My Love for Soccer
I have never been a big fan of any sport; however, that has changed over the past
couple years as I became interested in, and then grew to love, soccer.
It all started with my best friend's enthusiasm over the sport, as well as his anger
and frustration over the popular American medias' lack of coverage. He rarely ever
found a game playing on T.V., the scores listed in the newspapers, or interesting articles
in magazines. He had to rely on the Internet to get the latest information on his favorite
soccer club, Manchester United.
The World Cup was the major soccer event that changed my small interest into
fascination. It seemed like the whole world, or at least my corner of it, was glued to the
T.V. screen, at all hours of the night, watching the live broadcasts of the games. The
majority of Koreans are huge soccer fans and very supportive of the Korean team. The
stadium in Uijeonbu aired every game the Korean team played, and I could hear the
cheering every time they scored a goal. I wasn't able to watch all of the games, and didn't
care to, but I kept up with all of the final scores because the World Cup was the only
thing anyone seemed to want to talk about. The games I did watch, that involved teams I
was interested in, kept me on the edge of my seat the majority of the time, and especially
towards the end of each game when the England team was playing. The final game they
played had me screaming and cussing at the unfairness of penalties received by a couple
players on England's side; and I felt a fury never felt before over a sporting event when
they lost.
The final straw that got me permanently hooked on soccer was England's Captain,
David Bekham. If he had been a singer in a boy band, I would've bought every single
pop album he had anything to do with; regardless of how good or bad the music would've
been. Instead, he is one of the...