Argentina Caught in the “Death Trap” Group

“Not you too, Argentina....”

Followed by the fall of France, ranked number 1 in the world, Argentina, the world’s number 2, fell to their knees.

Argentina, one of the favorites to win the World Cup 2002 fell to their knees in the “Death Trap Group.”

Fall of Argentina brought as much shock as the demise of France. Before the opening of the final competition, media and gamblers alike picked Argentina to win over France with Argentina’s global stars such as Gabriel Batistuta, Hernan Crespo, Juan Veron and Ariel Ortega.

It was the Group F game Argentina vs. Sweden at Miyagi Japan on June 12.

Argentina put on full force in the game as they needed to win this game to advance to the next round on their own merit. However, 14 minutes into the second half, Argentina was robbed of the first goal to a picture-perfect corner kick by Anders Svensen of Sweden. Argentina evened the game on minute 43 with a goal by Hernan Crespo to end the game at 1:1.

With the game, Argentina recorded 1 win, 1 tie and 1 loss (4 points) and fell to the third spot in the group to fail to advance to the next round against all expectations.

This is the first time in 40 years since 1962 World Cup in Chile for Argentina to fail to advance to the next round.

The game from the same group, England against Nigeria, held in Osaka World Cup Stadium ended in 0:0 tie.

With the game, England tied with Sweden in points (5) with 1 win and 2 draws as well as the difference of goals scored and lost, but they were behind in the number of goals scored. So, England advanced as the second in the group.

As of June 12, a total of 8 teams, Denmark, Senegal, Spain, Brazil, Germany, Ireland as well as Sweden and England advanced to the next round.

제 목 Hong-Up Kim received 300 million Won

Supreme Prosecutor’s Office is said to have secured, on June 12, a statement from a source that Hong-Up Kim, Deputy Director of Asia Pacific Peace Foundation, received 300 million Won out of the 1 billion Won received by Jin-Gul Yoo, his college alumnus for exercising influence on court receivership proceedings of Sungwon Construction Company.

The prosecution found that Yoo received 1 billion Won in 10,000 cashiers’ checks denominated in 100,000 Won from President Chun of Sungwon Construction with “request to influence expedite the court receivership proceedings” for Sungwon Construction at “N” Japanese restaurant in Yoksam-dong Kangnam-gu in August 1999. Armed with that the prosecution filed for arrest warrant against Yoo for violation of laws on legal counsel.

The prosecution is said to have secured a statement from a source close to the incident that out of the 1 billion Won Yoo received, he kept 400 million Won for himself, gave 300 million Won to Hong-Up Kim and the other 300 million Won to Kim’s high school classmate and former President of Seoul Music Broadcasting, Sung-Hwan Kim.

Furthermore, the prosecution secured a statement that Chun had drinks with Hong-Up Kim after his request for influence to Yoo. As such, the prosecution is investigating whether Kim had any influence in court receivership proceedings of Sungwon Construction.

In the hearing for Yoo’s arrest warrant, his attorney, Yoong-Woo Chegal, questioned his client, “Didn’t the prosecution ask you whether Sung-Hwan Kim and another person each received 300 million Won out of the 1 billion Won you received?”

However, Yoo denied allegation and answered, “There is no third person, and I split the 1 billion Won with Sung-Hwan Kim 500 million Won each.”

Prosecution said, “We were forced to file for arrest warrant as Yoo attempted to obstruct investigation by pressuring those involved to bear false testimony and telling those related to the case to go into hiding.”