non-linear world cup thoughts

well, despite what most people here in korea think, there is still football being played; since it’s called the world cup, and there are still 16 nations represented in the tournament, FIFA voted not to discontinue the world cup when korea crashed out early yesterday, although it would surely be understandable if they had, given that their web site was crashed by a bloodthirsty horde of idiotic korean netijens–and is still unable to be accessed from korea–and that one of the swiss embassies is apparently a target of a bomb plot.

yep, many koreans have lost the plot on how to handle being served an early exit home. funny, eight years ago, koreans would have been dancing in the streets at having secured four points at a world cup played on european soil. now, because the expectations in this country of so many “expert” football fans, “expert” football analysts, and the finest football organisation in the entire universe–the korean football association (!)–four points garnered by a team not nearly as good as the one in ‘02 is reason enough to find scapegoat after scapegoat for their having not progressed, instead of looking collectively into a mirror for the real guilty party.

now, before the rage hits the fan too hard regarding my comments about korea’s not being as good in ‘06 as they were in ‘02, allow me to articulate just a moment my reasoning: defense.

in the six meaningful matches korea played in ‘02 (and i’m not counting the third place fixture with turkey because it was meaningless and i try not to remember those worthless third-place matches), the stout korean defense, backed woon-jae lee in goal, gave up a grand total of three goals (one apiece to the u.s., italy, and germany). that’s it–three goals.

the defense in ‘02 was hard-tackling, fit, obstinate, and made, in general, life miserable for opposing strikers. this defense contained jin-cheul choi, tae-young (spiderman) kim, nam-il kim, and sang-chul yoo and was duly complimented by midfielders sun-hong hwang and (captain) myung-bo hong, who both were influential in both directing the midfield and helping the defense make life hard for opponents.

how good this defense was and how it was ultimately responsible for korea’s run to the semifinals was and still is lost on the majority of the korean public because so many koreans aren’t as knowledgeable about football as they think they are. instead, everyone wants to point at jung-hwan ahn’s hair for the dramatic, chun-soo lee’s hairstyle and putrid dye jobs, guus hiddink’s antics, and whatever else was flashy enough to capture the public’s attention.

this cup’s edition didn’t have the defense of the ‘02 edition and it cost them. in three games, they gave up the only goal a three-loss team would score in the tournament (togo), a goal to a team that hadn’t scored in more than 370 minutes of world cup fixtures this century (france), and a total of four goals in all. so, let me refresh that for you: the ‘06 squad played half as many meaningful games as the ‘02 squad, yet gave up one more goal than did the ‘02 edition.

this, ladies and gentlemen, is why korea didn’t advance to the round of 16 and why they didn’t deserve to advance. no refereeing conspiracies, no pro-round-eye coalitions, no anti-orientalism collusions, no exclusionary scams. just crap defending–and some poor finishing.

lower those expectations, shore up that porous defense, qualify for south africa 2010, and we’ll see you there and see how it goes then.

now, for the first two matches of the round of 16, germany v. sweden and argentina v. mexico:

roared on by its home fans (just as the nations of the last two world cups were), the germans brutalised the swedes. a stunning two-goal lead after 12 minutes put the scandinavians in a huge hole out of which they couldn’t quite climb. thrown in the expulsion of teddy lucic in the 35th minute for two bookable offenses and it was not meant to be. factor in germany’s brilliant michael ballack and the swedes were boiled. mix in a some wasted chances by the swedes and add a little henrik larsson penalty miss in the 53rd minute and it all made for cooked scandinavia, which is a shame because some of us guys–and perhaps some of you ladies, as well–are going to miss the blonde-and-tan eye candy so prevalent in the stands when the swedes play. rolling germany 2-0 sweden.

and, in the quarterfinals, the hosts will meet… argentina, winner over mexico in a classic of match that featured a goal of such quality that you may watch football for a decade of sundays and still not see a goal of higher class.

not many rated the mexicans’ chances against perhaps the current tournament co-favourites (along with germany), including yours truly–though sporting a green mexican strip to pass on some karma–but mexico introduced themselves to the match with a very early goal, in the 6th minute, by captain rafael marquez. however, it didn’t last particularly long, as four minutes later, from an argentine corner kick, mexico’s jared borghetti, battling very hard with argentina’s hernan crespo, inadvertently headed the ball into his own net. i know that the box scores with today’s match report give credit to crespo for the goal, but if you watched the play, you’ll see that borghetti got his head on the ball in front of crespo’s foot.

the rest of regular time saw no more goals (though a lionel messi effort did see the back of the next late to give the argentines the apparent win in regular time, only for the linesman to rule, incorrectly, that messi was offside), but plenty of high-class football from both teams–and a top-drawer atmosphere in the stands from two of the most passionate sets of supporters in international football.

though a major error denied argentina a win in regular time, everyone watching a match of the highest quality deserved to have an extra thirty minutes and the rewards were just when the classy winning goal arrived eight minutes into extra time.

argentina’s maxi rodriguez took a pinpoint cross onto his chest at the upper right corner of the box, volleyed it, and sent an insane left-foot laser into the upper left corner of the net. world cup matches no longer have “golden goals”, but this would surely would have been the most golden of golden goals. as it was, twenty-two minutes remained, but no more goals would be scored and the argentinians would sqeak out a 2-1 victory.

thus, quarterfinal 1 is a tasty match of three-time winner germany v. two-time winner argentina. i, personally, think it’s too bad that these two have to face one another so early, but, nonetheless, it’s as good a quarterfinal as we could ask for.