Korea 3:1 Australia

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.



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.



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



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.



Korea kept the pressure on...



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



As it happened...



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



...and threatened for a third.



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



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

Halftime:



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).




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.






Australia constantly threatened an equaliser...



...but Korea's defence held firm.



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



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



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



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



...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...



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