Korea 3:1 Australia

Saturday, September 05, 2009 | |

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I went to the Korea/Australia friendly tonight with a few of my coworkers at the World Cup Stadium in Mapo, Seoul. It's on my subway line, just 10 mins or so away.


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We were there with some Aussies that one of my coworkers knew--they'd bought the tickets, so we were all sitting in the Socceroo's seating section.


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We had amazing seats--in the 3rd row from the pitch, just behind and to the right of the goal.


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Korea scored so quickly (in the 5th minute) I got caught out changing lenses and missed it. I caught the celebration, which was accompanied by thunderous "Dae-han-min-guk"s.


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Korea kept the pressure on...


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...and Mark Schwarzer came this close to fumbling an easy roller over the line for Korea's second goal.


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As it happened...


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...Korea scored again anyway by the 20th minute...


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...and threatened for a third.


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Australia got back into the game though with a goal in the 33rd minute, setting off celebrations all around us...


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...and essentially controlled the rest of the half.

Halftime:
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It wasn't just Aussies in what was supposedly the Aussie seating section, though. Lots of Koreans had bought seats (and at only W30,000 I wouldn't blame them).
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Australia continued to control the game from the start of the second half, which meant the action stayed down on our end of the pitch.


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Australia constantly threatened an equaliser...


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...but Korea's defence held firm.


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Eventually, an opportunistic run and cross from Park Jisung killed the game off with Korea's third goal...


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...although Australia nearly scored again with a header off the post in the dying minutes.


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And that was how the game ended, 3-1 Korea.


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The Australian contingent was still no less enthusiastic in saluting their team...


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...and the Socceroos walked over to return the favor. One player took a ball and kicked it into the stands, setting off a mad scrum where it landed just two rows directly behind me. After a while, an Aussie emerged with it triumphantly...


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...but when he looked around, he saw this Korean kid and gave it to him.

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