Not sure what Americans eat while watching the Super Bowl, but it is ChiMaek, Chicken + Maekju (Beer),  for Koreans when they watch the Korean team play in the World Cup in Qatar. Bad day for chickens on Dec 2 as many South Korean soccer fans enjoyed ChiMaek at midnight, watching the national team beat Portugal 2-1 with a dramatic 90th minute goal by Hwang Hee-chan to edge out Uruguay for the next round of 16. S.Koreans are proud that Qatar 2022 is S. Korea’s 10th consecutive World Cup since Mexico in 1986, a huge accomplishment that only five other soccer giants were able to do so.(Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Spain). S. Korea is also the only nation to reach the semi-final,  2002 World Cup, of all the Asian and African nations in World Cup history that started in Uruguay in 1930 where, believe it or not, the U.S.A went to the semi-final.  S. Korea will square off against 5 times World Cup champion Brazil for a ticket to the quarter-final on Dec 6. 

 

 

The S.Korean team has been coached by Paulo Bento, former Portuguese soccer star who played against S.Korea in the 2002 World Cup.  Apparently, Bento created a new tactic called  “ Confuse Opponents”  by filling the start line up with players of the same family names, with five Kim's and two Hwang's of the 11 players.  Voila! It worked!