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(June 18, 10am)
South Koreans really thought they could beat Italy. Imagine! Somebody forgot to tell to them that soccer giants like Italy roll over soccer squirts like South Korea. Somebody forgot to tell them, okay, you beat Portugal somehow but now your luck has run out. Somebody forgot to tell them the soccer world was going back to normal but in this most extraordinary of World Cups, maybe it isn't. Guess what — I can't believe I'm writing this — Korea just beat Italy. Two goals to one. South Korea, which had never won as much as a match in five previous World Cups, just beat Italy, a three-time World Cup winner.
Upsets don't get much bigger than that. South Korea is going into the quarter-finals against Spain. And you can bet the Spanish aren't laughing. When Ahn Jung Hwan, who had missed a crucial penalty early in the game, redeemed himself by heading in that incredible golden goal at 117 minutes, the entire country exploded in delirious rapture, people crying, cheering wildly, some literally speechless. The revelry went on into the wee hours.
The victory was extra sweet for South Korea. Knocked out earlier in the day by Turkey, rival Japan didn't advance to the quarter finals. That will put a little bounce into the step of Koreans everywhere — World Cup co-host Japan was also once Korea's colonial master. But there is another reason Koreans relish this victory. Many remember that communist North Korea beat Italy 1-0 in 1966 to get to the quarter finals. Korean television replayed highlights of that match after today's game. Now, as one South Korean put it: "We beat them again."
Korea Wins, and So Does Football
Awesome. Just finished witnessing one of the greatest upsets in history. And the way it happened. Magnificent. I said that anything could happen. And it did. Italy played Italian football — that is defensive, boring, basing everything on the magic of Totti and Vieri, and the rest running from one side to the other with no intention of passing the midfield with conviction. Korea left their guts there, but they also played well, with calm, opening the ball to the wings. They did not rush and they obtained their deserved prize. Football won, stone handling lost. I am happy. And Spain better get ready if they don't want to be utterly embarrassed against Korea. For all I have to say about Italy, at least in overtime they tried to win, even with 10 players. It seemed they were playing at full force. When Spain played with 10 against Ireland it looked like they were playing with 9. It was embarrassing. If they come out with the same attitude against Spain, Korea will win. Period. What a great night.
Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
And a heartfelt congratulations to Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni for once
again extracting defeat from the jaws of victory. This old man doesn't get
it. He takes out Del Piero in the 60th minute to switch to that vaunted
'catenaccio' of the 1970s. All Del Piero is doing is sweeping down the left
wing with half the Korean defense after him, creating huge gaps for Vieri to
run through. Instead, he brings in Gattuso to do — just what exactly was
Gattuso doing? Didn't Trap watch the Koreans swarm the U.S. and Poland?
Didn't he watch a 9-man Portugal nearly pull out a miracle by going at them?
The arrogance of this man — he should resign for the good of football.
And so, brave Korea, on to Spain, a team which had better learn the lesson of their match with Ireland. Once again, the Europeans are the class team. Once again, if they don't attack, and keep attacking, they too will be put to the sword.
Football Democratized: The End of Entitlement
World Cup 2002 has been nothing short of a football revolution, as the game's aristocrats have followed one another out to the guillotine for unceremonious beheadings by those traditionally deemed their inferiors. Italy, Argentina, France and Portugal came to Asia pretty much assuming that they'd make at least the quarter-finals, after a few warm-up games against the colorful peasantry. And they're all going home, leaving an unprecedented four Cinderella teams in the last eight. Given that two of those, Senegal and Turkey, face each other, at least one will make the final four — and frankly, I wouldn't bet against Korea upsetting Spain, too, given how badly the Irish rattled the rather too aristocratic Spaniards last weekend.
The current tournament's long-term impact on the international game will be profound. The string of upsets in Korea and Japan — which has grown so long that the term 'upset' may have to be retired, because at least half the time, traditionally fancied teams have failed to best the arrivistes — highlights two contingent truths. The first is that the gap between football powers and minnows has narrowed considerably, and there are now very few 'easy' games at World Cup level. Ask Italy. Or France. Or Portugal. Even Germany struggled against both Ireland and Cameroon. By 2006, every group will potentially be a "Group of Death." The second lesson from Korea-Italy, Senegal-Sweden and Spain-Ireland is that one goal is never a safe margin, and teams that play the traditional Italian away-game of defending a one-goal lead are the architects of their own doom. Fitting that the Italians should be the victims of the demise of that game.
Revolution? No, Just a few Upsets
Bah. Winning is winning is winning, and I certainly don't contest that Korea did just that. Nor do I deny it was particularly satisfying to see the exasperating Squadra (and their equally irritating tifosi) silenced by the never-say-die hosts. But I'd advise against any dramatic declarations of universal equality, new footballistic world orders, or forever changed sporting realities. The amazing falls of faves, and just as spectacular successes of outsiders, has made this Cup exciting and unpredictable. But it can't revolutionize the realities of the game — or dismal Adam Smith refereeing of it in most parts of the world.
As Korea is promising — and indeed, in many ways France showed in 1998 — a healthy, rested, motivated, unified, and psychologically studly unit can get on a roll, stay on a roll, and reverse bad bounces that threaten that roll over the duration of a seven-game tournament. A good team needs to win three of those handily, can lose or draw one, and be both good and lucky in taking the three others (with perhaps the will-generated miracle along the way for good measure). That mix can get a side a long way in a limited competition. A great footballing nation needs to produce contending teams year in and out, and prove capable of not only winning (or continually contending for) international titles over the longer haul, but also turn out individual players who will draw top dollar from pro clubs at home and abroad. African nations are beginning to do that. Asia and the US — Turkey, for that matter — still have quite a way to go to that end — their success (and who knows, perhaps victory) if this Cup notwithstanding. I'm not saying these budding nations won't get there — but I am saying I'm not going to make them dotcom billionaires of football on the weight of one, seven-game campaign. Let's see how long these start-ups flourish over the longer-haul.
This Cup may be the Cup of all upsets. Hell, we may even see an almost exclusively underdog final four. Announcing the end of the football world as we knew it is getting considerably ahead of ourselves, if not voluntarily giddy. If memory serves, of the eight teams that made it to the 1/4 finals in 1998, only one — Brazil — has gotten that far this time around. Of the 16 teams in this year's elimination round, six — Brazil, Germany, England, Italy, Mexico and Denmark — were present in 1998. Point being, "stuff" happens, things change, but while winners in 90 minutes become champions over "seven 90 minutes," they only become forces to be reckoned with over a much longer period of time.
I agree that this is not yet the dawn of a new football era. I am thrilled that Korea left the Azzuri out in the blue. It's also very interesting that Senegal or Turkey will be in the semis, but Bulgaria was also in the semis in US '94 and Croatia in '98, if we are talking about "surprise" teams. Almost every Cup there is a Cinderella story. In this Cup we have two or three. Fantastic, but that is due as much to the game displayed by those teams as it is to the luck of the draw in some cases (Argentina and England and Sweden in the same group, for example). I think the fact that the Cup is being played in Asia, outside the Euro center of influence, has something to do with the revolution of the (up to now) invisible. Certainly, Korea (and Japan) have played a great tourney, but I doubt they would be able to duplicate it in Europe. Not yet. The "home effect" is huge in football (and not just for refereeing purposes). As much as the Italians are used to playing in front of hostile crowds, it must have been mentally challenging for them to have to confront Korea — which, by the way, were physically superior at the end, despite having played constantly on the offensive, surrounded by a roaring, tireless, sea of red.
And Spain has to watch out. I am afraid, though, that Mr. Camacho is already thinking of the excuse list he is going to put out in the press room, after Kwangju's game.