South Korea's Miraculous Achievement in World Cup 2002 Part 1
The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the seventeenth edition of the FIFA World Cup, which took place from May 31 to June 30, 2002, in South Korea and Japan, jointly organized by the two countries.
The draw placed South Korea in Group D along with Portugal, the United States of America, and Poland.
فيديو ذات صلة
This browser does not support the video element.
South Korea opened their group stage matches at Busan Asiad Stadium in Busan by facing Poland, The South Koreans managed to win 2-0, scored by Hwang Son Hong in the 26th minute and Yoo Sang Chul in the 53rd minute.
After that, South Korea drew 1-1 with the United States of America at Daegu Stadium in Taeko.
The USA scored first through Clint Mathis in the 23rd minute before Ahn Jung Hwan equalized the score in the 78th minute.
South Korea finished its first-round matches by beating Portugal 1-0.
At the Incheon Munhak Stadium in Incheon, in front of more than 50,000 Korean fans.
South Korea managed to beat Portugal with a goal scored by Park Ji-sung, who was playing in the Japanese league at the time with the Kyoto Sanga team, before moving, as everyone knows, to PSV Eindhoven in 2003 and then to Manchester United in 2005.
With this win, South Korea surpassed the group stage for the first time in its history, after 5 previous participations, in which all were eliminated from the first round.
In the second round, on June 18, 2002, at Daejeon City Stadium, in front of more than 40,000 spectators
South Korea faced the star-studded Italy team, as the Italian squad at the time included many superstar players such as Gianluigi Buffon, Paolo Maldini, Francesco Totti, Christian Vieri, and Alessandro Del Piero.
The match started at 8:30 KST with the whistle of Ecuadorean referee Byron Moreno.
In the 18th minute, Italy opened the scoring through its striker Christian Vieri, Inter Milan player at the time, taking advantage of an elegant cross that Totti raised from a corner kick on Vieri's head, who put it in the net of the goalkeeper Lee Wen Gai.
The Italian one-goal lead continued until the 88th minute, when Italian defender Christian Bonucci made a fatal mistake that striker Seol Ki-Hyun made use of, scoring the equalizer for South Korea, amid the crazy joy of the Korean public, and Korea coach Guus Hiddink.
The match went to extra time, and in the 103rd minute Totti fell into the penalty area of Korea, demanding a penalty kick, but the Ecuadorean referee Moreno had a different opinion, as he considered that Totti was trying to deceive the referee by diving to win a penalty kick, so the referee gave him the second yellow card; thus, Totti was sent off. This case witnessed widespread controversy, but the majority believed that Totti may not be worthy of a penalty kick, but at least the referee should have considered the case as a natural contact between the attacker and the defender, and not a case of acting that requires a yellow card.
After that, Korea took advantage of the numerical shortage in the Italian ranks and dominated the match and had several chances, before Ahn Jung Hwan scored the golden goal in the 117th minute (the golden goal rule was followed in overtime at the time, whoever scores is considered the winner of the match).
In a match that witnessed a penalty kick miss by Korean Ahn Jung-hwan, a correct goal by Christian Vieri was canceled for offside.
A resounding surprise was achieved by Korea by knocking out the Italian national team, the runner-up of the Euro 2000.
That surprise spilled a lot of ink in the Italian newspapers, which described what happened as a catastrophe in every sense of the word, referring to the clear favoritism obtained by the Korean team from Ecuadorean referee Byron Moreno, and the Italian mafia, in turn, threatened this referee, who later entered prison on charges of smuggling drugs.