Overexcitement, however, must be avoided. Wishing Korea the best and cheering to the limits of your voice is good, but going overboard or cheering against one's opponent is something that should be refrained from. Since the World Cup is about competition between national teams you see teams out to settle old scores, like Argentina and England, but the World Cup is a festival of reconciliation through football, and not a battlefield.

Quite becoming of the host country, there were Koreans cheering on the Poles when they played in Busan, and there were words of consolation when it lost. Foreigners are comparing the manners of everyday Koreans to those of the Japanese. It was nice to see one Polish journalist in Busan saying "Koreans are just too nice."

The psychological warfare between Korea and the United States will be no less intense. There are signs that some out there are going overboard, with one group saying it will gather a million signatures online encouraging an American defeat. Hopefully we will be able to show that we have the confidence to be able to cheer with the same sense of fairness as in the actual game. Offending one's opponent is something that we should all work together to avoid.

In sports, national sentiments, when they go too far, can cause problems. The World Cup is supposed to be about removing barriers of nationality and race through football, so if the people of the host country get overly excited and cause problems it ruins the party, and the country's standing in the world suffers severely as a result. When we cheer not only for ourselves, but for our neighbors and the national interest, then the US team will also be unable to stop Korea.
June 8, 2002