Rain May Dampen Cup Rallies in Korea

Seasonal rain is forecasted for June 24, the day of the Korea–Switzerland World Cup match, which means Koreans planning to join outdoor street cheering will have to do so in a strong downpour. The fateful match will decide whether the Korean national soccer team will be able to advance to the round of 16 in the 2006 Germany World Cup.

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), Korea will fall under the influence of a low pressure trough moving over from China, and seasonal rain will begin all across the country, starting from the peninsula’s central region on the morning of June 21 and spreading to the southern areas by the afternoon.

KMA also predicted that June 22 will see the seasonal rain front advancing up to the central parts, bringing heavy rain on the entire country for the following two days.

It was expected that on June 24, a crowd much larger than the 2.1 million on June 13, when Korea met Togo, or the 700 thousand on June 19, when Korea fought against France, would gather in the streets as office workers could relax and begin their weekend, and middle and high school students have a no-school Saturday.

However, the rainy weather forecast is disappointing organizers of the World Cup street cheering and citizens alike. Some fans are still determined to cheer outdoors despite the expected downpour, while others will fall back to cheering indoors.

As a growing number of people are choosing the latter, reservations in hotels near the Seoul Plaza in front of the City Hall or large beer bars in downtown have begun filling up.

Seoul Plaza Hotel stated that it is fully booked already and that there were many more reservation inquiries than there had been for Korea’s previous two World Cup matches. The owner of a big pub in the Gangnam area also said, “We are getting well prepared as many office workers will be coming here from early evening that night.”

The Red Devils (the national football team’s supporters club) and mobile carriers, who organized the outdoor cheering, plan to go ahead with the cheering but seem less than sure whether they will succeed in drawing a large crowd.

gaea@donga.com peacechaos@donga.com