I love soccer.

World Cup Stadium?

Y e s ,  p l e a s e . 

I love how easy it is to find soccer fans in other countries.It seems like people who don't even really play soccer still have at least some appreciation for this beautiful sport. This is not the case in the United States. Think about it. It's common for parents to register their children in little league soccer around the United States. However, despite the amount of mini-soccer-letes, many Americans would not label themselves as soccer fans.

You know the ones I'm talking about, right? The devoted fans that wake up in the middle of the night to catch international premier league games, watch each soccer game with friends and family like its the Superbowl, plan their daily schedule around a good match, and manage to juggle a soccer ball and stretch in their spare time.

Check out NPR's What Kind of Soccer Fan are You?, an interesting post that helps soccer fans find the category they best fit.

Thankfully, we had a couple of soccer fans on our Korean team and, as a group, we decided to go to one of Korea's World Cup Stadiums.

I t  w a s  a w e s o m e! 

the stadium with snow covering the field.

We took the subway and got off at a stop that highlighted the city's soccer team, Seoul FC. There were tall pillars with pictures of individuals on the team's starting line in a hall way that led to a long escalator. At the top of the escalator, was the stadium. Not many people were there, given that it was super cold and snowy, but this did not phase us. Our mission was to see the World Cup Stadium!

Where's Messi?

We walked around the stadium and found a really neat soccer museum. It started with the history of soccer, highlighted some key people from around the world and major moments in past World Cups, and entertained visitors with virtual soccer games and goal keeping drills. A tour guide volunteer accompanied us through the museum. Then, he gave us an awesome gift: an inside look at the stadium.

Outside the Coaches' lounge

Walking through the players' entrance.

The Press room.

We were excited just to see the stadium in the first place. We were not expecting to actually be allowed in it, through it and under it. This was just too great!

We saw the main field, over 8,000 seats, players' locker rooms and showers, training room with turf, coaching lounge, press area and the players' benches on the sidelines. Like I said, it was awesome.

In the press room, we watched a video that highlighted the national S. Korean team. It recapped the country's excitement and emotion during the recent World Cup. Before the summer of 2011, Korea had not won a game in the last five World Cups. However, this summer marked the team’s progressive change. Take a look at some of Korea's strong finishes during the World Cup.


After a good scoring streak, the Red Devil's fans went crazy supporting their country's team in song and cheers.

As we listened to the South Korean fan song play during the museum's video, we realized we had heard the same song once before. In fact, we danced to it the one day we exercised with YPC's Handicap Ministry. The ministry's leaders played a video with people standing in a line doing the same choreographed dance to this song. It reminded me of the Cha Cha Slide, but with a faster rhythm. The leaders told us to just follow whatever the dancers were doing in the video. We gave it our best effort, smiling the whole time as we tried to keep up with all the steps. I think the ministry does this exercise every day because most of the people surrounding me were so on beat. It was fun and I loved it! Actually, I may or may not have asked Dr. Chang if we could do it again. (He laughed and said, "Yes, lets do it again!").  When the leaders said we were doing it again, a good portion of my team immediately looked at me. They knew I had to be behind it.

 

People can have their weddings in the stadium . . . what?!

They were definitely right. Yep . . . Guilty.