Those Wild Eastern Asians...There are a number of phenomenal tidbits from the 2002 World Cup South Korea/Japan, a few of which I will be bringing you on the first of what will hopefully be many factoids on this last day of World Cup 2010.
During the opening ceremony, which took place in Japan, the South Koreans put on a hell of show, with songs, dancing, marching, and a number of other festivities. And yet, it seems as though they completely forgot to mention the other country involved, opting instead to simply call the global showcase World Cup South Korean 2002. Whoops.
But of course, Japan suffered its fair share of momentary memory loss, too. Indeed, they somehow seemed to completely erase the South Korean flag from all of the tickets and paraphernalia for games that took place in Japan. Hmm.
To show their dedication and enthusiasm for the World Cup, the South Korean government installed jumbo jumbo trons (apparently, such things exist) in front of all the stadiums, so that upwards of a million people could be watching the game while it was happening, just outside the stadium.
The South Koreans also built a World Cup Fountain on the Hangang River, which at 633 feet, is the tallest fountain in the world.
To counter this, the Japanese built a stadium that uses computers to control the growth of the grass, so that optimal pitch conditions for each match can be produced. But of course the Japanese would go and do something like that.
Yet, despite all of these juicy bits, the best two WTF moments of World Cup 2002 came in the form of special gifts from the South Korean government.
Two referees disallowed perfectly legal goals from Spain and Italy in games against South Korean; those disallowed goals were enough to send La Roja and Azzurri home. The referees for those games were magically driving brand new Hyudais not long after the tournament ended.
And finally, Korean player Jung-Hwan Ang scored the winning, sudden-death goal against Italy in a extra time match during the knock-out round, he instantly became a national hero: he was awarded life insurance and free flights on the national airline for life, and exempt from military service. Not too shabby.
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