If we ask people what the biggest soccer event is, everybody will say it’s the World Cup. This event started on June 14th, 2018 in Russia. The opening ceremony was held on this day, and from the next day, June 15th, the World Cup preliminaries started. Korea was in group F, and this group was one of the worst groups because it also had Germany which had the number 1 ranking in FIFA. Many people expected that Korea would be terribly defeated by the countries of group F, Germany, Mexico, and Sweden.

There were even some expectations that Korea wouldn’t be able to win any game and failed to qualify for the World Cup. Actually, Korea did fail to qualify for the World Cup, but surprisingly, Korea won against Germany. Germany lost two games and failed to be qualified for the World Cup, as well. Because Korea stopped Germany from playing in World Cup, many countries are thankful to Korea. Especially Mexico has shown the most friendly attitude to Korea. This World Cup has many variables, so many people must be surprised at all of them. For example, it was so shocking that Italy failed to enter the World Cup preliminaries and Germany couldn’t survive in the preliminary rounds. Now, only 8 teams are left in this World Cup; Uruguay, France, Brazil, Belgium, Sweden, England, Russia, and Croatia. The first quarter-final will be played this Friday, July 6th.

Before the World Cup started, on June 13th, Mark Lawrenson, the football commentator of BBC predicted the World Cup preliminaries. He predicted that the match between Korea and Sweden would end in a draw. He said, “Korea will use Son Heung-min to break through Sweden’s defense and Sweden will use its strong defense which completely blocked Italy’s attacks. He also said, “Germany will be No.1 of group F, but it’s hard to expect No.2. I think Mexico, Sweden, and Korea will try hard to be No.2 of group F.” Unfortunately, his prediction was almost wrong because Mexico and Korea both won against Germany. The only thing that was correct about his prediction was that Sweden became No.2 of group F. After Germany’s drop out, many people expected that Joachim Löw, the manager of the German soccer team might resign However, the German Football Association announced, “Joachim Löw will continue to serve as the manager of the German soccer team because we believe he will be able to find the way to improve our team and make our team succeed again.

Except for the game with Germany, only Korean people were paying attention to Korea’s games. Then, how about the top players' people all over the world want to know about? Every person will think that the most famous soccer player is Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Both of them have played many games for a long time, so it may be the last World Cup for them. Although they are the best players in the world, their teams couldn’t play very well, so they both failed to win the World Cup. Ronaldo played well, scoring many goals for his team, but Messi couldn’t play well at first. He scored some goals in the 16th round, starting to show his own skills, but unfortunately, only his score wasn’t enough to win. Both of them dropped out at the 16th round. Many people thought that even the best players in the world can show their ability only when they are on a team which can support them completely.

2018.07.04 Jang Ho-yeon