Are Korean more realistic than Japanese?

Annyeonghaseyo! This is Atsushi!
Annyeonghaseyo is "hello" in Korean.

We visited South Korean Football Association (KFA) office.
It's located in a quite residential area, which is 2-3 km away from Myongdon.

I think Japanese are familiar with this place.

There is a display storing historical jersey of national Korean soccer teams.

As unusual ,we made an appointment before we visited here, because we're refused to enter South African Football Association.

The guy I'm talking to is Mr. Park who is in charge of media publication.

I gave a Japanese traditional craft called "Manekineko" as a souvenir.

Look at the Korean flag painted on its face!

They are available on the following website.

http://spazioincontro.jp/go2010/

Then, we started asking him about Korean soccer.

If you are not a soccer fan, just skip it.

What impressed me the most was the story about how Korean national team is preparing for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

He told me that KFA coaching staffs made a visit to South Africa during the Confederations Cup and conducted an inspection to choose training camp by checking its location or altitude.Then, they selected Rustenburg out of 10 host cities as the training camp.

Mr. Park made an interesting comment on Korean national team.

I asked him, "Japanese national team is aiming at making it to the semi final. How about Korea?"

He already knew about the Japanese ambition and replied, "Our goal is to advance to knock-out round."

This goal was set by the Korean national team headcoach Hun Jung-Moo and is regarded as "realistic" by public.

I'm not talking about which is smart, Japan or Korea.

Additionally, Mr. Park told me that Korean soccer players' slogan is always "Never give till the end."

By the way, I asked why Korean jersey is colored "shocking pink". 

He did't like the way it sounds. 

He collected it as "hot reds" which is a common way of calling it in Korea.

I'm sorry.

It is said that this hot red has been used as a team color since the World Cup 1954 in Switzerland. 


I also asked him about the influence of military-draft system on Korean soccer.
Did you know that one of the K League teams is military-based team?
The team is Gwangju Sangmu FC.


Sangmu's playing staff is made up of young Korean professional footballers serving their two year military duty. That means the squad is completely replaced in 3 yeas. It's unusual. 


This must be a big disadvantage in that the players are required to go through military training, comparing to other K League teams. But Sangmu FC finished their 2009 season at higher position on the ladder. 

I asked him if the military draft have something to do with the spirit of "Never give up till the end." But Mr. Park kept silent.

In the meantime, I had to wrap up the interview. 

I hope I can get to the point next time.

Check it our the K League movie!

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