2002 World Cup South Korea
The 2002 World Cup was the 17th edition of the tournament and was jointly hosted by South Korea and Japan, making it the first tournament held in Asia as well as the last World Cup to use the controversial “Golden goal” rule which settled the Euro 2000 Championships. Defending Champions France were surprisingly eliminated in.
2002 World Cup South Korea Vs Italy
Lets talk about the South Korea vs Italy 2002 world cup game.
I became a fan of South Korea during the 2002 world cup. Seeing a team of underdogs being led by Guus Hiddink to 4th place is something I will remember. Years later I came across videos on youtube describing the matches vs Spain and Italy as refereeing scandals. Reddit seems to agree with this viewpoint, as seen in threads such as this one,this one,and worst of all, this one. working video here. A video where someone has gone ahead and made a video weaving korean fouls, angry opponents, dramatic music and camera angles with each other to create some sort of evidence that it was all rigged. Often it leaves out the refs decision on the incident, making it seem like the koreans 'got away with it'. I would have appreciated the video if it had made any attempt at staying objective, but that did not seem to be the video makers cup of tea. (Yes, I am calling the video a piece of shit and a massive dramatization)
- World Cup 2002 Japan/South Korea Schedule: Here you will find all matches in the overview.
- 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan ™ - Matches. South Africa RSA. FIFA World Cup™ Final. Saitama Stadium 2002.
I personally never remembered them as such, but winning arguments on the internet about old football games is not exactly something I was interested in delving further into, especially not on youtube, so I dropped it. Well, today I was bored, and I found a video up on youtube covering (what i thought) was the entire South Korea vs Italy game, so I figured: why not, I will watch it and take note on every relevant decision the ref makes. It seems like 2 minutes of the first half of extra time + the last minutes of the second extra time is missing. This I didn't know until I had actually watched the 2 hour 10 minute video, but that much of the game should suffice. Here are my notes, with a link to the video time so you can judge for yourself if this was truly one of the worst refereeing jobs of all time.
World Cup Korea Japan 2002
If you want me to do the same thing for the spain - korea game I will do so. I will maintain objectivity throughout my notes, leaving my opinion at the bottom. I am aware that the referee later in his career was involved in matchfixing in ecuador, but lets not assume every single match he refereed was fixed, shall we?
14:02 Yellow card to an italian player.
14.39 Penalty to korea. There are no replays and the video quality is shit, I can spot the incident the ref is blowing for but the camera is too for away for it to be possible to see. The ref himself is however very close to the situation.
27.25 Yellow card to a korean player.
28.45 1-0 to Italy
32.15 Yellow card to Totti, clear elbow to the head.
51.50 A free kick is awarded to korea.
53.02 An italian player (coco) is hurt in a duel, no decision by the ref.
1.03.40 This can be seen at a shittier angle in the 'scandal' video. Italian player pulls the shirt of the korean player, the korean player retaliates with an elbow. Both players gets told to calm down by the ref and a free kick is awarded to korea.
1.06.30 Korea gets a free kick
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1.12 Free kick for korea, Zanetti gets a yellow card for protesting
1.23 Free kick for Italy
1.41.50 Korea equalizes, 1-1.
1.59 Korean player gets a yellow card.
2.00.30 Korean Free Kick.
2.02.30 Totti gets a yellow for diving, which means he is sent off.
2.03.15 Replay of the incident
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2.08.20 Offside call, the angle is terrible.
I also began noting down all of the fouls after around 15 minutes into the game, landing at 20 free kicks for Italy and 17 for Korea.
I think the free kick at 1.06.30 was the wrong call. I think the free kick at 1.23 is deserving of a yellow card. I think Totti dived. It's very clear that the korean player is first on the ball. I do not know if he actually deserved a yellow for the dive. Italy has 3-4 offsides throughout the game, some are closer than others, but its not like an incorrect offside call is a rarity. When you play that kind of football it is pretty common (as you all know) to have that one chance that actually was onside.
Overall I saw excellent korean and italian football, a very back and forth game and good refereeing. Can you show me what made this such a controversial game? Because I like cheering for korea, and I dont want to listen to this shit about korea rigging the world cup every time my favourite team is brought up. The notion is absurd anyway, you have to somehow pay off 3+ referees + their linesmen and tell them to somehow as subtly as possible rig the games so that korea wins by the smallest margin possible. It's just not possible.
(I'm sorry about the formatting, why is there no preview tool?)