KOREA | World Cup Fever!

FIFA WORLD CUP 2006, GERMANY... well everyone is talking about it now, and at the moment into the 2nd week of it, quite a number of surprises came up... interesting quick goals scoring during the opening match [Germany 4 - 2 Costa Rica] was considered to be amongst the best opening match of the history.

Football... football ... football... eeer or Soccer as they called in the U.S. ....

Of course, the favourites will be the like of Brazil (World Cup 2002 Champion, Brazil 2 - 0 Germany), and some other teams which need no explanation.

On the other side of the continent, KOREA especially in Seoul City, South Korea... the chanting/slogan of Go Korea! ( Go Corea ), and all those red coloured shirts are ubiquitous ... It is confirmed that the Korean have been hit by the world Cup Fever Bug.. especially after co-hosting it (with Japan) during the World Cup 2002.

You can see from the photos below, ultra large posters, placed at their skycrapers doning the Korea team photo can be seen in almost every spot in the city.

Having a number of very large industrial/ technological company in the country (such as Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Daewoo etc....just to name a few...) is a very good advantage for the people, because, they can built a very large screen in the middle of city, where thousands of people gather to watch the world cup even if it is 3 o'clock in the morning! And this is what actually happens in Seoul city.

Korea Football Association, KFA (... hmmm no wonder they don't call their football team the Korea Football Club .. otherwise it will be KFC!... won't look good ain't it...), informed that, if Korea past the 1st round, the players will receive about US$100,000, and for reaching the quarter-final about US$210,000.. and about US$315,00 for reaching the semi-final....

Just like any other countries, lotsa incentives will be given to those who make it to the final round and be the champion....

Being in the semis (World Cup 2002, Korea 2-3 Turkey) , the KFA players, as stated, were given $250,000 each! ... fuuuyooo.... imagine how many L-Lens and professional camera bodies I could buy with it! hehehe

Park Chu-Young, Lee Chun-Soo, Park Ji-Sung ... are some of the well known players around...

*Match update: (13 June 2006 - Korea 2 - 1 Togo)

... to add more flavour to the "fever" ... concerts are also organised to "heat-up" the moment in the city centre .....

... with that I leave u with these photos... just to let u experience a geist of what the ambience is like in Seoul during the World Cup 2006 period....

Note: For the official FIFA World Cup 2006 site please click fifaworldcup.com


... photo showing the 18-carat solid gold FIFA World Cup Trophy ... and the official ball of the FIFA World Cup 2006, the Teamgeist.

... Seoul World Cup Stadium ... one of the venue during the FIFA World Cup 2002...






... in the process of bidding for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games...











...congratulatory and supporting messages for the KFA ...

... jersey no. 2... Kim Young-Chul? ... hmmmm






... wearing the REDs ... the players... oops ... sorry .. these are not the Korea World Cup Players... (.. aiks... where did this pix come from...?) ... hehe... actually they are the guards of an old palace in Korea ... will try to post about this in future post ....

Happy World Cup-ing ...