Sunday, June 25, 2006

Ave, Jeff!

June 25th marks the beginning of the Korean War (1950-53 for main conflict; technically still in a state of war but under armistice), and is known here as "six-two-five," or yugio. In Korean, the expression is spelled out in syllables as yuk-ee-oh, but thanks to liaison is pronounced "yoo-ghee-oh." There's an animé-style children's card game (and movie?) called Yu Gi Oh (check out the official site here). The game is probably Japanese and has nothing to do with the Korean War, but whenever I hear the game's name, I always think of June 25th.

Anyway, 6/25 is a day of remembrance here on the peninsula. What have you been doing for your yugio? If your answer is, "Nothing special," perhaps the best thing you can do today is read this piece by Jeff of Ruminations in Korea, which provides a clear and detailed breakdown of what went wrong for Korea in its match with Switzerland, and explains why Korea really has no right to be complaining.

Rest assured, though, expats: it's not as though all Koreans have whipped themselves into irrational frenzy over "bad" officiating. GM Jeonuchi, for one, is putting all this behind him. Hey, GMJ-- at least Korea had a better showing than the US did. I think we scored all of one point the entire time we were there.


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