North Korea Vs South Korea

On Sunday the 22ND a group of us toddled along to Olympic Stadium to watch the two Korea's battle in out in a game of Soccer. As both teams are already though this game didn't count for much but at the very least we were hoping for a goal fest as neither team has the best defence. As it turned out, neither team had the best attack as well and the game finished on a nil all draw.

Cricket in Korea

Here are two shots from a game of cricket i was lucky enough to be a part of a few weeks back. I played for a combined Australian and New Zealand team against a team comprised of members from Sri Lanka. It was played on University grounds in Suwon, a city south of Seoul.

Unfortunately we got our asses kicked. It was a Twenty twenty format game and after going into bat first, Sri Lanka scored an impressive 187 runs. We however were all out for 105.

My first Baseball Game: Bears Vs Twins

I've never been one to enthuse over baseball. Never had the urge to buy season tickets even after my several season stint at playing softball. But here i was sitting in the relatively empty stands screaming my guts out in support of the Bears on a cool Saturday afternoon. It turned out to be a pretty exciting game with the Bears taking a five nil lead until the top of the sixth when the Twins came back and scored 6 runs. It was down to the bottom of the nineth and a slide into home that could have saved the game when my voice started to give out. I was chuffed with my free ticket and my time well spent.

Post 83: 040907 Korea Vs Iran

On Saturday afternoon i meet up with a work mate and his partner and headed into Seoul. I'd been excitedly waiting for this day for some time. After watching at a distance the beginning of the 2006-07 Premier League i was filled with the thrills of football fever. So arranging a week back to buy tickets on the internet the three of us were off to watch Korea play Iran.

I'd been to a few games here before but this was my first fully fledged international. And with almost the first string Korean team flying in, i knew it was going to be exciting for everyone concerned.

We turned up a few hours early with the intention of getting a couple of beers in before the game. That was a mission in itself, we ran in circles before finally finding a place that had to turn on the lights for us as they were just opening. It was nearly 6pm by this time. They are late starters in this part of the world.

So we had our beers and went to the ground. With good intentions we pushed our way into the extremely large and extremely overcrowded supermarket under the stadium to buy a few more beers and some snacks. Beers that were, a few moments later, taken from us as we weren't allowed to bring cans in. But our spirits were not dampened.

We qued and finally found our seats with great views of the ptich and settled in to watch a decent game of footy. Hoping for a goalfest we were instead treated to a tight match with the first goal not coming until the end of the first half. Korea went into the break grasping their lead. The second half was a repeat and after ninety minutes thought the game was done when a freak goal from Iran lobbing the keeper saw them level the score and come away with a disappointing draw. The hype we'd seen from the grown throughout the game was blown like last christmas's balloon and all made their slow way home with downward cast eyes and deflated spirits. The draw however did not detract from our own pleasures of seeing a live game of international football and to be a part of the enthusiastic experience.

Post 81: 300806 Sports

As an avid escapist I try to spend a good deal of time in front of the telly watching sports games. Being where I am it's hard, in fact nearly impossible, to get televised Rugby, so I have to make do with football without English commentators, K-1 and other fight style bouts, occasional tennis tournaments and perhaps gold if I find the patience. There’s always the badminton, table tennis, American basketball, baseball and now beach volleyball but I have never found a passion for watching those games.

My best connection with teams and games from back home is of course the internet but those live play by play snippets really don’t satisfy my enthusiasm. In saying that, I have now added a sports section to the links where you will find teams and players I try to follow.

Post 69: 250706 The Photo at last

What is up with this site, when sometimes it won't let me upload photos. Anyways here is the crappy photo of a few of the guys i played football with on Monday night. I must have been at least ten years older than them but i still wasn't the oldest out there.

There will hopefully be five of us heading down tonight. We might even make our own team. Ah i've missed this for far too long.

Post 68: 250706 Indoor at last

I came to South Korea in April of 2003 I think it was. Not long before I left I played a game of indoor football with a team I had been with for some years. When I got here I was hoping to find, start, play indoor football with little or no break. As simple as moving from one field to the next. I’ve been waiting and hoping that long. Well tonight my waiting came to an end.

Last week as my girlfriend and I were walking along the back roads of the town around us I stumbled upon not one but two indoor football stadiums. How excited was I? I waited over three years to play football here, to pass a ball, to save a goal, to cheer and dare I say it, even to yell. Tonight I got to do all that. Not so much of the yelling I suppose, there was no ref to yell at nor was there my brother to fight with as we played.

The field itself is smaller with goals about as wide but coming up to around the chest. There’s no height limit on the ball but it doesn’t do much good with the goals so low. You can’t score from outside the half and you can only kick with the inside of the foot, so no taking the opponents head off. But it’s just as fast and as with everywhere, there those one or two players who can run rings around you and score from anywhere.

There were three of us who went down, Steve, Trevor and myself. As of Wednesday there will be five. At first we weren’t sure how it would work, us not having a team and all. As long as you pay your 6 bucks you can play the whole night should you still be standing. Games are an hour long with a single half time, no quarters. Basically if you’re there and keen to play, you jump on a team and start messing around.

I certainly felt the year since my last game, if truth be told I was feeling it after the second minute. That didn’t stop me from tearing up the field in search of the ball occasionally. I was admittedly slower but after spending a bit of time in the goal got the feel for it again and managed to make a few decent saves and when out in the mix of it, managed to send up a few decent through balls for others to score. I didn’t find the back of the net myself, mind you I rarely found it when I was playing every week.

I have no idea what the score was as it wasn’t kept but that didn’t matter in the slightest. Not having a ref meant there were few stops, just a constant peppering of the goals, a constant hunt for the ball and a constant sweet. I loved every minute of it.