Sport in Korea: Which is Better, Football or Baseball?

Football

I’ve been to a couple of football games in Korea now, both domestic and continental. I attended Seoul’s opening game of the season against Chunnam Dragons they started with the usual opening day procedures. When the game got underway the most noticeable difference to the English game that I’m used to is the considerable drop in quality and talent. Poor passing, no control, and shambolic organisation. I have been told that the best Koreans players get offers from abroad and head to Europe or Japan, and even those that can kick a ball straight get lured to oil-rich nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia leaving Korea’s domestic game lacking quality to say the least, even Emile Heskey could look good in this league… OK, maybe not.

Korea was lucky enough to joint host the World Cup with Japan in 2002, as a result Seoul got a brand new stadium which Seoul FC were fortunate to inherit after the tournament. The downside to this is that Seoul FC usually attracts crowds of around 15,000 which don’t quite fill the 67,000 seater stadium that the team plays in. The fans are too spread and the stadium looks empty. This is how a stadium would look if Joey Barton ever had a testimonial, no one would go.

I’ve also made an appearance at an Asian Champions League game, when Seoul took on Kawasaki Frontale. The Asian CL is different from the UEFA CL, I was expecting to hear that glorious, recognisable theme tune (The Champioooooons!). Instead I got a Korean rendition of If You’re Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands. Not quite the same.

I took my seat and before long the game was underway, I noticed the two guys in front of me had a feast of snacks to eat throughout the game, they even had a huge pizza.

This is what’s wrong with football today, the American influence has changed every sporting event into an eating competition. You don’t go to the football for the food. It’s called “The Beautiful Game” for a reason. It’s meant to be watched, observed, studied, it’s about passion, and creating an atmosphere, not filling your face with over-priced hot dogs. If you’re hungry, you have a dodgy pie before the game. Unfortunately too many clubs have gone down this route, and yes my club (Arsenal) is also guilty of this. Sure, we can boast that we have one of the highest incomes from match days in global football, but at what cost? Filling the stadium with plastic fans and out-pricing genuine fans creating one of the worst atmospheres in European football. The FA are guilty of this too, for too many reasons; for the over budget Wembley Stadium, milking fans, charging them £50+ for irrelevant friendlies – they’ve sold out. It’s a major shame… Maybe I overthought those two guys having pizza.

I moved in the second half and got amongst the signing fans, they were a delight. Real fans.

Seoul have lost the games that I have attended so far. Last season Seoul finished 4^th (surprise, surprise, I’m supporting the team that finished 4^th) and qualified for the Champions League. This season they’re 2^nd bottom and have scored a less than impressive 6 goals in 11 games. This demise has occurred since I have started “supporting” them, I’m sure they could do without my support.

Baseball

The most popular sport in Korea is baseball so for months I had wanted to go to a game. We decided to attend the Doosan Bears vs. LG Twins game, these are both Seoul based teams so it was pretty likely that this game would sell out. We came up with a plan to get to the stadium at 11am (3 hours before kick-off) to ensure that we got tickets. There was only one slight hiccup to our plan and that was that we went out drinking the night before and therefore slept in. We arrived at the stadium at 1:30pm (30 minutes before kick-off) and inevitably the game had sold out. This left us with 2 choices, call an end to our baseball adventure or find a ticket tout, in no time at all we found a tout.

They seem to be very common, all there to make a quick won. In very broken English we asked him how much he wanted for a ticket, he said ₩9,000 (£5). We agreed and he led us to though the subway station to the man with the tickets (it was very dodgy). We tried to give him the cash but he was refusing saying that he wanted more, he wanted ₩19,000 (£11). We weren’t happy about the increase in price but decided to pay it anyway as the game was starting very soon. So we handed him ₩19,000 and he said no again, we realised that in fact he wanted ₩90,000 (£52) for a ticket. We told him where to poke his ticket.

The game had started and we decided to wait 15 minutes for the ticket prices to come down a little and not long after we found another tout and got a ticket for the reasonable price of ₩15,000 (£9). We stocked up our beers for the afternoon and made our way into the stadium. We had standing tickets and found a good spot at the back of the stand. The sun was shining and I had a cold beer in my hand, I cared little about everything else around me.

I had no idea what I was watching. Scott tried to explain the rules to me but ultimately it’s just glorified rounders. The atmosphere was good and everyone else was really into it, although I couldn’t bring myself to cheer at a girls’ school sport.

Scott made a comment that made me chuckle. He said that he was impressed with the crowd chanted in unison. Well, yeah… that’s what all sports crowds do, don’t they? He went on to explain that in American sports there is no organisation with the chanting, everyone just shouts what they like when they like. ‘Murica.

After a while I realised that watching baseball is very much like watching cricket, you go along not because it’s a great sport but because it’s a nice day and you can get drunk. I did have fun, and I’d probably go again but when you have a choice to attend a good baseball game or a poor football game I will always go to the poor football game. 

For all of football's downfalls it is still adored worldwide, and baseball is just another bat-and-ball game. Football is the greatest sport on the planet. No questions asked. 

"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more important than that."
Bill Shankley

Furry Felines, Horny Hounds, and Coffee

It’s taken a while but I finally got round to going to both a cat café and a dog café. Korea is renowned for these particular attractions so like the tourist that I am I went. I’m still not sure if I like them or not, on one hand these places pamper the animals, there’s a constant flow of customers coming in and giving the animals attention and treats, but on the other hand the animals are essentially caged all day. The good outweighs the bad so I think I’m fine with it.

Karl and I had our first man date in a dog café. I feel sorry for dogs in Korea, it’s the ultimate beauty contest, it’s almost like Russian roulette. If you’re a cute dog then you’ll end up in a café, if you’re a mutt then you’ll end up in the butchers (it’s not strictly legal but it still happens).

People in Korea (especially girls) love all things cute, so most of the dogs were tiny spaniels, poodles, or Chihuahuas; there were a few cool dogs there though. Dogs are fun to watch, they’re easily excited, running around, fighting, and more often than not they’re humping which is always funny. There was an army guy at the next table to Karl and I, he was there with his girlfriend. At one point I overheard him say “I didn’t come here to watch dog porn”. That was the main reason I was there, it was entertaining, I took like 40 pictures.

A few weeks later and Karl and I had our second man date, this time at a cat café. Karl doesn’t really like cats so he was slightly reluctant to go. The first thing I noticed was the lack of enthusiasm that cats generally have. They’d be lying down and act like “Oh look, more people. So what?” There were many Koreans also in the café and they were speaking Korean to the cats and it dawned on me that the cats probably know more Korean than I do.

The cats have free reign of the café, they will walk all over the counters, I really hate that. I wasn’t too keen on the coffee in these animal cafes. It’s probably not worth thinking about that the same people that clean up after the animals also make the coffee, like I said I’d rather not think about it.

The cats generally do nothing unless you give them a treat. The other customers bought some chicken and the cats all rush to them. Having only spent a short amount of time there you soon start to realise that cats are sluts. Cat cafés are like strip clubs and the cats are the strippers, they’re only interested in you if you tip them. They will sit on your lap if you pay them.

Whereas dogs, they’re more like the drunk girl at a party. They put on a show for everyone and don’t expect anything in return. Dogs and drunk girls are just happy to be getting the attention.

So which do I like more, cats or dogs? Well, that’s the same as asking which do I like more, strippers or drunk girls? Let’s just say I like cats and dogs equally.

The Melee in Hongdae - Street Fighting, Lanterns, and Suwon

I’m starting to notice a bit of a recurring theme with the stories I have been writing on this blog. It seems rather regular that a story starts with “We were drinking in a park when… “ and this story is no different.

It was Friday night and through a friend of a friend we were drinking with a group of maybe ten French guys. Generally, the relationship between Britain and France is antagonistic, but after a few drinks with these guys I was having a great night. An easy icebreaker between European males is to talk football, they supported Lille and Arsenal is basically French so we had a lot to talk about. After a few drinks I started to realise that I share many similarities with the stereotypical frog. For instance; French people are rude and obnoxious, and I’m rude and obnoxious. French people rarely shave, and I rarely shave. The French are known for being great lovers, and I’m… OK I’m not that similar to them. Anyway, we were drinking in Hongdae park when a Korean bloke approached us and he was asking us if we wanted to fight him. It turned out that this guy is a professional boxer and was giving people the opportunity to pay him to fight him. So you pay him to get your arse kicked. You know what, I’m good. I don’t know if this guy was training for a fight and wanted some different competition, or maybe he was just after an ego boost but he was not short of opponents, one being one of the French guys who was out with us. He was drunk which made the fight all the easier for the sober professional. There was some basic equipment, gloves, headgear, and a bloke with a smart phone to time the rounds so you know it’s legit. There was also a sign tied to a tree which explained the rules.

Here is some of round 1 (notice the drunk guy with the makgeolli).

Some of round 2.

Unfortunately I ran out of memory to capture round 3 but it was a blood bath. The boxer didn’t want to fight the third round stating that he’d batter him, which inevitably happened but the French guy was persistent (I know, a French guy who wants to fight – that’s unheard of!). The fight finally finished and the French guy was covered in blood and his face was black and blue. The boxer finished the fight a little sweatier than before. Was it worth it? Definitely not.

We continued drinking in Hongdae but the drama stopped there.

The following day we went to the Lotus Lantern Festival which was spread out across Seoul. We checked out a few of the Buddhist Temples (Bongeunsa and Jogyesa) and watched the parade come through Dongdaemun. It was pretty cool. I mean, essentially it’s only fancy origami with a couple of candles but impressive all the same.

We had our term break this week, a couple of days off during the week. We went down to Suwon to see Rabel and to explore Suwon. It was great we walked around the city and walked the length of the fortress walls. A great day of sightseeing.

After a full day of sightseeing we rounded the day off with a Noraebang (karaoke singing room). I tolerate these places and I’m often forced to sing even when I don’t want to, I went along with the guys this time but made it clear that I was coming for the beer. Very soon into it while the guys were singing I got a really strange impulse… to sing! This had never happened before. I sang an Arctic Monkeys song (poorly) and I really enjoyed it! Before I could gather my thoughts I was lining up another and by the end of the night I had sung Oasis, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Spice Girls, Shaggy, and Frozen (when in Korea, do as the Koreans do). I thoroughly enjoyed the karaoke and I never thought that would happen in my lifetime.

Back at work today but we’ve got another long weekend ahead of us. I could really get used to these two-and-a-half day working weeks.