Ruminations in Korea

Late last night I was reading Korean news. Story after story after story was about the World Cup and how Korea was unfairly ousted from the tournament because of a perceived bad call by a referee. The more I read about alleged errors, conspiracies, charges of bribery, etc., something inside of me snapped and the words began to flow, and within minutes I had the first and ony draft of the “Referee Blues”.

While this is certainly no comparison to the “F***ing USA” song that some Koreans produced following an incident of perceived injustice and incorrect officiating during the 2002 Olympics, it is my own little tribute to the 2006 World Cup.

To listen, PLEASE, for the sake of bandwidth, right click on the following link or picture, select “save target as” and save the file to your hard drive before listening.

Click here to listen:

Lyrics:

Hey there, referee. How can it be
You penalize Team Korea
No one else gets penalties?
That bad man. That cruel referee.

The Koreans told the referee
Please call the Swiss offsides.
We need this offsides badly.
‘Cuz we waited all our lives.
That bad man. That cruel referee.

What care I ’bout you babies
or the training all your life?
You and your coach Advocaat
Can’t seem to place blame right.
That bad man. That cruel referee.

Dae Han Min Gook
What that offsides flag for?
I didn’t hear no whistle blowing,
But the Koreans don’t play no more.
That bad man. That cruel referee.

Netizens all in a fury.
What you think about that?
We got 40,000,000 people
who want a piece of you.
That bad man. That cruel referee.

He stood there on the sideline
His head held way up high.
The Koreans all want to kill him.
They’d be glad to see him die.
That bad man. That cruel referee.

UPDATE: Thoughts of a Goat provides a You Tube link that proves CONCLUSIVELY that it was NOT an offsides situation. It is clear from the video that, as stated in some of the comments below, that the pass was NOT to Frei. The Swiss player initiated the pass to another teammate, at which time Frei was not offsides. The Korean player intercepted pass and deflected the ball back toward his own goal. Frei advanced toward the Korean goal at the time the Korean intercepted the ball. Frei then, apparently unprepared to be in a position to get the ball, seemingly a bit and disoriented and unsure exactly where the net was made a shot toward the goal that went into the net. Meanwhile ALL the Koreans reacted to the flag and stopped playing. You NEVER stop playing until the whistle is blown. I learned that when I was 8 years old. Koreans who are still up in arms about the clearly correct call need to stop embarassing themselves and their nation.

One thing that has always amuses me about the world of sports is the way that fans and athletes remain silent when the referees make a mistake in their favor, but they will go absolutely out of their mind with rage if the referres make a mistake that goes against their team. While I am amused by this sort of behavior in general, it is downright hilarious here in Korea.

Korea has been on the receiving end of so many officiating errors, oversights, and other mistakes. However, the ref in the World Cup game between the Swiss and the Koreans makes a mistake THAT HAS ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECT ON KOREANS ADVANCEMENT TO THE NEXT ROUND and people are out for blood.

Here is what happened:

Becasue of the way the point system worked out, Korea had to WIN its match against Switzerland. If Korean lost, they went home. If Korea tied, they went home. It was a MUST WIN situation for Korea.

As the Chosun Ilbo so correctly points out:

Right before the end of the game, Korea had several chances of scoring — a free kick from Lee Chun-soo, Park Chu-young’s left foot shot and Lee Chun-soo’s turning shot — but none of them went in. Kim Jin-kyu had another shot in front of the goalmouth in the 38th minute of the second half, but it bounced back after hitting the post, and Ahn Jung-hwan’s last shot also failed to score. That inability to convert opportunities cost Korea the match.

There we have a list of several chances for winning the game. Several missed opportunities to advance to the next round. But do Koreans hold their team responsible for the loss? Of course not! That would be absurd! They blame the referee.

It is, of course a traumatic experience.

“The moment the referee acknowledged it as a goal, I cried utterly because it was too unfair. He just turned a deaf ear to our claim,” said Kim So-yun, 17, still on the verge of tears.

What was too unfair? According to everyone in Korea (and, after all, who else is entitled to an opinion?), a Swiss player was offsides during a shot on goal, the ball was being passed to the offsides player. However, during the pass, a Korean player touched the ball. Then the Swiss player who was original offsides kicked the ball into the net for a goal. The sideline referee raised the offsides flag, but did no whistle was blown. The head referee waved off the offsides flag. For SOME COMPLETELY INEXPLICABLE REASON, the Korean team stopped playing as soon as the flag when up. They didn’t wait for the whistle. Korean announcers screamed that it made no sense, all of Korea was up in arms screaming in apartment buildings and on the streets and about the evil, incompetent referee who made a mistake. BUT…..

We see that it is ACTUALLY the KOREAN team that made the mistake:

The ball did last touch off a Korean defender before Frei got on it. Unfortunately, most referees will see that and will not call offside since the laws state that if the defender last plays the ball, that would nullify offsides. Instead of playing the until the whistle, the Koreans played until the flag went up.

In other words, if the Swiss had passed the ball to the offsides player without the Korean touching ball, then it would have been offsides and the goal would have been disallowed. However, what essentially happened is the Swiss player TRIED to pass the ball to the offsides player, but the pass was technically intercepted the instant the Korean defender touched the ball. Thus, the offsides call was nullified. The referee was exactly correct. There was NO error.

Look at the above quote again. Beautiful…. UNFORTUNATELY, most referees will follow the rules. Nice quote. It sums up a lot of things quite nicely:

1. The average Korea is completely clueless about the technical rules of the game.
2. The average Korea doesn’t care about the rules and just expects to win at all costs.
3. If Korea loses, then it must be someone else’s fault.
4. Koreans don’t stop to consider that that one call (ultimately correct) did not affect their standing in the World Cup finals in any way, shape or form.
5. It is unfortunate when referees follow the rules if it means a call against Korea.

So. What has Korea done since “the call?” Have they studied the rules and realized that it was their OWN TEAM’S FAULT for touching the ball during the offsides pass? NO. Have they considered that even if that goal was disallowed, THEY STILL LOSE 1-0? NO. Have they stopped to consider that even if BOTH goals were disallowed and it was a tie, then they STILL would not move on to the next round? NO.

What have they done? They have started a petition for a rematch. They have crashed the FIFA website. They have threatened online to take knives and kill all Swiss supporters. They have theatened to kill the Swiss team if they ever come to Korea. They have accused the Swiss of bribing the referee and accused the referee of accepting the bribe. They have done all manner of stupid, childish,and reprehensible things, including THREATENING TO BLOW UP THE SWISS EMBASSY. Some actions are more childish than others (hat tip to Lost Nomad).

To put all of this in perspective, back in 2002, when Korean was playing Spain and the Spanish team had TWO goals improperly disallowed and an improper out of bound call, Koreans didn’t say anything… hmmm… strange.
Again. There was nothing wrong with the call, but even if there was, Korean still lost and does not advance. Even if the goal was disallowed, the would still have lost 1-0 and not advanced. Even if BOTH goals were disallowed for some reason, Korea would have tied 0-0 and not advanced. Korea failed to score a single goal. THAT is why the lost. Under even the best reasonable circumstances where the second Swiss goal was disallowed, Korea would have still have had to score TWO goals to win…they scored NONE!! Quit your stupid, ignorant, childish whining and embarassing behavior. Korea is DONE. It’s over. Shut up already.

Lee Chun-Soo gently cradles a heartbroken, weeping Ahn Jung-Hwan

To quote from The Rocky Horror Picture Show:

On the day I went away
Goodbye was all I had to say
Now I want to come again and stay
Smile and that will mean I may
‘Cause I’ve see blue skies
Through the tears in my eyes
And I realize I’m going home
I’m going home….

Four years ago, I was in Hong Kong on a business trip during the World Cup. As I was sitting in my hotel room reading the South China Morning Post newspaper on 15 June 2002, I came across this page:

After realizing that there were words on the page, I read what turned out to be my favorite news story of the 2002 World Cup:

Thus, while some people in South Korea are concerned that the excitment of football is causing Koreans to forget the anniversary of the death of two middle school girls who were run over and killed by an armored US military vehicle on 13 June 2002, the nation remained noticeably silent today on the 4th anniversary of the brave, heroic young man who gave his life to “be a ghost and the 12th man” on the field (pitch) and lead the Koreans to victory against the other teams.

It saddens me that Koreans would so easily forget the ghost who invisibly cheated for team Korea by being an extra man/entity on the pitch. How soon we forget the ghost player — the “Red Devil in the next life” — who secretly and invisibly did all he could to cheat for Korea from beyond they veil to help Korean reach not only the group of eight, which President Kim Dae Jung described as being the greatest accomplishment in Korea’s 5,000 year history, but to go all the way to the final four round.

I think a moment of silence is in order, perhaps even a candlelight vigil to remember “Suicide Man”, the ghost player.

In the final hours before the start of the 2006 World Cup, Soccer (aka Football) Fever is taking hold at my office.  Here are a few of the World Cup - related insights shared during lunch today by some of my office workers:

1. Ghana beat Korea because Africans are taller.
2. Brazil would have a difficult time beating Korea.
3. America got a lucky break because they have an easy group.
4. Korea will either win or be #2 overall.
5. The secret to being a good soccer team is eating pork…Brazil, Germany, Korea are all great soccer teams and they eat pork.  Turkey and other Muslim countries don’t eat pork, and they are not good at soccer.  The connection is obvious.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!

For a Westerner, Korea is a land of differences.  In many respects, Korean culture and most western cultures are 180 degree opposites.

While I freely and often criticize Korean politics, behaviors, and other aspects of society that I find unacceptable anywhere and anytime, I have always made it a personal policy to try to never criticize Korean culture.  Culture issues are at the heart of any nation or people’s existence and, in my opinion, are off limits to critcism by outsiders.  Often the line is vague, and often society and culture overlap. 

Although I try not to be negative about Korean culture, I often find amusement in Korean culture.  I find amusement in things that are so completely different from my American culture that I cannot easily comprehend them or wrap my mind around them.  One thing that has always intrigued and amused me is what I call “leisure uniforms.”

Anyone who has been in Korea for any length of time has noticed “leisure uniforms.”  It is almost an unwritten cultural law that anyone engaging in a particular leisure activity must wear a particular uniform.  For example, Koreans who enjoy walks in the hills or mountains will wear the “mountaineer uniform”, which consists of a multi-pocketed vest (ususally red), very large backpack stuffed full of something or other, a tin cup hanging off the packpack, a floppy hat (men) or big sunvisor (women), gloves, chino-style hiking pants, knee-high thick woolen argyle socks (even in August), giant high-top leather hiking boots, and large metal ice-pick/walking-stick.

Korean biking culture is no different. It also has its uniforms.  Being a biker in America is the ultimate form of individuality and self-expression.  Each bike is unique, and each rider is unique in his physical appearance, dress, style, and attitude.  Although many may wear the same motorcycle club patch, each rider is a distinct individual.  In Korea, there are basically four types of “biker uniform” that are most frequently seen. They are the “regular uniform,” the “policeman uniform,” the “HOG uniform,” and the “freak uniform.”  Like American bikers, Korean bikers are individuals outside of societal norms.  However, in contrast to American bikers, who are separate from society and different from one another, Korean bikers tend to be separate from society and different in exactly the same way.

The “regular uniform” which is nearly universal for the under 45-years old crowd, consists of a half-helmet, eye cover (usually sunglasses), a bandana or other face cover pulled up to directly below the glasses, leather clothes, and boots.  They look something like this: (Read on …)