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Remember Jeonju!
Jeonju, South Korea - We came all the way to Korea to see the US play Mexico. What a great game this was going to be; the two biggest rivals in CONCACAF squarring off at the World Cup with a trip to Round of 16 at stake. Just advancing to the second round was a great accomplishment for the US, but to lose to Mexico in the Second Round...that would have made the World Cup a horrible memory. I didn't want to lose to Mexico. We arrived in Jeonju a day before the game so we could scope out the city. This was by far the dirtiest city I had been to. Our place was one hell of a place though. Blue lighted naked chicks on the wall & hallway, disco ball & condom machines in the room...all it was missing was a vibrating bed. Jeonju was also a college town from what I heard and there was a much younger crowd. Walking thru the city, we encountered some Mexican fans and one of them insulted us in Spanish under his breath. Brent, who knows a litle Spanish, heard what he said and fired something right back at him. The verbal insults continued from a far but luckily nothing came out of although I think the other Mexicans were holding the guy back from trying to fight us.... With that excitement out of the way, we found a nice little beauty salon in the middle of town. Brian aka 'Limey had decided to get his hair cut....exactly like Clint Mathis but only dyed red. It came out pretty good.
We were all no sooner settled in our new spot when the US scored. A quick pass to Reyna down the side, a nifty touch by Wolff to McBride...GOAL! I had bought some cheap ass streamers earlier in the day and I let a few fly when the ball went in. What an unbelievable start! The early goal really deflated the Mexican fans in attendance. Meanwhile we were singing and shouting the whole half. Playing Mexico is always fun...there are so many good songs in both English and Spanish. Whoever came up with "Stole my sombrero" is a friggin' genius.
After the game, I tried to see if I could stay in Korea for the next game but alas my boss said no...(only working there 3 months, I had no pull) I had to leave on a flight the next morning at 10am. At least I didn't have to bring the Baby Flag back. I left that with Brent for the next game. So my last night in Korea, I partied with the US fans till 5am and then took a train back to Seoul. I couldn't believe it; I was headed home while the US was headed to the Quarterfinals to face Germany. What a trip it was!
Ed Kirwan
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When we arrived to the stadium, we were all pretty disheartned to see our seats were not only in the upper tier, but we were all scattered. We couldn't support our team like that. We all mobbed up and formed a big section in the middle of the upper tier but that still wasn't going to be enough. Lucky for us, many Koreans thought that Korea would be playing in this game, so they had tickets but didn't go. This left the lower right corner virtually empty. Two minutes after the start of the game, we all headed down to that section...there was no way the Stewards were going to do anything about it...
The US had a scare early in the second half when John O'Brien played a ball in the box with his hand. Luckily, there was no call and it remained 1-0 until the 65th minute. A great cross by Eddie Lewis to Landon Donovan & it was 2-0. Realizing they were going to lose, the Mexicans took out their frustration on Cobi Jones, fouling him hard on every occasion. Funny thing is, that I had no clue about the "Hand of JOB" and how close it was to being 1-1 until I saw replays of the game back home in the US. Sometimes you get the calls, sometimes you don't ... This was by far the best US game I have ever attented: the magnitude of the win, beating Mexico in the World Cup, the fan support, the way we mobilized and took over the corner section, being outnumbered but outsing the Mexicans...it had it all.
