Wow! Start off with a massive crowd of screaming South Korean fans creating a deafening cauldron of sound, add a penalty kick to South Korea just minutes in, throw in a great Buffon save on the kick to keep the score at zeros, and you know this is going to be a great game. Ten minutes later, and Vieri scores on a header off a corner kick — gotta mark those Italians on the set plays, folks! So in minutes the tide turns from Italy potentially down to leading. And people don’t think soccer’s exciting? What other sport offers such drama?
After that, South Korea seemed to lose something. Italy controlled play, defended easily, and Korea was frustrated. But they didn’t give up. Late in the game Italy began to tire, but the Koreans pressed on. Not quite as intensely as in previous games — the tremendous efforts of their three previous games finally taking their toll — but with a lot of courage and fight. Suddenly, out of nowhere, came the equalizer. A missed clearance in the penalty area opened the tiniest sliver of an opening and a Korean player toed the loose ball into the back of the net. The tie sent the game into sudden death overtime. Both sides had chances, but after fifteen minutes there was still no goal. Then Totti was called for diving in the box and given his second yellow. It was a poor call — there was contact, just not a foul. But Totti was out. Then, in the second half of overtime, a shocker: Ahn, who’d missed the Korean penalty in the opening minutes, got a header on goal and scored! Golden goal! Korean advances. Italy is knocked out. Wow. Four out of the eight quarterfinalists are first timers. Final: 2-1 South Korea.
