Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

A "disgrace": US goal not counted, only ties with Slovenia, 2-2

That was the wording used by the American half of the two-man announcing team following the come-from-behind tie to express his disgust at what may have been a bad call by the referee.

And when I heard that, I thought to myself that that sounded like one of those things that, had it been uttered by a Korean announcer following a disappointing call against the ROK team, the K-blogosphere would be awash in comments of what sorry sports the Koreans are in general.

But I'm sure it's just him. I have the utmost confidence that if you go online and look at the comments sections of various websites, there will be almost nothing but the nicest comments of how hard it is to officiate a match (and I should know, as I used to be an AYSO soccer ref in my youth). That is, if anybody in America even noticed Team USA was in the World Cup.

By the way, an oldie 2006 World Cup post... the rockin' Team USA logo.

3 comments:

LastnameKimSaturday, June 19, 2010 8:40:00 AM
But before you doubt the whiners, they may have a case. I have a few non-US supporting colleagues here and even THEY said the nullified goals were very questionable. But oh well, bad calls will arise and we just have to assume it was done in with innocent intentions (the bad calls, I mean).
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UnknownSaturday, June 19, 2010 9:31:00 AM
http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/blog/dirty-tackle/post/What-was-the-call-that-ruled-out-Edu-s-goal-No-?urn=sow,249599

The video here shows different angles of the goal/foul. It clearly shows Slovenia giving bear hugs to the the US players. And try to find a foul done by the US.

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/source-fifa-may-sit-slovenia-u-s-referee--fbintl_ro-referee061810.html

FIFA is going to review the game and the calls made by the ref.

Refs do not have to explain to anyone the reasoning for their calls which I think needs to be examined. I think that FIFA is going to get a lot of bad rep from this and they will need some readjustment.
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7Ø7Saturday, June 19, 2010 12:44:00 PM
Agree US was robbed. But I'm kinda hoping England will be eliminated.

Also, the US team needs a better logo. The only thing I will mention is that stars are usually for World Cup wins, which the US has none of (and yet still has three misleading stars on its crest).
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Ask Kushibo.

My Google/Blogspot data shows that a lot of the 2 million people who have landed on my site (yes, that's the real number) are looking for cultural information on Korea (e.g., “When did Syngman Rhee die?” “What did the Indians bring to the first Chusŏk?’ etc., etc.), as well as practical or historical stuff.

That got me thinking that, hey, I have a master’s degree in Korean studies and a minor in Japanese studies, I’ve lived in Seoul far longer than most foreans my age (whether they're kyopo or non-kyopo), I teach introductory courses on Korea and its cultural trappings and history, so why not offer a free service where I attempt to answer people’s questions, point them in the direction of where they can get them answered, and/or offer my regulars (that’s you!) a chance to take a stab at some of this stuff, too.

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九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.