Monday, June 28, 2010

World Cup 2010 - Thanks for a happy June

My desktop wallpaper of June, courtesy of Naver

So we're out. We made it to top 16, but Uruguay, or should I say Luis Suarez, made us bid farewell to World Cup 2010. Such a disappointment. Not only for the team, but for the whole nation that was in absolute festival mood.

Of course the tournament lasts till July, but the other team in red that I was rooting for, England, got trashed by Germany (with probably one of the most controversial judgement mishaps in World Cup history), so my interest is running thin.

June was bliss, though. I realized how important looking forward to things are, whatever the consequences might be. Hoping for things, dreaming for things.
And obviously I wasn't the only one who felt this; the whole nation was in an economical, political and social rut, needing something, anything to uplift our spirits so the World Cup was just what we needed.

Korean portal site Naver, updated their main page logo banner almost every single day according to the dreams and hopes we had, ending with poignant thanks to the Taeguk Warriors and the memories they have given us. (We Koreans are a sappy, sentimental bunch.)

Naver wasn't the only one playing around with logos:

This month for us, love was indeed football.

How many hardcore fans actually wore red underwear, I wonder?

Almost everyone had the red t-shirt, of course.

Or other paraphenalia.

Many rewatched highlight scenes on touch screen media poles in metro stations,


or participated in an event endorsed by a celebrity. (Yoo Jae Seok in this one.)
I know I'm not the only one who drooled over our footballers on storefronts.

It's quite likely that shop and building owners were most lenient about graffiti this month.


Some fans went to the max, creating mindboggling works of cute. Like the husband and wife duo "Ramble couple" who made a World Cup themed lunchbox. The rest of the photos (and other recipes) are on their blog: http://blog.naver.com/autolian



I wonder if they took down the special "rooting zones" set up by big corporate sponsors like SK Telecom, now that we're not in it anymore.

"Once again, Dae~ Han Min Guk!" T-stadium in Myeongdong.
Completely red building, big screen display.

The steel frame structure was covered in red by shiny discs linked together, with cheering messages written by fans.

I wrote one, too. "Always rooting for you!"

Panorama clip:

Going home after the final game. Almost two in the morning. The city of Seoul ran their public transportation system several hours longer than usual (it was a Saturday) to accomodate the fans who were cheering in public places. This is Samseong station, line 2.

I had to change to a bus after the subway. It was drizzling. A young couple was desperately trying to catch a taxi; they were halfway out in the deserted street. Had we won, I don't think they would have looked so forlorn.

Don't want to end on a sad note, cause "we had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun!" - that sort of thing. We're still damn proud of our players and their efforts; we have supported them, support them, will support them no matter what. (If you have been in Korea during a World Cup year you know that's not hyperbole.)


Last World Cup related photo will be red devil masks of my favorite cutie Lee Chung Yong and the brilliant Park Ji Sung.

And so life goes on.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahhh such a shame your country didn't get futher! I was rooting for Korea! Wow you were supporting england? ^^ this makes me happy as it is my country lol. It seems like Korea really got into the football mood! It seems like fun there!!

Anonymous said...

i just have to say that i love reading your blog! i just recently found it on google and i hope you won't stop blogging!! :D

Suzy in Seoul said...

1)England has such good players, too bad things didn't work out. And you should definitely visit during a World Cup year, the atmosphere is very festive. ^_^

2)Thank you~ I hope I can keep this up, too. :)