JEDDAH, 19 June — South Korea’s shock victory over favorites Italy to enter the World Cup quarterfinals yesterday rekindled the hope of Asian, Arab and the African fans across the Kingdom that European and Latin American supremacy in football will eventually be broken.
The victory led to frenzied celebrations all over the country. It was more like all other nations pitched against Italy.
Korean expatriates were overjoyed and felt elated that their team could knock out the three-time champions.
“This exemplifies that the Asian power is on the rise and is able to challenge the European supremacy in international soccer,” Sunny Jung, a Korean housewife and an avid football watcher staying at Sharbatly Village in Jeddah, said.
“This also shows our team are advancing in their technique and performance from game to game. This also proves that aside from physical fitness, on which our Dutch coach had been emphasizing, there is also a need for a good game plan, technique and skills for winning a match, however tough the opponents are,” she said, adding: “The day’s result is not surprising at all for me since I always believed that we’ll have easy passage up to the semifinals.”
Daljae Kim, Korean general manager of Samsung Electronics in Jeddah, said he was surprised over the outcome although the Korean team had been playing well.
“We played well against the USA, Holland and Portugal in the first round, but winning against Italy, known to be a giant and a contender for the title was really astounding. The match was evenly balanced as both played with skills. However, after the 1-1 score at full-time, the South Koreans played better in the extra time when Ahn Jung-hwan headed a golden goal to put the co-hosts into the quarterfinals of the tournament against 10-man Italy. Nevertheless, the day’s match showed that South Koreans are not merely the king of Asia in soccer but can be counted among the few top teams in the world. Now that we’ve defeated Portugal and Italy, both Europeans, we’re hopeful of defeating Spain in the next game.”
Dr. Renato Katania, press officer at the Italian Consulate in Jeddah, said: “I’m told that my country lost but I attribute it largely to bad refereeing”.
In Riyadh, Junya Matsura, first secretary at the Japanese Embassy, said that although Japan suffered a 1-0 defeat against Turkey, they nevertheless put up a strong fight. Of course, I’m disappointed. But then that’s the way it is: the stronger team won.”
Japan came the closest to an equalizer when their Brazilian-born midfielder Alex sent a free kick from the edge of the penalty area crashing against the crossbar just before half-time.
Matsura said that for his country to reach this far in the World Cup series was still an achievement.
Musa’ad Al-Osaimy, sports editor of Asharq Al-Awsat, said this year’s World Cup was full of surprises. Among them were the elimination of defending champions France and twice winners Argentina. Italy’s rout completed the hat trick of surprises.
He paid tributes to the co-hosts Korea for pulling off a scintillating 2-1 golden goal win.
Musa’ad said Korea had emerged as one of the superpowers in the world of soccer. “They achieved this status despite the fact that they had failed to win a match in their previous five appearances on the world’s biggest stage. They became the second Asian team to qualify for the quarterfinals,” he said.
In the cities of Alkhobar and Dammam, the South Koreans were virtually speechless over the victory.
“I don’t know how to react. It is just unbelievable,” said Weng Cha, a construction engineer in Dammam.
“South Korea have shown that sheer determination and application could turn the table even on former world champions. We did it with Portuguese and now with Italy,” he said.
Li Chen, another executive with a joint venture company in Jubail, said South Korea dominated the entire game. Most of the time they had possession of the ball and most of the game was played in the Italian half. He said the South Korean team capitalized on their fitness and pace.
Sho Park, also an executive in a joint venture industry in Jubail, said the present form of the team shows that “we will sail through the finals. The team is all charged up and yesterday’s win will boost the morale further. But it is important that the team should not take its next match with Spain lightly.”
Miteb Al-Badeen, a Saudi journalist, said “South Korea’s performance should be an eye opener for the Asian champions, Saudi Arabia. Their game plan, technique and defense were just superb. They beat Italians in all the departments.”
Moqbil Al-Sayyari, Gulf editor of Arriyadiyah, said South Korea looked like champions in yesterday’s match. “They just lacked finesse. They will have to improve their shots and convert chances into goals”.
— Javid Hassan in Riyadh, Saeed Haider in Dammam & K.S. Ramkumar in Jeddah
