From: Hildegaard Beauregard [ljlife@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 8:27 AM
To: Lee Jerome Life
Subject: Korea flies

Reporting from World Cup Watch Central.

"Porta dell'Inferno."

The words on a red banner hanging in the World Cup
Stadium in Daejeon, Korea: The Gate of Hell. The Red
Devils, the sea of red-clad fans surrounding the
pitch, had put up a message for their Italian
visitors, in Italian. So it became for Italy's 2002
World Cup hopes. And it was an inferno for other
reasons, too, a fiery match of relentless pursuit,
some brutal play by both sides, bloody on at least two
occasions, and then with some Dante style poetic
justice, but for his countrymen.

Italy's Christian Vieri charged close to the post to
head in a corner in the 18th minute. The early lead
was just as Italy would want it, and probably to their
advantage, as their "catenaccio" style of aggressive
defensive football would allow them to support a lead.
It also made the match for Korea ominously similar to
Japan's match earlier, where Turkey scored an early
goal and stonewalled the Japanese attack, leaving the
co-hosts to be spectators for the rest of their World
Cup.

But this match would be different for two reasons.
First, it was an incredibly faster pace. Korea's
remarkable team pursuit was matched by Italy. It was
not the sort of flowing game that Costa Rica v. Turkey
had been, but a high-paced game of checks and
counters. Italy also adopted the tactics of
basketball's New York Knicks to contend with the speed
of the Koreans, rough-housing against agility. Korea,
however, would not be intimidated and, if ignobly,
responded in kind. Italy started it right off,
Francesco Totti twice using elbows and fists when
going up for the ball with Korean opponents. And while
the Italians threw the punches and committed the
fouls, they also faked receiving them. Korea even had
a penalty kick in the 5th minute, after Italy's
Christian Panucci pulled down Korea's Ki Hyeong Seol,
but the spot kick by Jung Hwan Ahn was saved by
goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

The nastiness settled down somewhat in the second
half, but the urgency did not. Korea's attacks on goal
were not so off the mark as Japan's had been, but the
Italians were still turning them away. It looked as if
both co-hosts would fall, by the same score and in the
same fashion on the same day.

Then in the 88th minute, after all the fierce pace,
Seol found the ball right in front of the net after it
had been chipped into the box and lost in the
scramble. Seol socked it in, and the Inferno erupted.

Italy nearly ended it on the very next movement.
Breaking straight to the Korean goal, Italy's Damiano
Tommasi crossed perfectly to Christian Vieri with just
one Korean defender in the six-yard box. But Vieri's
follow-through was off, shooting the ball straight up
over the goal. Korea responded just as dramatically
with two more quick chances on goal, and the match had
turned into a barnstormer in the last minutes.

But full time ended at 1-1, and it was on to extra
time and the chance for a golden goal. They picked up
right where they left off at the kickoff, with heavy
pursuit and aggressive challenges, and Korea, with
momentum and the crowd behind them, kept up its pace
on the attack.

Then, in the 103rd minute, Totti was breaking into the
Korean box and went down, apparently from a collision
with a Korean defender. The whistle blew and hearts
all over the stadium stopped. A penalty kick for
Italy? The referee showed a yellow card -- to Totti!
Then came the red card! It was Totti's second caution,
and thus he was expelled. The replay showed incidental
contact, so that it looked neither a foul nor a dive.
But for Totti, who had gotten away with the blatant
dirty strikes on the Koreans, and who had taken dives
in the box earlier in the tournament, it was
turnabout, a stroke of karma.

Still with a man advantage, Korea could not break the
Italian defense and they finished off the first
15-minute period deadlocked as well.

The looming penalty shootout seemed a grave prospect
for Korea, having never taken that test of nerves
compared to the experienced Italians. But in the 117th
minute, just two minutes into the second extra period,
a long cross from outside the corner of the box found
Ahn, the same man who'd scored the header to tie the
U.S., and he headed it down towards the post and under
Buffon. Ahn was more startled than anyone, overcome
with tears of disbelief and joy in the celebration
that followed.

Korea had beaten Italy 2-1 in a comeback as amazing
and thrilling as France's in Europe 2000.

And they are on to meet their next European giant,
Spain, in the quarterfinals.

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