The Grave Of the Giants.(World Cup 2002)(Brief Article)

If you listen to football purists, you'd think this World Cup has been a travesty. What, they grumble, has happened to their "beautiful game"? Teams with the noblest football pedigrees have been booted ignominiously from the tournament, depriving fans and advertisers of the game's marquee names. Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Argentina: all gone, victims of what traditionalists like to call "the coarsening of the game." They were plagued by injuries, robbed by overzealous referees. And the worst indignity: the traditional powers have been upstaged by a bunch of upstarts--Turkey, Senegal, South Korea and the United States--who advanced by "winning ugly." The newcomers possess speed, stamina and brute strength. But classic style? Forget about it.

Well, here's my advice: don't listen to the purists. This year's World Cup has been one of the most glorious spectacles in sport precisely because of the upsets, the surprises and the thrilling rise of unpolished outsiders. This World Cup is, in fact, the first truly to deserve its grandiose name. When the lords of football brought the tournament to Asia, they certainly had their minds set on globalizing the game. But they could never have imagined four giants falling in the first round as four neophytes from the corners of the globe raced into the Cup's final rounds. South Korea and Turkey, which entering the tournament had won just one World Cup game between them in 48 years of trying, both stormed into the semifinals with victories on Saturday. The remaining football powers--Germany and Brazil--are still the favorites to walk away with the trophy next week. But that doesn't diminish the achievements of the little guys, or the enormous psychological boost they have given both the World Cup and their homelands.

The huge red banner that Korean fans hung from the seats in Daejeon stadium last week seemed wildly optimistic: gate of hell, grave of giants! South Korea, ranked No. 40 in the world before the tournament, seemed to have little chance of beating Italy, the stylish three-time champions. But when mop-haired Korean star Ahn Jung Hwan headed home the golden goal in the game's 117th minute, capping a 2-1 come-from- behind victory, the words were suddenly, prophetically true. Four days later Korea did it again, edging the talented Spanish side in a controversial match (a clear Spanish goal was disallowed) that ended in penalty kicks. The Spaniards, like the Italians before them, caught a glimpse of hell: ...