A red-colored football fever heated up the country's largest football-only stadium Thursday as more than 60,000 South Korean fans decked out in red national team jerseys packed the venue to see their team's crucial World Cup qualifier against Iran.
The Korea Football Association said 63,124 fans were in attendance in South Korea's showdown against Iran in the final Asian qualifying round for the 2018 FIFA World Cup that started at 9 p.m. at Seoul World Cup Stadium. This was the ninth largest crowd since the stadium opened in November 2001.
Prior to this match, Seoul World Cup Stadium had 20 occasions of 60,000 or more fans visiting the stadium for a football match.
The largest attendance was in June 2002, when South Korea faced Germany in the FIFA World Cup semifinal.
The last time the stadium saw 60,000 spectators was in October 2013 when South Korea hosted Brazil for a friendly match.
The match against Iran was a crucial one for the Taeguk Warriors who are looking to advance to their nine consecutive World Cup. South Korea were heading into the match in second place in Group A with 13 points, just one point above third-place Uzbekistan. Iran, meanwhile, have already qualified for the World Cup in Russia by securing the top spot in the group.
In Asia, only the top two teams in each group are allowed to advance directly to the World Cup in Russia, while third-placed teams need to go through playoff rounds to win a spot.
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South Korean football fans cheer for the national team at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifying match between South Korea and Iran at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul on Aug. 31, 2017. (Yonhap) |
For this important home match, the KFA previously said it wanted to draw more than 60,000 fans to the 66,704-seat Seoul World Cup Stadium so that the players can feed off the energy created by the home crowd. The KFA on Wednesday said more than 57,000 tickets were sold in advance, and with more tickets sold at the stadium, the attendance easily surpassed 60,000.
To achieve the targeted number, the KFA moved the kickoff time from 8:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. so that more people could come to the match after work.
At the stadium, officials also distributed red shirts for free so that the place can be covered in red, the team color for South Korea, while the Red Devils, a supporting group for the national football team, promised that more than 1,000 of its members will be in the stands to heat up the atmosphere.
By 8 p.m., most of the stadium was filled with people in red shirts, and the Red Devils started to chant their supporting songs while booing Iranian players when they entered the field for a warm-up. Team Melli's supporters were in the upper stands at the stadium, but their sound was easily drowned out by the people with red shirts.
After the kickoff, the stadium shook with South Korean supporters' cheering. They screamed when South Korea were attacking and booed Iran when they were creating their chances. When Iran's Saeid Ezatolahi was ejected after stepping on Kim Min-jae's head in the 52nd minute, South Koreans gave the Iranian midfielder mocking cheers for his violent foul.
South Koreans were as loud as they could be when Lee Dong-gook entered the pitch in the 89th for Hwang Hee-chan, hoping the veteran striker would score the winning goal.
But when the final whistle was blown to end the match, South Koreans lamented the goalless draw. South Korea would have clinched a spot if they beat Iran as Uzbekistan were pipped by China 1-0.
Now, South Korea's World Cup fate all comes down to their last qualifying match against Uzbekistan in Tashkent next Tuesday.
South Korean fans said they were here to see the national team beat Iran. Since 2011, South Korea have yet to collect a win against Iran, losing four straight games by the scores of 1-0.
"It's sad that we couldn't win," said Lee Hyun-min, a South Korean fan at the stadium. "I enjoyed the match, but it would have been better if our national team collected a win." (Yonhap)
