear-bending from coach Trapattoni, the Italians came out of the break with a sense of determination: this paid off in quick time, with Doni setting up Vieri to head home in the 55th minute. But then, just as in the first period, the Italians pulled back and let the Croatians play. Big mistake.
Allowed the freedom of the midfield, Milan Rapaic, Davor Vugrinec and Robert Jarni began to call every shot; and up front, Alen Boksic and Niko Kovac began to find gaps in the fabled Azurri wall. It had to happen: in a two minute period halfway into the second period, sub Ivica Olic and the superb Rapaic scored.
The Italians never recovered from the shock of it all. Trapattoni brought on Pippo Inzaghi to try and unlock the red-and-white defense, but non even his subtle runs could bring Italy back from the brink. In the end, Totti and Co. were left ruing the two occasions when they had the ball in the net, just to be called off-side. But it was their own fault: they should never have put themselves in a situation when they needed an equalizer.
So Italy go into their final game needing to beat Mexico, who must be
expected to beat Ecuador along the way. The Ecuadorians then meet Croatia,
who should win comfortably. Should the Italians win, too, that would leave
three teams in the group with six points apiece, with goal difference
deciding which two go into the next round. But there I go, sticking my neck
out again.
Requiem for Les Bleus
All Bets Are Off!
England-Argentina: It's Anybody's Cup
France-Uruguay: Adieu, Les Bleus?
Team USA: Who Knew?
Ave, Korea!
England Sticks to a Sad Script
Europe vs. Africa