Go for the 1st winning at Busan Stadium

All eyes are on Busan Asiad Main Stadium where the Korean national soccer team plays the first match with Poland. Citizens wish the Korean team the first victory and advancing to the second round. The main stadium and the entire city were overwhelmed with excited soccer fans.

The final rehearsal began at 3:00 p.m. in the Busan Asiad Main Stadium. Primary school students had a soccer game before the Korea-Poland game. Video images on the main screen and fanfare blaring in the stadium sent supporter of each team in excitement. As Korean supporters chanting their phrases, Poland supporter responded with ‘Polska Gola’ , meaning ‘Poland , score a goal.’

‘Korea Performance’ was held at the street to the main stadium for two hours from 5:20 p.m. to 7:20 p.m. The performance included various events like Jazz and Pangut (Korean traditional sole drama), brass band performance, and traditional plays. At the Busan Station plaza a large screen that is 5 meter high and 3 meter wide was set up. About 1,000 Red Devils members, citizens, and Poland team supporters gathered together. Other performances were held at Nopodong subway station, express bus terminal, and at the main gate of Donga University.

Beginning at 10:00 a.m. 3000 admission tickets that previously allocated to foreigners were sold at Sajik baseball stadium, which were flicked by a total of 15,000 soccer fans. The on-site ticket sale was announced late in the afternoon on Jun 3, and over 3,000 soccer fans flocked to the stadium by midnight. The number exceeded over 10,000 just before the ticket sale. Meanwhile, some yielded their place in the queue by receiving double the ticket price.

Fire Department of Busan city has dispatched about 200 firefighters and 12 ambulances to the stadium. Fire-fighting team and CBR team were deployed 5 hours before the game to prevent possible accidents or fire outbreaks.

Also Busan police department dispatched personnel and choppers to maintain public order in and out of the stadium. Despite the large droves of spectators, however, there were no accidents, giving a good impression to foreigners visiting the port city. It was estimated about 95 percent cars took part in the odd-even system, and most of the spectators went the stadium by mass transportation.

Jeong-Hoon Kang manman@donga.com