SEOUL, 21 June — From publicans in England to poets in Senegal and from clueless Americans to, it seems, every living soul in South Korea, anticipation is growing for the quarterfinals of the World Cup finals.
The first two of the four games are today with a classic Brazil-England at Shizuoka, Japan followed by an unexpected Germany-United States in Ulsan, South Korea.
The following day South Korea will be up for the game against Spain in Kwangju, while Senegal oppose Turkey in the quarterfinal no-one predicted in Osaka.
The other 24 teams have now gone home to lick their wounds, while the eight teams left tend to their injured and fine-tune tactics for the matches which are eagerly followed back home.
In England, normal service will be all but suspended as the English take on Brazil for the first time in the World Cup finals since the legendary 1-0 Brazilian win in Mexico in 1970.
Prime Minister Tony Blair will take time off during the EU summit to watch and union leaders are urging firms not to crack down on the tens of thousands of workers expected to go in late or not at all.
Broadcasters say the game could produce some of the highest ever viewing figures.
As the match kicks off at 7:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) British time, road and rail companies are predicting a quiet rush hour, unlike power chiefs who recorded a surge equivalent to almost a million kettles being switched on during England’s second round tie against Denmark.
The interest will be no less over in Rio de Janeiro where the match time will fall in the middle of the night and a Brazilian win could see the unlikely sight of a breakfast-time samba carnaval.
First-time quarterfinalists Senegal are having their praises sung, or rather recited, back home.
The association of Senegalese writers have organized a poetry competition with the theme of honoring the “Lions Teranga” as the team are nicknamed.
Poems must be submitted by July 31 with the winners announced in August, but such has been the enthusiasm generated around only the second-ever African team to make the quarterfinals that the papers are already full of gushing prose.
But it is perhaps in South Korea that football-fervor is at its highest, aroused by the march of their side into the quarterfinals with three wins and a draw including a sensational come-from-behind triumph over Italy.
Prior to this tournament, South Korea had played in five World Cup finals and failed to win a single match.
The win over Italy sparked a huge outburst of national sentiment with police estimating that 4.27 million fans nationwide took to the streets to celebrate, 1.76 million in Seoul alone.
Even more are expected for the game against Spain led by the fanatical Red Devils Korean supporters’ club with their bright red T-shirts.
There was special pride too in South Korea making into the last eight while Japan went out to Turkey.
“Korea makes history, Japan is history,” headlined the English-language Korea Herald yesterday.
World Cup fever even appears to be gaining a foothold in the hostile territory of the United States.
The New York Post offered a soccer crash course for sports fans eager to jump on the bandwagon in time for the Germany match, while Sports Illustrated featured footballer Landon Donovan on its cover.
USA Today meanwhile reported Wednesday that the rush on US national team jerseys — at $89.99 a pop — had sparked a wave of counterfeit merchandise.
But for some the World Cup remains a turn-off.
The Chicago Tribune, in a column headlined “Battle of dullsville” asked which sport is more boring, soccer or golf?
