World Cup nostalgia

DBasia.news – The success of South Korea, who have made it far in the 2022 World Cup, continues to be accompanied by a number of controversies. The peak occurred against Spain in the quarter-finals.

South Korea really took advantage of the status of the host to the fullest. Taeguk Warriors made history as the first Asian representative to be able to set foot in the semifinals.

South Korea are doing so in an unbelievable way. They were able to beat top teams like Portugal, Italy, and Spain.

South Korea appeared superior since the group stage. Guus Hiddink’s team managed to become the best in group D with a record of two wins and one draw and is unbeaten.

South Korea made Portugal go home faster after beating them in the last match of the group phase. The United States finally became a companion with runner up status.

South Korea’s surprise then continued in the last 16. They were dramatically able to beat Italy with a score of 2-1 through Ahn Jung-Hwan’s golden goal.

Many people consider South Korea’s victory over Italy to be controversial. The referee’s leadership became the main focus as it was considered too beneficial for the host.

So much so that Byron Moreno as the referee who led the match is still remembered today. He was said to have mad a number of strange decisions, such as giving Francesco Totti a second yellow card for diving, disallowing Damiano Tommasi’s goal, and allowing the South Korean players to play hard.

But the peak of controversy over South Korea’s superiority at the 2002 World Cup actually happened after that. The match against Spain in the quarter-finals led by Egyptian referee Gamal Ahmed Al-Ghandour presented many oddities.

In the match that took place at the Gwangju World Cup Stadium, South Korea had the full support of their supporters. However, Spain are still favored as they have a row of top stars such as Fernando Hierro, Carles Puyol, Ruben Baraja, Joaquin Sanchez, Luis Enrique, to Fernando Morientes.

Spain showed their superior status on the field. Jose Antonio Camacho’s team locked the South Korean defense and created many golden opportunities.

Unfortunately, the finishing done by the Spanish players was quite poor. Lee Won-jae’s toughness under South Korea also played an important role in making the 0-0 score last until the break.

A controversy occurred when the second half had been running for four minutes. The referee annulled the Spanish goal which was created by Kim Tae-young’s own goal.

Starting from a free kick scheme, there was an aerial duel involving Kim and two Spanish players. The ball then touched his shoulder and headed towards his own goal.

But the referee annulled the goal as Kim was considered to have been violated by two Spanish players who flanked him. There was no excessive protest by the La Furia Roja players.

Spain’s efforts to break the deadlock never yielded results. It was South Korea who had threatened back even though it was still able to be secured by Iker Casillas under the bar.

The score 0-0 remained unchanged until the second half ended. The game had to go into extra time.

In this phase, Spain had scored a goal through Morientes’ header. But the referee again annulled it as the ball had left the field before Joaquin gave a cross.

However, from the replay, the ball did not seem to have crossed the goal line. That means the goal scored by Morientes should be valid.

The match then had to end in a penalty shootout. Joaquin who appeared impressively throughout the match turned into a prisoner as he was the only executioner who failed to score which caused Spain to lose with a score of 3-5.

After the match, the Spanish players immediately surrounded the referee, Al Ghandour. They wanted to convey their disappointment at having to be tragically eliminated.

“You can see from the TV shows. I don’t want to think that the referee went to rob one of the teams but the pictures speak for themselves, obviously the referee didn’t support us,” complained Puyol.

“Everyone saw two great goals. If Spain didn’t win, it’s because they didn’t let us win.”

The victory over Spain did strengthen the suspicion that South Korea received special treatment from the referee. Moreover, a similar situation also occurred when they defeated Italy.

Surprisingly, South Korea appeared to be lacking in strength when they met Germany in the semifinal match. Without a controversial decision from the referee, they lost 1-0.

South Korea also failed to secure third place as they continued to lose. This time they lost to Turkey with a score of 2-3.

South Korea’s sluggish performance after the controversial victory over Spain may be due to them burning out. However, there have been a few assumptions stating that the referee has not provided support.

On the 20th anniversary of the match, Marca conducted an interview with Al-Ghandour or the controversial referee. He still refuses to be blamed for Spain’s defeat.

“The Spaniards can’t blame me for the defeat against Korea because before the end of the game, they had some clear chances. They could have won the game before the penalty shootout,” said Al-Ghandour.

“For me there was only one decision that was debatable and that was the goal disallowed as Joaquin’s cross might not have gone out of play. But the mistakes made by my assistant shouldn’t be left to me.”