The Ball 2002

After more cities than I care to mention we beat out of Pusan on a ferry-full of Brazilians destined for the island of Jeju where Brazil were taking on the Chinese, and within an hour of leaving the shore England were kicking off against the Argentine team, ghosts ‘n’ all.

Early moments proved to be nerve wracking and that was nothing to do with the football. The TV in the restaurant would not tune into the channel that we thought we needed. This proved to be pre-match panic. What we needed was a sharp decision from the manager… who turned out to be the waitress. She tuned the TV into a crisp picture and received deep applause from the gathered crew. Wicked, we were in. Brazilians, English, Koreans, one Uruguyan supporting Argentina and our ball settled in for the game… Damn, I wanted England to win, damn, so did the Brazilians and in the spirit of our international ball I greeted the Argentine supporter with a hand to his arm and guess what? He fell over screaming and yelling. Here we are moments later:

What ensued was a fantastic night in…

…and no jokes needed: he was supporting Argentina as many of his Argentine friends could not make it after seeing their money evaporate recently. Respect due.

Well it wasn’t a pretty game and the second half was full of this from the English posse, dull groans from the Brazilians and hope from the Argentine fan as those blue and white shirts kept coming and coming against a retreating and retreating England team. How could this English fan have such confidence?

Here’s hoping…

The atmosphere was buoyed by the constant good vibe from the Brazilians.

And then……..we won!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!

Who’d have thought it? We held on!

Launch off. We embarked on a fantastic night of all singing, all dancing, endless photo taking and a great exchange of football fervour. It was truly an international knees up with our Korean hosts kicking it wicked too. Here, some of the photos:

We also came across this FIFA referee from India who fortunately was never called on to make any rulings, oh well… save for the diving Argentine I invented. Then he signed the ball.

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