A Red Sunset

I awoke yesterday to a strange calm and knew right away that it had been the end for Korea's World Cup hopes. I had planned to head down to Seoul city hall to join the red-clad masses for the game at 4 AM, but after my own soccer game the night before (our team actually played four) I wasn't really feeling up to an all-nighter. But, I did have a very reliable system (though most futbol purists would question this tactic) - simply go to bed, and if Korea scored, people would make so much noise the building would shake and I (yes, even I) would wake up. That's what happened last time when Korea tied France in the 81st minute. However, should Korea not score, I would be spared the immediate pain of having to watch the team lose, at least until I was well-rested. As it turned out, I got my sleep - Korea went down and out, 2-0. It was a good run, and I got to see what's it's like to be in the thick of a country where the sport of futbol permeates nearly everyone's consciousness for a little while. It's part passion, part harmless propaganda - almost every building downtown has a 20-story poster of Park Ji-Sung (the star player for Korea) on it and during Korea's run, replays of games would play near-constantly on TV. Armies of fans were everywhere wearing red T-shirts with slogans like "Reds go Together," and "Again Korea 2006," some of them wearing devil-horns. Meanwhile North Korea was trying to crash the party, planning its first long-range missle test in eight years - but on the news, it was effectively filler. Futbol 1, WMD 0. Very satisfying.