Word: seoul
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...Diving Lessons By HANNAH BEECH Seoul China failed to score against every team it played in this year's Cup. No surprise, considering this was the country's first time in the finals. But fans back home are whispering that the team wasn't merely incompetent. Rumor has it that players, including star defender Fan Zhiyi, threw the match against Costa Rica, a 2-0 defeat, to make a little cash. A boom in illegal sports gambling has tainted China's soccer league, which uncovered a slew of crooked referees and players fixing games last year. But Fan adamantly denies...
...dream had been lovely, a crescendo of victories that catapulted the South Korean team into the quarterfinals of the World Cup. But sitting in a Seoul movie theater watching the historic match between Korea and Spain, 23-year-old university student Jo Aram pinched herself as regulation time ended without a goal. Then two halves of extra time slipped by scoreless, after a linesman controversially disallowed a Spanish goal. Suddenly, the biggest game her country had ever played was to be decided by penalty kicks. Jo knew this was the part where she was going to awaken, because dreams always...
...this year's tournament. An insular nation used to squatting on the international sidelines has discovered that the whole world is watching?and Korea can glare right back. "We've never been proud of our country before," says Sue Park, who runs her own public relations company in Seoul. "We've had so many political problems, corruption, wars, even being divided between North and South. But today, I am so proud to be Korean...
...themselves, and that strength has carried them very far." So popular has Hiddink's "can do" approach become that his advice is being heeded even in Korea's boardrooms. Conglomerates like Samsung and LG are clamoring to have him speak at company retreats. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul is even offering a course in "Dutch Leadership," whatever that...
...over a debatable offside call. But even if the team goes down to defeat at the hands of Germany in the semifinals, few Koreans will be complaining. "I don't know if we have felt like this since we gained independence from Japan," said Hahn Juho, a lawyer in Seoul, as he joined the after-game jubilation. No matter what happens in the last stages of the World Cup, Korea will be partying long after the final whistle blows...