Korea beat Britain in the quarter-final football match at the London 2012 Olympics, winning entry into the semi-finals for the first time in the team’s history. The match had been at the centre of a lot of attention nationwide along with some high expectations. British football players are among the best known in Korea, which heightened the interest in the match. Even though the match was aired live at 3.30 am Korean time, many football fans pulled an allnighter to cheer for their team. This passion is reflected in the following responses gathered from several articles written and commented on before and after the match.
Netizen responses before the match, from various related news articles:
Comments from Money Today:
Team Korea led by Hong Myung-Bo wishes for the London Dream, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
백다연:
Manager Hong says ‘I carry a knife in my heart. It’s not for hurting someone else, but for killing myself if you guys (the players) are in danger of getting hurt. So, you guys should die for the team. And I will die for you.’ Wow so cool.. That gave me goosebumps…..
김현성:
Your efforts are beautiful. Go Korean football!!
이창현:
It’ll be little more than break-even for Britain if they win, but it’ll be an extraordinary thing if we win. If they do, our hearts will be lighter. And Hong Myung-Bo’s team is especially strong against strong teams. Park Chu-Young realizes his potential at every even-numbered match. [The stadium for the match is] not a home-ground for England but one for Wales. There’ll be no one who will resent us losing. Japan is in the semi-final? ke ke They’re just lucky. They’ll be busted by Brazil anyway. If we play against Japan we will win. Cheers~~
Comments from Dailian:
‘Team GB’s fitness is poor’ – Team Korea led by Hong Myung-Bo has hopes among fear
장명균:
British boys, we have to go get the monkeys [Japan] so don’t block our way
남종희:
I imagine that Ji-Sung and Giggs might have talked to each other on the phone.. /Giggs: Park! I’m playing against your country. It’s a shame you won’t be there. /Ji-Sung: ke ke /Giggs: Do your old team mates run around all day, like you do? /Ji-Sung: More than I do. /Giggs: ………
정대현:
I feel positive for some reason… I believe in you, Korean warriors~
이정현:
A match between England’s poor fitness and Korea’s poor decision making
Comments from Sports Chosun:
Fateful quarter-final, watch Koo Ja-Cheol carefully
배재준:
Weirdly enough, I don’t feel we are going to lose… Before the previous Korea vs. Italy match…I also didn’t feel we were going to lose at all… and I have a similar feeling now..
김지호:
It’s time you scored, Koopard. [Koopard is a nickname for Koo Ja-Cheol, made by combining his family name Koo with ‘-pard’ from Frank Lampard.]
이선민:
Ah I sincerely hope we can win this time and never let the Brits look down on us.. Not only at the Olympic games this year but usually those bastards would ignore Korea in their media reports and rate highly of the island nation [= Japan] next to Korea, even though we played well and had good results. I really wish that Korea would beat Britain at the football match later at dawn so they can’t look down on us. Go Korea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
정병건:
The biggest problem is the exemption from the military conscription at stake. Run for your life ke ke [Korean sports players are allowed to be exempt from the military if they win medals.]
김종안:
It’s natural to wish that we could win the gold medal.. but I personally feel that Britain is going to beat us. Judging objectively we are likely to lose against Brazil, and then play against the Japs who failed to enter the finals, for the third place. Anyways, I send hwaitings to the Korean players. They’ve played well so far and I sincerely believe they will do well in the future.^^
Comments from The Daily Sports:
Overseas gamblers bet that ‘Korea will lose to Britain in football, while Japan enters the semi-final’
김태욱:
Gamblers say: Korea will lose to Mexico – [The actual result is] a tie. /Gamblers: Korea will lose to Switzerland – We won. /Gamblers: Korea will beat Gabon – a tie. /Gamblers: Korea will lose to Britain ……. /This makes me feel positive.
황윤성:
The German octopus would be better at guessing than you guys.
이성철:
Gamblers haven’t been so good at guessing the results at the London Olympics.
이현수:
Honestly, Japan has such favourable opponents, while we have Britain and Brazil…
김범석:
Overseas gamblers after the match say, ‘never knew Giggs’ legs would shake’…
김도선:
I hear them losing money….
Netizen responses after the match, from various related news articles:
Comments from My Daily:
Hong Myung-Bo’s Team worth 34.5 billion Won beat Team GB who are worth 132.5 billion Won
유명훈:
By the way, we should honestly look back on ourselves;; When the players make just one mistake we tend to speak ill of them, saying ‘do without Baek Sung-Dong, get Park Chu-Young out of the team, and Kim Bo-Kyung’s fame is nothing.’ Honestly speaking, wouldn’t Hong Myung-Bo be aware of things that we think? But he still doesn’t keep them out, so there should be a reason why. Now the players that you people have been blaming went all the way up to the semi-finals and we realize how able manager Hong is, so let’s just cheer them. And let’s not show off our volatile temper no matter how bad they play.
김창휘:
When the extended latter half was over the players lied down, and all the standby players came to massage their legs, caring for their team mates. What’s the use of high individual pay scale, without a team-playing spirit and sacrifice for their team mates?
Comments from The Daily Sports:
Even the BBC is in love with Ki Sung-Yueng with his impeccable performance at the football match with Britain
이준태:
Ki has great techniques, but what’s even more top-notch is his will-power and ambition ke ke ke ke
김병주:
Honestly, my mouth opens wide involuntarily while I’m watching Ki playing..
Comments from The Daily Sports:
Hong Myung-Bo’s team shed tears of joy, after entry to semi-finals is confirmed
김윤영:
Today we saw the same smile manager Hong had 10 years ago.
김현우:
They [the Britain team] pretend to be cool about it but must be boiling inside. If they really didn’t expect anything then what was that 70 thousand strong bubbling crowd in the stadium? ke ke
정민수:
It was a match worth an allnighter.
이상섭:
Personal income fluctuates from thousands of millions to billions [of Korean won], depending on whether the players win medals or not. There’s no guarantee that this kind of chance will come again, so I hope that all the players do well, so that they get exempted of the military service and move to good football clubs, giving more delight to the Korean people.
김수현:
When we finally won did anyone see the Korean reporter crying his eyes out? /Anyone saw Ki Sung-Yueng cry? /I almost cried along with them ㅠㅠ Well done, so proud of you.
Comments from Maeil Business:
‘Psycho killer’ Ji Dong-Won? Foreign media pours out praise
조치연:
What’s awesome is the row of 18 matches with no losses! Let’s make it just up to 20!!
성보민:
Managers of the opponent teams, please don’t say you don’t know the Korean team well. If that continues, we’ll just keep winning.
천성민:
Britain seemed to get their power up with 6 gold medals won in a day. But it rested down in peace in Cardiff, dawn of 5th, August, due to strong will-power of Korean players and sincere cheers of Korean people, which cannot be heard with ears but with hearts.
조재민:
While Britain was preparing for the match with Brazil we beat them. Now it’s time to destroy Japan who is preparing for the match with Brazil. Let’s beat Brazil and then Japan!
임가연:
It’s a shame only a few people are getting the spotlight. They’ve done well but the defenders were good, too ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
