Fans Hit Streets to Cheer Team Korea

Many Koreans want their dreams to come true. They also expect that they can encourage the Korean football players to do their best.

South Korea was again covered with Red Devils cheering for the national football team at 4:00 a.m. The Korean team was playing against Switzerland to win a ticket for the Stage 2 of the 2006 World Cup Games.

Koreans came out to the streets with their families, lovers and friends and chanted “GO! KOREA!” until the sun came up.

The families of the national players were also heartily rooting for the national team, and there were many university students gathering again in their schools, where summer vacation has already started.

Though the match was scheduled to start at 4:00 a.m., as many as 370,000 people started to pack into Cheonggye Plaza in front of Donga Media Center, Seoul City Hall, and Gwanghwamun since the evening of the day before the match.

Despite the forecast that there will be some rainfall in the Yeongnam and Honam regions, people didn’t hesitate to come out and root for the players. Police estimated that a whopping million of people were in the streets nationwide to see the game.

At Cheonggye Plaza, Seoul Plaza, and Gwanghwamun, more than 250,000 people gathered to see the game, which exceeds the number of people who gathered for the game against the French national team. It has been reported that as many as 200,000 people were out on the streets of Seoul to watch the game against the French national team. More people were able to come out to the streets this time since workers were able to get away with the burden of going to work the day after the match thanks to the system of five working days a week. Also, students didn’t have to worry about being late for school because they didn’t have to go to school on this Saturday.

Everybody stood up at once and shouted when the Korean players were displaying aggressive performances and were close to the goal. The game was to determine which team would advance to the semi-finals.

Kang Cheong-ha, a woman who was sitting in the “best seat” at Seoul Plaza said, “I had to change my night duty in order to participate in this street cheering.” She also said that she left her home at 9:00 a.m. the day before the match.

Pubs, hot rooms, and lodgings were filled with people watching the game between Korea and Switzerland. People in Busan and Daejeon were also excited for the players and cheered for them all through the night. In Busan, as many as 60,000 people were watching the game in Busan Asiad Main Stadium located in Geoje-dong, Yeonje-gu. Also, 115,000 people were at five other major gathering sites to root for the players. In Daejeon, 100,000 people joined the street cheering.

Park Pil-yong, Park Joo-young’s father, prayed for the victory of Korea’s team at a prayer house in Pohang. Park Joo-young’s mother was at Hanover to see her son and other players during the game.

Kim Jeong-gil and Jeong Geum-ja, Kim Jin-kyu’s parents, anxiously watched the game with 100 neighbors at Yeongdeok-gun in Gyeongbuk province. Also, at Andong High School, where Baek Ji-hoon graduated, as many as 200 students, who live in the school dormitory, watched the game.

On Campus-

There were many students on campus to watch the game even during their summer vacation. As many as 10,000 Seoul National University students and residents living near the university gathered in front of the grass plaza of Seoul National University’s administrative building. They were able to watch the World Cup Games after the finals of “Star League” sponsored by a cable TV channel.

Also, 2,500 students crowded the Main Hall of Yonsei University at Shinchon and 1,000 Sogang University students flocked into their gymnasium to watch the game.