Without Zinedine Zidane, France may as well go home, fans pouring out of the Seoul World Cup Stadium said last night after "les Bleus" were clipped by Senegal 1-0.
A clearly disappointed Alain Ablitz from France said, "[Senegal] is just a normal team. We missed three times and it cost us the match. We may as well go home now."
He said the loss was the result of depending on Zidane too much and criticized his team's ineffective defense. "Without him we looked worse than ordinary."
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
Another French supporter, carrying the tricolor upside down, said, "Now we drink, we are all crying now."
South Korean Young Bae-chang said he had enjoyed the opening ceremony, but was disappointed with France.
"I'm sorry that they lost the game to Senegal because they're the champions and we do not want to see them leave so soon.
"In my opinion," Young said, "France lost because of the absence of Zidane. It's a big problem for them now to continue."
He said he was also worried for South Korea, as he had been heartened by his team's performance against France last week in a warm-up game in which the host country had narrowly lost 3-2.
"At the time we thought we had lost to the champions, but it looks like it's not true now."
Elated Senegalese supporter Abulai Cham said, "This is very important for Senegal, it shows we are number one, it shows we are a super team. It is good for African soccer."
South African Football Association member Frans Malesa said the result showed the continent was an emerging power in the game.
"This is fantastic for African football. The French had no chance at all."
He said that without the best player in the world, France looked like an ordinary side, but he cautioned against overoptimism from the Senegalese
"This is only the first round and we'll see how they do in the second round," he said.
Taiwan's angle on the World Cup
Taiwan does not have much influence in the world of soccer, but 10 representatives from the nation were on hand to witness the opening ceremony and game yesterday evening at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.
Earlier in the day, at the Taipei Mission in Korea, Director of the Information Division Liu Ming-liang (
After being written off, South Korea has put together a string of good results in the last month of warmup games, including a narrow 3-2 defeat by champions France.
Now they are more optimistic. "For the Koreans they expect their team to get into the second and third round, with `home court' advantage," Liu said.
He said the World Cup was important to South Korea because it would focus attention on the country.
"It will bring the eyes of the world to South Korea and they will expect more business and more tourists as a result."
As an example, Liu -- who has studied, lived and worked at the Taipei Mission on and off since the early 1980s -- said the Seoul Olympics in 1988 had "stimulated the economy and construction on both sides of the Han River (which runs through Seoul)."
The World Cup should have a similar beneficial effect, Liu said, after the 1997 Asian currency crisis, though he added that the South Korean economy was already back on track again, posting 5.7 percent growth in the first quarter of the year.
A recent report by the state-run Korea Development Institute estimated that the World Cup will generate 11.48 trillion Korean won (US$9.3 billion) in production and create some 350,496 jobs for the Korean economy.
The tourism industry alone may produce 1.79 trillion Korean won and create 40,000 jobs, according to another report released in January by the Bank of Korea.
Liu said the difference this time is that the World Cup will benefit the whole country, whereas the Olympic Games were held solely in Seoul and benefitted just the capital.
Christ is coming to South Korea
Christianity is alive and well in South Korea and hundreds of Christians turned up at the Seoul World Cup Stadium yesterday before the game.
They were handing out leaflets and growling into microphones most of the time, but took time out to explain exactly why Christianity was so popular in South Korea.
One South Korean missionary said, "It has been prophesized that the Messiah will appear in Korea. This fact is supported by Biblical and Buddhist scriptures."
The example given was Isaiah 41:1-9, which reads, "Be silent before me, you Islands ... who has stirred up one from the East, calling him in righteousness to his service. .... I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, `You are my servant, I have chosen you and have not rejected you.'"
When it was pointed out that this would refer more to Taiwan than South Korea and that South Korea was not an island, the missionary -- who would only nod when repeatedly asked for a name -- said that it had also been said that Christ would appear on the peninsula.
She did not, however, have any lines from the scripture to back it up.
FIFA mired in muck
While FIFA President Sepp Blatter seemed to achieve some closure after an attempted coup for his job, the South Korean press has been laying into the organization.
Following a FIFA executive committee meeting in Seoul, it was agreed that Blatter's challenger FIFA General-Secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen would resign.
But the local papers were not so congratulatory.
An editorial in the English-language Korean Herald said, "We cannot but deplore the excessive commercialism of [FIFA]."
It deplored the fact that South Koreans would have to pay for television feeds to monitors that have been sited around Seoul for the public to watch games.
Journalists have also been complaining about price gouging. In the press center, for example, it costs NT$500 to send a fax. Outside the cost is nearer NT$100.
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