"Looking Forward to Exciting Soccer"

In 2000, it was Calais that advanced to the finals as a Division 4 team at the France FA (Football Association) Cup. Can this “miracle” be revived in Korea?

At the round of 32 teams in the 2003 Hana Bank FA Cup, held on November 21, Bongshin Soccer Club and Jaenueung Education Team are planning to rebel. The Bongshin club defeated Hallelujah team, traditionally known as a powerful team, at the final preliminary match. Also, Jaeneung Education team defeated the Kyung-il University team.

The Bongshin club will play Suwon City Hall team, the 3rd place finisher in the K2 league, at Namhae on November 21. Jaeneung Education team will play the professional team, Pohang Steelers, in Gumi. Therefore, they are a long shot to reach the round of 16. These teams said, “We are just content to reaching the qualifying round so we will do our best.” However, the balls are round and another miracle could happen again.

The Bongshin club was organized in 1989 by employees of Bongshin Corporation, a machinery tool manufacturing company in Incheon. Even though they struggle during the week in their jobs with the machinery, on weekends they kick the balls around because of their love of soccer. Half of them are just soccer-lovers amateur club members. Even though the others are “quasi-athletes” who played during elementary school, middle school, and high school, it has been a long time since they left the soccer field. It is not too much to say that this is a purely amateur soccer team.

Coach Hyun Young-jin of Bongshin club said, “How can we beat the professional players? It is sufficient to have a good memory.”

Jaeneung Education team, also an amateur team consisting of employees who were athletes during their school days and by pure amateur club members, was organized in 1997. They have made efforts to kick the ball all day long during weekends and have practiced together as a unit since April as they finally stirred up a hot wind. Jaeneung Education team is in an ever-increasing mood after beating Chungang University 1-0 at the latest practice match.

The FA Cup is the “king of kings match” in soccer in which 32 teams compete in the tournament, including 12 K league professional teams, four K2 league business teams, and 16 amateur teams which all qualified at the preliminary round in their goal to become the best team. This year the match takes place in eight cities, including Gumi, Gimcheon, Namhae, Suwon Cheonan, Uijeongbu, Goyabng, and Seoul.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com