The first trial to establish sexual identity as a gay will be came out in Korea.

     In Korea, the issue of homosexuality is going to broadcast through a cable channel, “tvN” on Apr. 14, 2008. This is the first time that the media deal with homosexuality openly and deeply in Korea, even through there were only some documentary programs which just showed situations or gave information around homosexual people in the past. After a press briefing about this controversial program named “Gay project, Coming-out,” Korean news coverage is continuously talking about for and against this program. According to some main news coverage, although most people seemed uncomfortable about addressing homosexuality on television, they are trying to understand the different sexual preference of the homosexual people. However, the most important thing is that most people are worried about this program’s success.

     Because this is the first time to broadcast this unusual and controversial issue on television, there should be lots of obstacles or problems around this program such as strong counterarguments of the opposite position and the rating. The problem is to change people’s viewpoints. The more people are agreeable to homosexuality, the more people can watch this problem, and the higher rating and better successes this program can achieve. As I think, this program needs to try to focus on showing the ways for people to change their perspective rather than just conveying information related to homosexuality. This program should give people not just visual pleasure, but a chance to think carefully about homosexuality and to understand the homosexual people.

     The purpose of this program, which show people gays’ real life and enable them to hold their head up in public, is very good. However, the important thing that this program needs to consider is not the broadcasting itself, but the constant attention and care to the coming-out people after broadcasting. We don’t know how many people can naturally accept the coming-out people in public. This program should continue its effort to make the coming-out people not to be isolated from the public. It is important to make gays themselves feel comfortable by coming out through this program, it is also important to make them free from other people’s misunderstanding and prejudices.

 

 

Does Turtleman’s death lead other members to the end of their life as a signer?

 

(Top – “Turtles,” from the left, Z-E, Turtleman, and Keum Bi. Bottom left – Turtleman, Bottom right – Z-E and Keum Bi in Turtleman’s funeral chapel. Photo from www.joynews24.com)

The lead singer of “Turtles” (Goboogie), “Turtleman” (Sung-hoon Im) suddenly died of myocardial infarction on Apr. 02, 2008. “Turtles” is a famous Korean pop group debuted in 2001, composed of three member; Turtleman, Z-E and Keum Bi and released five albums up to now. According to a police officer, “Turtleman” was found dead by his manager in his house one hour later after death and took him to a funeral chapel in Sun-cheon-hyang Hospital. After the announcement of his death, the Korean entertainment industry was really shocked and many celebrities are going to his funeral chapel to pay homage to him.

On January, 2008, “Turtles” released their fifth albums, “OhBangGanDa,” and actively played on mass media. However, his death slammed the brakes not only on the life of “Turtles” as a pop group, but also on the other members’ personal activities. In this situation, the other members of “Turtles,” Z-E and Keum Bi, have no choice. They need an interval of silence to show respect for his dead and commend his soul to god for a while. However, “Turtles” should not stop their activities as “Turtles.” For him who really loved his life with music and had a passion for “Turtles,” the other members have to go on their activities with the fifth released album.

Even though “Turtles” could not sing on the stage any more without him in this situation, they can cherish his memory by widely distributing their fifth albums among the fans. This might be same as what he thinks now in the afterworld. And then, the other members would produce a new memorial album for him. This can make the fans keep his memories in their mind and the profits from the memorial albums should be used to help his family and other activities for his memory. Although the other members get lose their time or opportunity for their personal activity, they need to show their humanity. These activities would enable the other members to have more gained than lost, if they look father forward into their future.  

J, your behavior is a way to break up with your fans.

          “J” (30) is a very famous Korean-American pop singer in South Korea, whose real name is Jae Young Jung. She suddenly left South Korea and came back to the U.S.One of her entourage revealed that “J was having a hard time and suddenly left for the United States on Mar. 26, 2008.

          She asked to be left alone for a while so she could clear her thoughts.”J has openly stated that she was dating a Korean-American employee at a computer-related firm in New York and has been in a relationship with her boyfriend for a year and 3 months. However, during her career as a singer in South Korea, their relationship became strained, and eventually led to their breakup. Due to J’s running away to the US, her agency has postponed her next single album, which was planned to be released in April, and is trying to get in touch with her. 

          She is not a childish girl, but a reasonable adult. Moreover, she is one of the famous entertainers who are in the spotlight every time. Her behavior was not of the celebrity who plays a roll model for the public. Even though people can understand how sad she is now, her reaction to the breakup was wrong as a celebrity.

          She had to officially announce her temporary cessation to the public before leaving South Korea, but she didn’t do it. So, what she needs to do now is that she goes back to South Korea and makes her situation public as soon as possible rather than runs ways and conceals herself. For her future career, she needs to have more responsibilities for her behaviors. There would nothing beneficial for her, if she just continues to seclude herself from the world.

Edison Chen, what are you doing now?

l      Description of Situation

The 27-year-old Canadian-born Hong Kong singer and actor, Edison Chen’s photo scandal occurred in Jan. 2008. This scandal was issued not only in Hong Kong, but also around the world and aftermaths of this are still reporting around the world. Lots of photographs and self-made videos by Chen with female celebrities was illegally distributed and circulated through the Internet rapidly.

As police said, the photographs and movies which were taken by Chen from 2003 to 2006 were initially stored in his laptop and he sent his laptop for repairs to a repair shop. More than 1300 intimate photographs of Chen with female celebrities were copied by the employees and distributed through the Internet.

This sex scandal involved leading actress Cecilia Cheung (“One Nite in Mongkok,” “The Promise,”) TV presenter Bobo Chan, singer-actress Gillian Chung (“Twins Effect,” “Mei Lan Fang”,) Candice Chan, Mandy Chen, Rachel Ngan, Edison’s girlfriend and niece of Albert Yeung (Chairman of EEG) Vincy Yeung, Maggie Q (“Mission, Impossible 3,” “Live Free or die Hard”,) pop singer Joey Yung, Elva Hsiao, Jolin Tsai, Nikki Chow, Rain Li and Rosanne Wong and more.

“Despite enlisting the assistance of Interpol, the Hong Kong police have not been able to stem the spread of the photographs. As of 12 February 2008, ten people were arrested in connection with the distribution of the photographs. The police crackdown has instead raised questions over violations of the privacy and free speech rights of Internet users. The manner in which actors, their management, and the police have handled the situation has, in turn, made those arrested into heroes and martyrs for some netizens.”  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_Chen_photo_scandal#_note-edcblog)

After this sex photo scandal, Edison Chen had run away to U.S. As this scandal had issued more widely, he had come back to Hong Kongto “account for himself and to apologize to those involved in or effected by the scandal.” At a press conference, he said that “these photos were very private and have not been shown to people and were never intended to be shown to anyone,” and “I would like to apologize to all the ladies involved in the scandal and their families for all their sufferings. I am sorry.” Chen also said at the press conference that he will step way from Hong Kong Entertainment industry “indefinitely” and “I have failed as a role model. However I hope that this matter will teach everyone a lesson.”

l      The Mainstream News Coverage

For the Eastern news coverage, I found the articles related to Edison Chen’s scandal from ‘Xinhua News,’ ‘Record China’ of China, ‘Hankook Daily,’ ‘Newsen,’ ‘Sports Seoul,’ ‘Joins’ of South Korea, ‘Variety Asia Online’ of Hong Kong, ‘Asian One’ of Singapore and ‘Taipei Times’ of Taiwan. In addition, for the Western news coverage, I found articles in ‘BBC,’ ‘Guardian,’ ‘Reuters’ of United Kingdom, ‘CNN,’ and ‘Msnbc’ of the U.S., and ‘Canadian Press’ of Canada.

In Eastern news coverage, I could find lots of articles related to Edison Chen’s sex scandal from the emergence to the aftermaths of the scandal. The news around the beginning of February heavily reported the outflows of Asian female celebrities’ sex photographs and videos focused on the police investigation about the outflows. When he held the press conference, they dealt with the interview of Chen in depth in terms of his retirement from Hong Kong entertainment industry. However, most news is about the aftermaths of this big scandal. They turn their eyes to scapegoats, the female celebrities who were shown in the sex photographs and videos taken by Chen. Everyday, newly reported news about the related female celebrities popped up not only on on-line presses, but also on off-line presses. From their marital breakups to the revocations of their contracts with the commercial and entertainment companies, their lives as celebrities are stroked due to this scandal and they are standing on the edge of their lives.

In compassion, they deal with Edison Chen’s sex scandal lightly in Western news coverage contrasted with the Eastern presses. Most of them just tried to convey the general information about Chen’s scandal based on his press conference. They mainly talked about his indefinite retirement from Hong Kong entertainment industry and I could not find the articles about the aftereffects of the scandal, which should be more important issues than the scandal itself. As I think, this could not be big issue in the Western culture.  

l      Blog Coverage  

I looked for blogs in ‘Naver’ of South Korea, “Shaghaiist” of China and “Japan Probe” of Japan as the Eastern blog coverage and ‘WordPress,’ ‘Msnbc’ of the U.S., ‘Bloger’ and “The Blemish”, “Global Voices” of the other Western for the Western blog coverage.

In the Eastern blogs, most focused on the aftermaths of the scandal to victims, the female celebrities and some talked about his future career or what he is going to do. Even though most are unfavorable to Chen, there was a favorable blog I found. In the blog, she said as a fan of Chen that this could be the chance for Chen to invest to himself and wishes that he can overcome this severe hardship, whereas the unfavorable said that his apologies are too late and he need to be more responsible for this scandal without just stepping away from Hong Kong.

Most of the Western blogs are also unfavorable to Edison Chen, but there is not much information about aftermaths of this scandal because, as I think, the mainstream news coverage didn’t report much about this scandal in detail and then the Westerner could not expose to the scandal as much as the Easterner. However, like the Eastern blogs, although most of them also were not favorable to Chen, a bloger with a favorable attitude to Chen said that this can be a chance for him to restart his carrier in Hollywood.  

In terms of posted photos, the most Eastern blogs were so suggestive and unfavorable to Edison Chen unlike the Western blogs which posted usual photos of Chen. In detail, the Eastern used to attach Chen’s pornography with the female celebrity in order to show how serious the scandal was. Whereas, the Western blogs used to refer his photos from the press conference. 

l      Compare and contrast between the Western Culture and the Eastern Culture

-         Whereas Chen’s scandal was largely issued in the Eastern culture, it was not in the Western culture. There could be some reasons for this. First, Edison Chen and the related female celebrities are not much famous in the Western, but in Eastern. Second, the Eastern culture is more conservative for the sexual problem compared to the Western. So, it is enough to gather the attention from people in the Eastern.

-         In terms of the reaction, there were not many reactions of the Western people about this scandal, while the aftereffects still exist around the Eastern society. This could be affected by the cultural difference in the mind for sexual problem. Actually, the Eastern societies are much more conservative in sexual issues than the Western Society. And this kind of sexual issues does not happen frequently in the Eastern society. So the Easterner is respondent to this scandal more than the Westerner.

-         While the Eastern cultural societies reported the details about the victims of Chen’s scandal, the female celebrities, the Western just mentioned little about them. In my opinion, the reason might be due to the victimized female stars. Actually, the fans of Chen and the female stars are largely ranged over the Eastern cultural societies, not many in the Western countries. And the presses could not ignore the huge fans of the victimized female celebrities who struggle to know how the celebrities’ situations are changed.

l      Conclusion    

Even though Edison Chen has announced at the press conference that he would “indefinitely” step away from Hong Kong entertainment industry, the word, “indefinitely” left an ambiguous meaning. This could be understood that he would come back to Hong Kong entertainment industry if he wants or this scandal would be disposed in the future. He made a pretext for comeback to Hong Kong by mentioning “indefinitely.” Furthermore, the more ridiculous things are that he has signed a contract with ‘William Morris Agency (WMA)’ right after the press conference and he intimated his intention to appear in the movie, “Batman Begins3.”

However, he would be better to practice self-discipline for a long time by just sitting down and managing his company, ‘Clot Media Division Limited’. The related female celebrities and others are in serious troubles with everything around them. Some of them are getting closed to the end of their life in entertainment industries due to the scandal. Some broke up with their husbands or fiancés, others lost their opportunities for maintaining their careers, some entertainment programs and movies were canceled and lots of new secondary effects of the scandal are still being reported in the world news.

He needs to have more responsibilities for the scandal. It could not be solved by just running far away from this scandal. The aftereffects still exist around him. Most of his fans are not ranged over the U.S., but around Asian nations. He is still young. So, what he need is not the short sight like just entering the Hollywood market. He needs to look far out for his future for the world market. 

l        References 

l        The Eastern news coverage
-      Headline: “‘Sex scandal’ Edison Chen retired from Hong Kong entertainment industry and is threatened by Triad, Hong Kong gang.”
http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/sports/200802/h2008022307115597630.htm
-          Head line: “Did Hong Kong accept Edison Chen’s apology?”
http://www.newsen.com/news_view.php?uid=200802221346431004
-          Headline: “Concealment -> Apology -> charity work ‘Formula to save himself?’”
http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/sports/200802/h2008022307115597630.htm
-          Headline: “Edison Chen, Gillian Chung – Sex Scandal Rocks Hong Kong.”
http://ezinearticles.com/?Edison-Chen,-Gillian-Chung—Sex-Scandal-Rocks-Hong-Kong&id=997040
-          Headline: “Actor Edison Chen quits business after sex photo scandal.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/22/content_7644559.htm 

l        The Western News Coverage
-          Headline: “Chinaarrests over HK sex scandal.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7254858.stm
-          Headline: “Hong Kong’s Edison Chen quits after sex scandal.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23269747/
-          Headline: “Actor: I took sex scandal photos”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/21/edison.photos.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch#cnnSTCVideo
-          Headline: “Star apologises over sex photos”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7256657.stm
-          Headline “China censures top Internet search engine”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23236447/ 

l        The Eastern Blog Coverage
-          Headline: “Edison Chen, Bobo Chan, Gillian Chung and Cecilia Cheung embroiled in Hong Kong’s biggest sex photo scandal ever.”
http://shanghaiist.com/2008/02/05/edison_chen_bob.php
-          Headline: “After Edison Chen’s storm”
http://blog.naver.com/slove1215?Redirect=Log&logNo=140048018787
-          Headline: “Edison Chen’s sex scandal and the facts”
http://blog.naver.com/milkiis?Redirect=Log&logNo=150028089751
-          Headline: “Edison Chen Sex Pictures Uploaded By “Kira”.”
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3778
-          Headline: “Playboy, Edison Chen”
http://blog.naver.com/tinynlovely?Redirect=Log&logNo=100048731309 

l        The Western Blog Coverage
-          Headline: “New Playboy in Town.”
http://gushalal.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/new-playboy-in-town/
-          Headline: “Edison Chen Scandals – sorry to ’society as a whole’ ???”
http://blukor1.blogspot.com/2008/03/edison-chen-scandals-sorry-to-society.html
-          Headline: “Edison Chen Latest Nude Photos – Most Controversial Scandal”
http://suplado.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/edison-chen-latest-nude-photos-most-controversial-scandal/
-          Headline: “Edison Chen / Gillian Chung sex scandal”
http://theblemish.com/2008/01/edison-chen-has-sex-pictures/ 

l        Additional
-          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_chen
-          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_Chen_photo_scandal
-          http://www.kinocine.com/585
-          http://sports.chosun.com/news/ntype2.htm?ut=1&name=/news/entertainment/200803/20080301/83a77121.htm
-          http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aYxZTg1jaU_c&refer=asia
-          http://aidanmaconachyblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/edison-chen-gillian-chung-sex-scandal.html
-          http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/02/10/hong-kong-netizens-protest-nude-photo-white-terror/
-          http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/international/news/e3ifbf63e08888f1b2010f88ce269bd1ec6
-          http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/5426/53/
-          http://uk.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUKHKG36060820080221

“If good, you are a Korean and if not, you are a foreigner.”

Sung-hun Chu (www.newsen.com) 

     Korean society is talking about Sung-hun Chu (Yoshihiro Akiyama, 秋山成勳) in terms of sports nationalism. He was a judoka (a judo athlete) before 2004 and moved to K-1 in 2005 and a fourth generation Korean-Japanese. He was born leaned judo in Japan. When he grown up, he went to Koreato be a Korean national judo athlete, but failed because there were big barriers at that time such as his ambiguous nationality and biases and discrimination about him from the Korean society. After he failed, he went back to Japan to become naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 2001 and become a Japanese national judo champion in the same year.

     The event which threw him in blames from Korean people was Pusan Asia Tournament. He won a gold medal in Pusan Asia Tournament Judo 81kg Champion 2002 against Korean athlete. After this game, he was blamed by most of Korean people because Korean people thought that he relinquished his nationality and broke faith with the Korean. After he moved to K-1, he continuously showed his love for his nation, Korea and then is getting back the interests from the Korean. Although his nationality/citizenship is Japanese and fights for Japan, his ethnicity is 100 % Korean. When he fights, we can see a small Korean flag on his left shoulder of his judogi (the clothes for judo).

     After he visited to South Korea, he was thrown into the media spotlights and then Korean talks about the nationalism not only in sport, bit also in all areas around the world. Although there are so many world sports stars around the world who are ethnic Koreans such as Hines E. Ward, Jr. and Michelle Wie, Chu is little different with others. Actually, he was born in Japan, his nationality was Korean and then he changed his nationality to Japan. Before he told about his expediences and why he had to change his nationality on TV, people didn’t know about the truth and they just blamed him. The bias which Korean people talk here is the phrase, “if good, you are a Korean and if not, you are a foreigner.” Though he leaves his nation for his goal, people need to understand his contexts. People used to view something or someone based on their standard or with biases. Now, we are live in the globalized society and the barriers between nations are getting to disappear. We need to break out the unnecessary discrimination or biases about these kinds of things. The important thing we need to keep in mind when we evaluate someone is not where he or she comes from but what he or she achieves.

     As he said on a TV program, he always loves his original country, South Korea but unfortunately he needed to become naturalized in Japan for his goal. For him, there were no alternative choices at that time. He feels proud of himself as a Korean. So, we need to gaze him not as a betrayer, but as one of the world sports athletes. This should be the role of sports fans and more broadly the role of the world citizen.

Where is the sportsmanship?

Chinese Football Player, Lisie’s Hollywood Action in EAWFC.

Photo by a sceenshot from ‘Youtube.com’

The football match between China and South Korean took place in the East Asian Women’s Football Championship, in Chongqing, China on February 18. In this game, Korean Women Football Team was defeated by China in 2-3.

However, lots of netizens are mentioning this game on the Internet, especially in Korea. The reason is a Chinese player’s dirty play. Here is the clip which was around the end of the second half.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Z92Qur1fM

As this shows, the Chinese player, Lisie suddenly fell down before the Korea’s corner kick in the injury time, which was the last chance for Korea. And then she went out of the field to care her injury(?). The most problematic moment was the right before the Korean player, Ha-nuel Kweon kicked a corner kick. Lisie who got an injury right before and went out of the field suddenly ran to the corner to disturb the corner kick. How can this play is explained?

The first overaction of Lisie can be understood in terms of a trial to delay the game for her team’s victory because these kinds of plays were used to be seen in many game. However, how can we understand her second behavior? The game was not of the small town’s match, but of the big national match, especially of the official championship which was world-widely broadcasted on air. This play was out of the common sense as a sportsman.

After the game, in a Chinese press’s interview of Lisie, she said “I feel mortified about the referee’s decision. I don’t know why I got second yellow card for my action.” As she said, the play was intended in order to delay the game. In addition, she said that “as a professional football player, it is common to consider this kind of play to delay the game for a win. But, the only different thing with other players is that I just overacted more than others at that time.” How should we understand what she said? Should her play be justified in this way? So, all of these kinds of plays should be accepted in the all sports. This saying never makes a sense for me. She needs to introspect herself not only her play, but also what she said in the interview. In here, what I want to say is that “you are not the professional and go back to learn more about sports to be a professional.”

As the host of the East Asian Women’s Football Championship and also of 2008 Beijing Olympic, this should not be happened The Chinese sportsmanship were blamed by others because of the only one player’s intended mistake. If this kind of play would happen in the Olympic, this would become more worldwide issue in terms of the nature of the sportsmanship of the whole Chinese sports.

Based on this, China should try to rework their preparations in not only the systemic matters but also the attitudes of mind for the Olympic because the Olympic will be a mirror of China itself.

Rain Under William Morris Agency

Rain (left) signe a contract with John Mass (right) at Lotte hotel in Seoul. Photo from OSEN (www.osen.co.kr)

     The Korean famous pop singer-cum-actor Rain (In Korean, 비[Bi]) and in real, Ji-Hoon Jeong) signed with the William Morris Agency (WMA) on Feb. 13. 2008 at Lotte Hotel in Seoul. Head of Corporate Consulting of WMA, John Mass and Dong-Won Cho, the CEO of Rain’s Korean representative company, jTune Entertainment attended to the press conference and announced the strategic alliance between WMA and jTune. In this conference, they announced that Rain will be a hero in the new movie, ‘Ninja Assassin’ which is the succession of ‘Speed Racer’ and will be directed by Joel Silver and Wachowski brothers. As the press describes, “WMA boasts a 100-year-old history, helping legends like Elvis Presely and Marilyn Monroe rise to stardom. It has also discovered actors, writers and directors that eventually took part in hollywood blockbuster films like ‘Spiderman 3′, ‘X-Men’ and ‘Kill Bill’. In addition, the agency took part in producing and distributing popular TV shows like ‘24′, ‘Lost’ and ‘American Idol’. International stars like Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys and Eminem also belong to the WMA.” (http://english.kbs.co.kr) Moreover, Yun-Jin Kim, the actress of ‘Lost’ is also under the WMA.

     Actually, even though Rain was one of my old friends and I saw his potential long time ago, I could not expect that he would be this kind of a big star. When I was friendly with him, he was just a boy who much liked to dance and enjoyed with others. After he told me his dream to be a singer, he entered an art high school. At that time, no one knew how he famous he would be. However, he is stand on the world market with his own name, Rain (Bi). He was so successful from music to movie and soap drama in Asian market and then most teenagers and 20s know who Rain is in Asia. So, no one suspect his success in the Asian market now. However, it is questionable whether he could success not only US market, but also whole world market. As an Asian, especially as a Korean, there are just few people who succeed in the US market. For example, although Yun-Jin Kim stand in a good position in ‘Lost’ and became a successful Asian actress in US now, there was lots of obstructs behind her success like the race discrimination.

     Compare to Yun-Jin Kim, Rain’ English is just on the first step now. Although he is trying to learn English, it will be much difficult to learn not only the language skills, but the US culture which is most difficult for me for my whole US life. So this would disturb the communication with others, even though there is an interpreter around him. Moreover, he is originally a singer, not an actor. It would be good challenge for him to play an actor in order to be a multi-entertainer. It is obviously true that the more experiences, the better success he can grab. However, he tries to enter the US entertainment market as an actor which is not his best talent. Actually, his fame was based on his song and dance, not on acting. So, I hope that he would focus more on his activities in US as a singer than as an actor.     By taking in the WMA boat, Rain will be able to take the wings named WMA and then fly to the US market with the wings outspread. As I think, his success in US market would be depend on what market strategies for Rain WMA have and how much Rain would try his best by overcoming the despairs from everywhere he stands. As a old friend, I really hope that he can be stand in the US market with his name, Rain.For more infomation about Rain,

http://www.asiafinest.com/korean/rain-bi.htm

http://kr.youtube.com/results?search_query=Rain+Korean&search_type=

South Korea Beat Turkmenistan 4-0.

 The Korean National Soccer Team(photo from http://blog.naver.com/twgwjlul)

     The third Asian qualifier between South Korea and Turkmenistan took place in the Seoul World cup Stadium on Feb. 06, 2008. In this game, South Korea beat Turkmenistan 4-0. With this landslide, South Korea would be in a good position for advancing to the final regional qualifying round.                   

From the left,  Young-pyo Lee, Ji-sung Park, Ki-hyeon Seol
(Photo from http://sportalkorea.com/)

     This game attracted attentions of the Korean soccer fans before the game because of the three English Premier Leaguers, Ji-sung Park (27) of Manchester United, Ki-hyeon Seol (29) of Fulham and Young-pyo Lee (31) of Tottenham Hotspur visited Korea. Their plays were enough to answer the expectations of the fans and had important roles to save the South Korean head coach, Jung-moo Huh from a sinking mood and the team from the thirst for win. Defender Tae-hee Kwak (27, Jeonnam Dragons) shook the net of goalpost and the fans with a header at 43 minute in the first half and Seol add one at 12 minute in the second half. Furthermore, Park also showed his talents by shooting a ball in the goalpost with accuracy at 25 minute in the second half and Seol made one more at 38 minute in the second half.

     Actually, this game was amid lots of expectations and criticism of the pubic and the critics. Because the national team had scored no goal since Huh became the new head coach for the team in December 2007, this match was a crucial not only for Huh, but also the Korean national soccer team. South Korean soccer players have failed to score during the past seven months since it won over Indonesia on July 18 2007 for an Asian Cup. However, the result of this game exceeded the hope of the public.

     Even though Korea won a victory in this game, I felt some absences from this game. First of all, in terms of defense, there were some situations which made people be in suspense. Expect for the Nam-il Kim, the captain, all other defenders had lack of experiences in this kind of big match. They played in A match only one or two times. Through this game, they showed some mistakes which almost made lose a goal due to the mistake of ball trapping and misreading the other players’ plays. And this game seemed to overly depend on the three English Premier Leaguers, Ji-sung Park (27) of Manchester United, Ki-hyeon Seol (29) of Fulham and Young-pyo Lee (31) of Tottenham Hotspur. It is an obvious truth that they played very well in this game, but other players’ plays were out of the interests of the press and the fans. Although people desired to watch their plays and so they visited Korea to meet the expectations, how about did the coach give a chance to other players for experiences this kind of big game?