Tag: South Korea

  • Woman’s World Cup: Day 5

    I am having trouble with the time differences when it comes to the matches. I don’t want to sound like I’m copping out on watching. I try to stay up, but I fall asleep. Or I’ve been sleeping through my alarm. If the match isn’t at 9pm, then odds aren’t good that I will be able to watch live. What I am left with is reading and watching highlights. Not very exciting for me as I did watch all Team USA matches in 2019 and 2015. I am very proud of that fact, and sadly I am not sure I will be able to continue. USA plays Portugal on 8/1 at 3am Eastern. I’m planning on being there but I will have to fight for that one.

    So, what have I seen?

    USA v Vietnam: Seems the consensus about this match was that the USA was rusty, as they should have blown Vietnam out of the water. And that consensus is stupid by the way. 3-0 is a pretty serious drumming, and I get that Group E might come down to the point differential, but only Team USA would get scolded for not scoring enough points. My second take on this match is that Team USA would have had 7 goals is it wasn’t for Vietnam’s goalie, T. Thi Kim Tran. There was only so much Tran could do, and what she did was stop the American’s from rolling all over them.

    England v Haiti: Caught the tail end of this one. I would have thought that England would have scored more, but a win is a win.

    France v Jamaica: This was the second surprise of the tournament, after New Zealand beating Norway. Only saw highlights, and a tie is not a loss for France, but still surprising.

    Germany v Morocco: Don’t mess with Germany. Germany made a loud statement with their 6-0 win that they came to win this Cup.

    Brazil v Panama: And Brazil also made their statement with their 4-0 win, too.

    Columbia v South Korea: Looking forward to this one. I know that these two are not high ranked teams, but South Korea has always been a scrappy team in my eye – fun to watch. Maybe them or Columbia could be the Dark House of the Tournament.

  • Short Story Review: “Snowy Day” by Lee Chang-Dong (Translated from the Korean, by Heinz Insu Fenkl and Yoosup Chang.)

    (The short story “Snowy Day” by Lee Chang-Dong appeared in the March 6th, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (Yes, there will be SPOILERS!)

    Illustration by Anuj Shrestha

    “Snowy Day” is an okay story. Not awful, not amazing either, and in the end, I do recommend that you should read it. It was written by Lee Chang-Dong, translated from the Korean by Heinz Insu Fenkl and Yoosup Chang. I broke my own rule with this story and looked up who the author was to gain some background information, as I was curious and wanted to know why the author structured this story the way that he did. By the way, Lee Chang-Dong is an accomplished South Korean film director, screenwriter, and novelist.

    What struck me about “Snowy Day” was that the story felt like it was written from a different time; specifically, like a late 1940’s short story in Collier’sor some other magazine of that period. And what I mean by that is those stories of that time were structured in a classic form, but were beginning to take on a more Modern subject matter, so those stories had a disjointed, incongruent feel. That’s what “Snowy Day” felt like.

    The structure of this piece had an old feel to it. The story is bookended with a girl coming to a military camp looking for her new boyfriend, who is a private on the base. Then the story shifts to the private being on guard duty with a corporal, and this is where the majority of the action takes place, in this one setting. And the story follows the rule of three multiple times, and even slips in an “O. Henry” twist at the climax of the “dumb” character being smart, and the “tough” character being a coward. Then we return back to the girl being informed that the private is in the hospital and she leaves the base.

    Nothing surprised me in this story. Literary structure and form handled badly can be formulaic, and Lee Chang-Dong avoided that. The character of the private is intriguing, and made a good protagonist, while the girl feels more like a woman from a Poe story; tragic and doomed to have her heart broken. The other characters are left to serve the structure of the story. Yet, there still was this purposeful disjointed feel to the story. That these worlds weren’t fitting together as they should, which created an underlining tension. I think the structure is what helped create that, functioning as foreshadowing since we know how this structure is supposed to work.

    Like I said, the story is okay. I didn’t feel like my time was wasted reading “Snowy Day,” but it wasn’t compelling either. What I liked in reading this was seeing an author that respected and knew how to use form and structure to tell a story.

  • World Cup Dispatch: Past Weekend, and Today (Unedited)

    I caught a pretty awful chest cold over the weekend. I started feeling better today, so I’m going to try to catch up on this weekend’s matches, and what is going on today.

    Poor Team USA. I had a feeling that the Dutch would be a bridge too far for them, but I had to keep hope alive; This Cup seems to be about underdogs fighting to get the win. But the Netherlands are the Netherlands, which is the best team out there that has never won the Cup. The USMNT is a very young group, so I know that they will stick together, especially with the 2026 Cup being held here in America/Canada/Mexico.

    Did anyone doubt Argentina would win? Messi wants that trophy.

    France looks really good as well. They never seemed to not be in control in their match against Poland.

    As for England, it took them a bit to get started. For the first 35 minutes of that match, I thought Senegal had a chance to take it. And then all of a sudden, England remembered they were England, and started playing like it.

    And then there was today, were I just felt awful for Japan. No one likes going out on Penalty Kicks, but I really thought Japan was going to pull it off.

    And then there is Brazil that is just trouncing Korea right now. Talk about sending a statement. As of now it’s 4-0, and it’s not even half time. I had to turn it off.

    Ung… still not feeling well. I think I’m going to lay down for a bit.

    (And uh… If you, you know, like this thing that I do, please give it a like, and I’m going to take some DayQuil.)

  • World Cup Dispatch: Today’s Matches 12/2/22

    We are entering into the final day of the group stage, and I’m a little sad to see it come to an end. The matches over the last couple of days have been exciting, dramatic and decisive.

    In Group G, the always good Brazil is guaranteed to move on, so I don’t see them playing Cameroon too hard. Serbia v Switzerland could be exciting as the winner of that match should advance.

    Group H is pretty much in the same situation, with Portugal having already secured advancement. I was pulling for South Korea, and they have a chance, but to advance they have to beat Portugal. Yesterday, I would have said that was impossible… but… my honest gut feeling is that Ghana will take second in the group.

    I’m ready to be proved wrong, though, on all accounts. That’s what makes this fun!

    (You know what else is fun? You reading this blog. And if that’s true, please, give it a like.)

  • World Cup Dispatch: Catching Up, and Today

    So… I caught a cold this weekend. In fact, my wife caught it, too. We were done in by our daughter, who had a cold last week, got over it, and we thought we had dodged the bullet. We didn’t. It’s not awful, but it is a cold, which meant I did watch matches over the weekend, but just didn’t have the energy to write about it.

    My quick takes from the weekend:

    1. Feel bad for Mexico, but I had a feeling the Messi was going to show up, and he did. Things look good for Argentina, and rather dark for Mexico.
    2. I thought Japan would win, but Costa Rica’s Cup dreams are still alive.
    3. Germany is also not dead yet, but this could be the second Cup they don’t make it out of the Group stage.
    4. And the Big One; Belgium losing to Morocco. First of all, credit to Morocco for winning this against the number one team in the world. Second, maybe Belgium isn’t the powerhouse that everyone thinks they are; They did just barely beat Canada. Outside of France and Spain, none of the conventional “big” teams are playing very well. Not sure why that is, but it is making the tournament rather exciting.

    As for today, a little surprised that South Korea lost this morning. That might push them out of advancing, but I think there is a slim chance – a very slim chance. Brazil and Switzerland could be exciting with Neymar out, which could make Brazil human for the next two matches. Then there is Portugal and Uruguay. I can see this one getting chippy, and aggressive. I can’t explain it, but I think Uruguay will pull this one out.

    Let’s see how this goes.

    (Thanks for making it to the bottom of the post; either by reading or just scanning. If it was reading, and you enjoyed it, please give a like. It’s the only currency in this cold dead land.)