the WC Experience

How American am I that I can sum up my World Cup experience before it's all said and done. I'll keep an eye on the games but my rooting interest has come to its conclusion.

Both the US & Korea have been eliminated from the tournament. The only silver lining is that I don't have to watch them play each other after all. Notable places where I watched the games:

• Korea vs. Argentina - Munhak Stadium (my prior blog post)

• USA vs. England - Rio's Bar in Incheon, with an equal mix of Americans on one side of the bar and Brits on the other
• USA vs. Algeria - The Americans packed into a bar called Red Dog, or Three Dog's, or something with a "Dog" in it that was next door to Rio's where all the Brits were watching England vs. Slovenia
• Korea vs. Uruguay - Joseph, Carmine and myself watched this game at midnight or so outside a TV shop along with one Korean man who was standing by himself in the rain before we arrived. This guy was awesome and we shared our umbrella.

The rest of the games were fairly in the norm as far as where I watched them. I saw the Donovan reaction video. It was pretty exhilarating and it seems as tho we took our soccer a little bit more seriously this go around.

How intense are Koreans about the World Cup? My favorite Korean fan was at a bar, watching the game in a hospital gown, in a wheelchair, and connected to an IV. As far as I could tell he was not drinking that night