Continuing the Legend on Saturday

The advance to the best 8 of World Cup by Korean National Team made the whole of Korea cheer up all day of 19th of June. Whenever two more citizens met, they talked about the dramatic victory over Italy and anticipated the championship of Korean team with sharing delight.

The ceremony continued until the dawn of the next day and many citizens were late for their works. At a sauna in Samsung-dong, Kangnam-gu of Seoul, more than 60 workers came to relax from the early in the morning. The numbers are more than twice in ordinary days. Many peoples came to restaurants to sleep instead of meal at lunch- time.

Many works are animated because the staffs are preparing street cheering for the quarterfinal game between Korea and Spain in Kwangju at 22th June.

Yu Ho-gon(28), a staff of a venture company, said “ 22th of June, it is a weekend and day off, but I am going to street cheering with some colleagues’ and added “I bought national flag, hair band, muffler, etc.”

The excitement for the advance to the best 8 continued on the Internet too. The Internet was crowd out because many netizens loaded up writings with praise and encouragement to the director, Guss Hiddink and Korean national Team in cyber space.

A netizen with ID of ‘Sure! Victory’ load up writings on a sports webzine ‘Hoochu’ “I am proud of Korean Nation Team and being Korean. As we, Koreans, are united firmly, we will realize the championship marvelously.”

Many citizens participated in the street cheering expressed the hope of Championship by Korean National Team with shout of “Oh Korea, number one in the world”

In primary and secondary schools, the teachers were not able to practice class properly because the students were animated with the topic of the advance to the best 8.

Chang Eun-sil(29 F), teacher of Muhak Girls’ Middle School said “when I enter the class, all of students wearing red sports uniform were talking only about soccer. As far as I know, some neighbor schools have postponed in semester exam planned in the of June to the next month.”

Products related to World Cup are booming because of Korean Nation Team’s play, and many companies are preparing events for best 4 and championship.

After the opening of the World Cup, more than million of national flag were sold, and more than 700 thousand of players’ dolls were sold. Kim Hong-jun (31), Junior Manager of a doll manufacturer, Victor Korea, said “We have sold all of stocks, even samples in the office, we are produce 4,000 dolls, but we still need more workforce”.

A staff of system integration company, Samsung SDS, said “We haven’t planned any event related to the World Cup. Korean Team has played very well and we are considering seriously some events for best 4 and championship.”

The victory ceremony after the street cheering began late night of 18th of June continued until the dawn of 19th everywhere in Korea. Electricity was on most of apartments and other residential areas were lightening until three o’clock in the morning because of watching replay of the game and enjoying.

Min-Hyuk Park Sun-Woo Kim mhpark@donga.com sublime@donga.com