In any case, I was with my Korean friends which pretty much ensured a party. A party which, it developed, they had been celebrating since the night before, and at least one of our party party ("party squared" to you mathematicians... and you squares) was already severely damaged by the time they all got to my house. We drank a few Coronas while she sucked down pain killers.
On the way up the women slept in the back, and Ox and I chatted when he wasn't fighting the pretty cruddy traffic.
The game was at the Oakland Coliseum (the name of which changes as corporations ebb and flow, or alter their marketing strategies) and we go there just a bit before the game, but late enough so that our $50 tickets only allowed us to find seats in the $30 areas. No big deal, it was warm and sunny and we were surrounded by celebrating Koreans. It threw me back to my recent stay in Seoul as I was the only white guy in some distance. No big deal in some ways though, as many of my section-mates were 2nd generation Koreans who spoke 15 fewer Korean words than I do (I know this to be true because they spoke none and I have 15) and some who had no idea what the rules of soccer are.
The Costa Ricans weren't nearly as much in evidence and I must say, from a purely male chauvinist pig, check out the hotties attitude? Korean female soccer fans are much cuter than Costa Rican female soccer fans. Part of it was probably demographic as the Costa Rican fan base seemed much older than the Korean one. With that piggery in the past... ;-)
The game was good... Korea started slowly and Costa Rica made some nice long runs in the first half. Costa Rica finally scored on a marginal call which lead to a penalty kick. The Costa Rican team was the master of that soccer trick the "I was fouled ohmigod my shin is fractured in 18 places i must roll around until someone gives me morphine or shoots me, the pain is too great I can no longer live I... oh.. no penalty call? I'd better hope right back up on this broken shin and start playing soccer again."
I hate that.
Being that I was with Koreans, halftime was an orgy of cell-ulosity
In the second half Korea was extremely aggresive, playing in Costa Rica's end, but always managing to bollix up its excellent scoring opportunities. The Korean strikers seemed to have a reversed sense of which way to put spin on the ball to bend it. They routinely bent shots on goal back towards the field of play and unless this is some brilliant oriental scheme whose genius will reveal itself in the days to come? I call suckology.
So Korea lost, but we all had fun and on the way out I took this quick snapshot of a typical Korean fan:
On the way back the women slept again.
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