South Korea, North Korea and the miracle against Italy at the World Cup
11/25/2022
It sounds funny, but it is true that seasoned superstars like Paolo Maldini, Francesco Totti also feel uneasy when coming to Korea to play.
On June 18, 2002, in the 1/8 round of the World Cup, the entire Italian squad and coaching staff walked out to Daejeon Stadium (Korea) with a really worried mood.
On June 18, 2002, in the 1/8 round of the World Cup, the entire Italian squad and coaching staff walked out to Daejeon Stadium (Korea) with a really worried mood.
It sounds funny, but it is true that seasoned superstars like Paolo Maldini, Francesco Totti or even veteran coach Giovanni Trappatoni have felt something wrong. In the midst of a forest of red and white, with banners raised, one read many menacing messages such as: "Welcome to the Tomb of the Azzurri", "Reenactment 1966".
This is a dangerous reminder, because at that time, perhaps many Italians still can't forget, the 1966 Azzurri World Cup was eliminated right in the group stage after a painful loss in the 3rd leg against North Korea (0-1). ).
To strengthen the Korean home team, nearly 5 million people out of a total of 48 million people gathered in 240 squares, parks and urban areas of Seoul to watch this match. Perhaps there hasn't been a crowd so terrible gathered to support a football match until now. And on the big screens everywhere in Seoul, the message “Recalling 1966” was displayed all over the place.
And when Ahn Jung Hwan flew above Paolo Maldini to head South Korea in the lead in the 117th minute, the obsession of 36 years earlier appeared before the Italian superstars.
In 1966, they must have read or been told that Italian footballers returned home at Genoa airport in disgrace and were pelted with rotten tomatoes from the crowds that greeted them.
The then-coach Edmondo Fabbri sought solace in a string of bizarre conspiracy theories. His accusations, published in Stadio magazine in August 1966, generated controversy, to the point of scandal.
Players who were registered to play the match against North Korea said they felt cheated. Player Giacinto Facchetti says the injections given by the team doctor have left him feeling "a sense of insecurity and fear".
Some Italian writers even believe that coach Fabbri wrote and made the players sign something that they did not need to read what the content was. However, soon after the story was revealed, the players retracted all words with a new statement: "nothing particularly serious or strange happened".
Coach Fabbri was fired and banned from football for 11 months. And then he continued: "Some people wanted Italy to fail, and unfortunately, they did."
In Mario Tullio Giordano's six-hour political opera La Meglio Gioventu, three young Italians mock the locals in a seaside town. with the lyrics "Korea, Korea". It was parodied to mock their stars in 1966. And by 2002, the Italian press had warned of an impending threat to tomatoes and another North Korea.
Despite reaching the round of 16 of the 2002 World Cup, but the Italian team, the press and the coaching staff were angry because in the group stage they were denied up to 4 goals because of controversial offside phases. Coach Trappatino was angry, kicked and punched everything he could, he even shouted and yelled at the fourth referee.
And the concern came in the 1/8 round match against the Korean host. Vieri missed a goal, then Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno cut off a beautiful Italian attack, then sent Totti off. After the game, the Italian players smashed the trash cans in their dressing rooms.
At home, President Luciano Gaucci of the Perugia club, where Ahn Jung Hwan (who scored the decisive goal to knock Italy out in the 11th minute) also vowed that the Korean striker would never have a chance to play for him again. your team again. At the same time, he affirmed: "I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian football".
Gaucci was adamant and he did it right away. The next day, Gazzetta dello Sport editor Pietro Calabrese announced: "We have been eliminated, and need to resolve some old problems between us and the leaders of FIFA and UEFA. Shame for them, shame for a tournament like the World Cup."
Much of the Italian anger, however, was directed at the Ecuadorian referee, Mr. B. Moreno. Entire websites in Italy are devoted to cursing and criticizing Moreno.
Even the Italian press investigated and published a story (possibly false) about Mr. Moreno's purchase of a brand new red Chevrolet after the 2002 World Cup. And worst of all, they considered this to be the World Cup. Cup stolen by Korea.
Koreans, on the other hand, have different views on their achievements. In 1966, North Korea reached the quarterfinals and in 2002, it was South Korea's turn to reach the semifinals.
The hero of the DPRK in 1966 also said: "If the two Koreas are unified, we will win the 1966 World Cup." And everyone knows that, since 1953, the two Koreas have been divided, and that's why their relationship is strained, and football is like a little sticker on a big wound.
Daniel Gordon, whose 2002 film The Game of their Lives revealed a part of life in tight-lipped North Korea, said that when it comes to football, things are different: “There is a feeling, in both of these countries if there is any success in the World Cup for either country, it is simply the achievement of the Korean peninsula. It does not depend on whether the South or the North.” Therefore, when the 2002 World Cup was in Korea, people still mentioned 1966 because of that.
