South Korea (Republic of Korea)
Held its 17th
World Cup
. This was South Korea's best World Cup campaign, finishing in 4th place. Prior to the Korea-Japan World Cup, South Korea's record in the tournament was mediocre. In two consecutive World Cups, 1986 and 1994, they finished 20th, and 1998 was even worse, finishing third from the bottom of the 32 teams, just ahead of Japan and the United States.
But when it came to the home field, the Korean team performed very differently. Cheered on by an almost entirely Korean fan base, the players got out of the group stage with overly physical and blackout victories, and survived two knockout rounds, 1/8 and 1/4, until they met Germany in the semifinals before ultimately losing the match. South Korea ended up finishing 4th in this World Cup. The team's 8th place finish in the 1996 World Cup was a direct result of the DPRK team's best World Cup performance in its own country and in Asia.
But for this achievement, apart from Koreans who are doubly proud of it, most people are feeling very shameless. Because in the Korean team all the way to the road of promotion, by the referee from the care. From the group stage onwards, in order to enable the South Korean team to achieve better results, the field referee began to do whatever it takes, and Portugal, which is in the same group with them, became a victim. In the next two knockout matches, the referee directly became the focus of the whole field, in the 1/8 final against Italy, the referee directly blew off the Italian players very accurate anti-offside goal, and then Totti red card sentenced to the field, resulting in Italy can only play one less person, and ultimately eliminated. Against Spain, the referee went even further, blowing away two of their goals, clearly allowing South Korea to advance.
