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South Korea Goes home

GasX

GasX

Lifer
The Koreans actually felt that their team's fluke performance at home at the last world cup was not due to horrific refereeing and home field advantage but rather due to the fact their countrymen are great players. The rude awakening I predicted before the cup came to fruition yesterday and Korea goes home without making the second round.


http://worldcup.reuters.com/france/news/usnL24568011.html

South Korea take credit after controversial exit
13:18, Sat 24 Jun 2006

By Alastair Himmer

HANOVER, June 24 (Reuters) - South Korea's World Cup dreams were shattered by a stingy Swiss defence and untimely French renaissance, while the luck that helped carry them to the semi-finals four years ago finally ran out.

Needing a victory over Switzerland to assure themselves of a place in the last 16, the Koreans were down 1-0 to an early Philippe Senderos header but looked poised to strike back in the second half.

Their hopes evaporated, however, when Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo overruled a linesman's flag and allow Alex Frei to score a decisive Swiss second.

The 2-0 loss in Hanover, coupled with a French win over Togo by the same score, sealed Korea's early exit.

"We were all looking forward to this World Cup so it's a shock to go out like this," playmaker Park Ji-sung told Reuters.

"We are all very sad but we lost 2-0 so I don't want to blame the referee."

Defender Lee Young-pyo could not hide his disappointment after the match.

"We all stopped when we saw the flag go up for offside," he said. "It was a very, very strange decision."

The team's run the 2002 semi-finals was not without controversy, with beaten opponents Portugal, Italy and Spain complaining bitterly about key decisions going the way of the co-hosts.

CORRECT DECISION

But South Korea coach Dick Advocaat grudgingly admitted referee Elizondo had been correct to allow Frei's goal to stand as the ball ricocheted off a defender before falling to the Swiss forward.

The Dutchman also insisted his team had nothing to be ashamed of and suggested that expectations in Korea had been raised unrealistically high after 2002.

"The impression is that we are unbeatable in Korea," he told reporters. "We are proud we won one game - and that was a first."

South Korea's 2-1 win over Togo in the opening group match was their first World Cup victory on foreign soil. They also held France to a creditable 1-1 draw in their second game.

Sharper finishing against the Swiss, the only team at the World Cup yet to conceded a goal, could have taken the Koreans into the second round.

"That's why we are all so sad about this result," said Park. "It's shocking."

As hundreds of thousands of "Red Devil" fans sat sobbing on the streets of Seoul at sunrise, their idols trudged past reporters shortly before midnight in Hanover, shoulders slumped and visibly distressed.

Coach Advocaat was in no mood to discuss his next move.

"I am too upset to think about my own future," he shrugged.

"I will take a few days and make a decision then."
 
Apparently, the Koreans have never heard about the "play until the whistle blows" rule.

http://worldcup.reuters.com/france/news/usnT73996.html

Beaten South Korea upset with match officials
13:18, Sat 24 Jun 2006

By Alastair Himmer

HANOVER, June 23 (Reuters) - South Korea vented their frustration at the match officials after a 2-0 defeat by Switzerland on Friday eliminated them from the World Cup.

The Korean players were furious at Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo for allowing Alexander Frei's 77th-minute second goal for the Swiss after his linesman had flagged for offside.

Elizondo overruled his assistant after spotting that the ball had come off the outstretched leg of a South Korea defender but that cut little ice with the losers.

"The defenders saw the linesman had raised his flag so we stopped playing," playmaker Park Ji-sung told Reuters. "But the referee continued play.

"I asked the linesman why he put his flag up but he just answered (me) that I should carry on. He did nothing. I'm very upset about the situation."

Defender Philippe Senderos had given Switzerland the lead in the 23rd minute.

South Korea reached the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup when beaten opponents Italy and Spain complained bitterly that the officiating favoured the co-hosts.

ANGRY PLAYERS

On Friday, Korean players remonstrated angrily with Elizondo after Frei's controversial second goal effectively killed off any hope they had of reaching the last 16.

"I thought the referee was very quick to change the decision," said South Korea coach Dick Advocaat, whose side finished third in Group G with four points.

"Maybe I was too chauvanistic about it. People told me it wasn't offside."

The Dutchman also claimed Korea should have had a penalty when defender Patrick Mueller handled in the area in the first half.

"I thought it was a clear penalty," shrugged Advocaat. "I thought most of the decisions went against us today. We deserved more than nothing today but in the end Switzerland deserved to win."

South Korea's players slumped to the turf in tears at the final whistle as they heard that France's 2-0 win over Togo had sealed their fate.

"We're very shocked because we really wanted to get to the second round," said Park, instrumental in the 2-1 win over Togo and 1-1 draw with France in their first two games.

"We couldn't quite get the results we needed. It's shocking for us."
 
I'm not sure which is more pitiful, your nonsensical spite for others, or the fact that you feel some sort of vindication for predicting things that have about zero importance.
 
I noticed a lot of your posts are negative towards Koreans (especially about soccer), why do you have this attitude towards them?
 
The koreans got robbed by the ref. It should have been an offside call! But then again it wouldn't have mattered anyway since Korea didn't score any points. The score would probably have been 1 to 0 anyway.
 
There was a handball that a Swiss Player did in the box, the announcer said it should've been a penalty kick for Korea. Sometimes you get the calls, sometimes you don't.
 
USA got screwed too in the Italy game (red cards for some small things) & a penalty shot for Ghana. The refs have been pretty bad the past few games.
 
There were bad calls all around and plenty of brilliant "performances" for the refs' benefit. The non-calls in the S. Korea-Switzerland matchup was just one of many. Just off the top of my head:

1. The penalty kick awarded to the Ukraine team, where replays clearly showed the Tunisian defender had nothing to do with the Ukrainian players fall (Ukraine scored on the PK and won 1-0 in that one, also qualified for the next round because of the win).
2. The penalty kick awarded to Ghana against the US team where the Ghana player put a great act for the benefit of the ref, who bought in.

There were plenty more examples of bad officiating, but ultimately, you have to get over it and do what you need to do to win. I've heard some suggest that some sort of replay system would benefit the World Cup (especially considering the tournament is only played every four years and so much national pride is at stake around the world)?

EDIT: BTW, I don't think the South Korean fans were any more deluded than any other country's fans. Personally, I thought US fans were deluded in thinking that we had a strong team this year. I'm sure plenty of other countries' fans overestimate the quality of their world cup teams. That's what fans are - short for fanatic. 😛
 
Originally posted by: TallBill
If you have pride in your country based on a soccer match, you are a fvcktard.
Click to expand...
Perhaps true, but I'm not sure everyone else around the world would necessarily agree with you. 😛 I'd say it's analagous to tracking medal counts at the Olympics. Here in the US, not many care much about soccer, so our team being bounced out in the first round means little to the nation as a whole. But ask a Yankee fan on how it felt to lose a playoff series to the Red Sox two years ago, and you'll get the kind of passion that international soccer fans shower on their national teams. 🙂
 
Even giving them the benefit of the doubt, whch they don't deserve, they still would have lost 1-0.

S Korea is too strong a country to pout about stuff like this, or the skating thing a few years ago.

Congratulate the winners, and come back stronger next time.

 
The linesmen made two wrong decisions in the game but the ref corrected both of them - he was okay.

The second goal was no ofside, you can clearly see how a Korean player touches the ball before it rolls to the Swiss goalgetter (0:31 in this clip). Consider it an "incomplete own goal"...

Muellers arm did touch the ball but this wasn't a handgame because it wasn't intentional. Also, it didn't influence the game since he had the arm close at the belly anyway. (I couldn't find better footage than here, at the beginning).

Sorry, but look at the Croatia - Australia game if you want an example of bad refs.

That's the world cup, half of the teams get bootet out after just three games. Korea performed good but not good enough in the group stage. Emotions can go high during the game but shortly afterwards even the Korean Coach Advocaat got his countenance back and the Korean players weren't bitter about the ref, nor were they overly whiney... Some of them even changed tricots with the Swiss or had a short chat with Swiss players (those who knew each other from their time at PSV Eindhoven).

That's soccer... 🙂
 
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