The Real Champions.(South Koreans and World Cup Soccer)(Brief Article)

The morning after South Korea's magical World Cup run came to an end last week, the streets of downtown Seoul were eerily quiet. Gone were the millions of delirious fans singing, dancing and embracing each other in a festival of patriotic fervor. The fireworks had fizzled out. The drums had gone silent. And the ubiquitous red shirts had been tucked away in people's closets, replaced on the street by the usual army of dark business suits. "We're known as a cooking-pot culture because we go hot and cold very quickly," says Lee Cheong Il, a 26- year-old bank teller. "But we better not let the feeling of the World Cup slip away."

Despite a loss in the third-place match to Turkey--and a naval clash with North Korea that left at least four South Korean soldiers dead and tensions between the two countries dangerously high--Koreans are hoping to keep the good feelings inspired by the World Cup alive. The mere fact that the indefatigable Korean team--winless in five previous Cups- -notched victories over four European soccer powers sparked a national catharsis. Now it wants to capitalize on that success to keep the nation's pride--and profits--flowing. Says former foreign minister Han Seung Joo: "The World Cup marks a dividing line, a crossing from our past into our future."

So what will the future hold? Well, for one thing, men's cosmetics. The popularity of Ahn Jung Hwan, the dashing, mop-haired striker, has Korean men (or, more likely, their wives) yearning for his silky skin and well-permed hair. Ahn's ads have boosted online sales of Somang cosmetics sixfold in the past month, according to the online mall Interpark.

The next big winner: anything Dutch. Guus Hiddink, the Dutch coach who turned the bumbling Korean team into a world-class side in just 18 months, has become a hero--a remarkable feat in a country that, with its history of foreign invasions and occupations, is distrustful of anything foreign. The "Hiddink syndrome" has even spurred a sharp interest in Grolsch beer, Gouda cheese and--don't yawn--courses in Dutch medieval history. Hiddink's biggest impact, however, may be in the boardroom. "He broke down traditional hierarchies," says Kang Han Soo, a researcher for the Samsung Economic Research Institute, who just published a report on "Hiddink's management principles." "Our companies ...