Football!

Since moving here I have found myself exploring all manner of new taste experiences. While I still promise to post soon on the gastronomic acid trips of my new life, today I am focusing on a less edible but no less important new taste adventure: that of sport

Here in Korea, hockey is out. The Habs have, once again, struggled desperately to just barely make the NHL playoffs. Even if they were doing well, I am now situated a good 10,000 km from their home rink – a little far to go even if they were to win the cup (oh please don’t let them win the cup when I’m not there). Accordingly I must satiate my thirst for watching dudes fight each other over an object and two nets some other way.

If you are like the majority of humans on this planet, Association football (hereafter referred to as football) was likely already your favourite sport. For me, though, this is somewhat of a new experience. Having now been to a few games, I can honestly say that I passively appreciate the sport, if not out-and-out love it. To me it seems like a more violent, more graceful, and ultimately more boring and slower-paced version of ice hockey with a lot less bloodshed and a lot more diving. Regardless of my extremely biased opinion of it, however, as a spectator sport football is unarguably second-to-none.

A few weeks ago I took the bus to nearby Suwon City with some of my friends to watch the local Suwon Blue Wings play the visiting Jeju Stingers. Suji is located pretty much halfway between Seoul and Suwon but is slightly closer and more accessible to the latter so this has become our default home team. (The bus each way costs about 60 cents, whereas it’s a whopping 1.50 to get into Seoul). Upon getting off the bus, the full monstrosity of the local stadium truly revealed itself. In case you forgot or never cared in the first place, Korea was the host country of the 2002 World Cup. This means that brand-new, state-of-the-art stadiums were erected in big cities all across the country to accommodate the influx of international soccer hooligans. This thing was massive. The capacity is a mind-blowing 43,000 and I can safely say that the bathroom facilities outside the stadium offered me my first chance to pee inside a big soccer ball.

As we were milling around the outside gate before the game started, the inevitable scalper soon meandered up to us and asked in broken English if we had our tickets for the game yet. (Note – I use the term ‘scalper’ here because I did not know the non-offensive, non-culturally deprecating word for these guys, although Wikipedia informs me it is tout. If you’re not British, did you know this word? Everybody take a moment to reflect on how deep-seeded racism is in the modern English language). Showing the tout our season passes (mine borrowed from an absent friend), we politely said that we already had them and he politely nodded knowingly in response. Before parting ways, though, he decided he would strike up a little chit-chat with us “waygus” (foreigners) for reasons of sheer friendliness. Upon hearing that my friend Matt and I were from Canada, his eyes lit up: “Oh! Yes, all you Canadians are so beautiful! You, sir (gesturing to myself): Mr. Brad Pitt! You, sir (gesturing to Matt): Mr. Dustin Hoffman! Canadians so pretty!” Matt and I were too overcome with the novelty of being compared to some of the arbitrarily-voted sexiest men alive to debate. We simply laughed off the obtuse compliment and thanked the man before he bowed to us and went on his way. I still don’t know what kind of commentary can be made on a place in which I am being likened to famous movie stars, but perhaps it’s best not to think about it.

Left to right: Mr. Dustin Hoffman, Mr. Brad Pitt, and Steve

Anyway, the game finally started as we found our seats among the die-hardiest of avid Suwon fans. Amidst the sea of blue jerseys we were able to secure a place behind the goal and fairly close to the front row. Smack-dab in the middle of the hometown’s cheering section, I was soon struck by the extremely bizarre nature of 2 normally mundane fan rituals: 1) the flags, and 2) the chants.

As for the flags, well, just look at this picture. I am still unsure of what exactly Argentine revolutionaries have to do with South Korean football teams, but I have resigned myself to never finding out. This is one of those “dude, it’s just Korea” things that make me grin with confusion and nod my head vigorously in mock understanding. I’m unsure of what the other one in the picture says, but another giant flag I spotted there depicted some sort of happy skeleton with its disjointed bones spelling out the word ‘Suwon’. Again; smile and nod.

The chants were something else entirely. I am now more committed than ever to understanding Korean, if for no other reason than to sing along with clarity to what is said before and after “ooooOOO Suwon Happy Happy Go!!” in the 30 second-ish song repeated incessantly throughout the game.

As for stadium refreshments, I cannot comment on the food as I did not partake in any. I was surprised to find, though, that the usual got-you-by-the-gametes 900% mark-up on alcohol products so oft seen at venues such as this was pleasantly absent here. A misshapen 1L plastic bottle of Cass went for a cool 4000 won – a mark-up, to be sure, but a price reasonable enough to get proper tipsy whilst shouting yourself hoarse to live sports. Here is one place in Korea where heartless capitalism has still not punctuated where it so easily could; let’s hope it stays that way.

Right to left: Mr. Brad Pitt, Mr. Dustin Hoffman, and Colin

I will say right now that the actual game of footie itself absolutely sucked. The home team lost 1-0 and both teams played rather terribly. Again, I’m no football buff, but it just seemed like the calibre wasn’t all that fantastic – an observation corroborated by the Irishman sitting next to me. In the end, though, that couldn’t have mattered less. I got my money’s worth (it was free), and I got a decent buzz going for mad cheap.

Last weekend I attended another Suwon game – this one as a visiting team supporter when they played Seoul FC in Seoul. I hadn’t thought it would be possible, but the stadium was bigger, the beer cheaper, and the home team fans even more raucous than in Suwon. The place was so massive that it almost put The Big Owe to shame. Except for these slight alterations, though, the game was pretty much the same.

Ultimately I feel that it doesn’t really matter if I wholly enjoy the sport I’m watching or not. Regardless of whether it’s football, cricket, or geriatric lawn darts, I eagerly anticipate my future ventures into the wild world of sports spectatorship here on this side of the globe. If you care to read a similar report of a foreigner’s experience watching the Suwon Blue Wings with more photos than I offer here, please check out my co-worker friend Allan’s experience of a different game on his own blog, linked on the upper right panel here for future reference.

Next up: the even newer digs.