my mate, gyoung-dong, in a pensive moment as the game progresses and things look bleak for the good guys

one of the things i love most about watching these big matches is that there is usually such an international flavor at our table: koreans, americans, english, scottish, kiwis, and australians.

you saw my australian buddy, ben, above as he held court with the beverages and glassware, but this is my good mate, gyoung-dong. we're good friends, of course, just on general merit, but there are those--our wives, our friends, my/his banker, his/my liver specialist--who suggest that our friendship goes much deeper: you see, gyoung-dong works for doosan distilleries, fine purveyors of the best soju in korea, san soju. and i, on the other hand, drink for doosan distilleries. our first meeting only made it out of its initial stages when we realized that i went far and wide to buy and drink only the soju for which he travels far and wide to sell and drink.

this story would end here were it not for this tiny tidbit that will be of interest to the gambling-minded of you: just before the match started, gyoung-dong had placed a bet on this game with the national lottery. his bet was the following--a score of 0-0 at halftime with a fulltime score of 1-1.

as you know, from earlier pictures, it was 0-0 at halftime and then an uzbek score made it 0-1.

when this picture of gyoung-dong was taken, it was still 0-1, uzbek, with about 15 minutes to play. now, we had an additional reason to cheer for a last-ditch korean goal: gyoung-dong was buying if the game ended 1-1.