Who ate all the squid?


I recently finished reading this book and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. It looks at Ian Porterfield's ill-fated first season at Busan I'Cons (later renamed as Busan I'Park).

The action is set in the 2003 season, which was a couple of seasons before I went to Seoul and followed FC Seoul in what was only the second season of FC Seoul. At the time the book was written FC Seoul were still plying their trade as Anyang Cheetahs, although they move to Seoul at the end of the book.

The book is really interesting in that it is written from a 2020 perspective, but looking back at that time in the early 21st Century before globalisation really hit Korea. As well as football one of the themes is how Korean society has changed since then and how difficult it was for the foreign contingent to settle in Busan at the time.

Although the profile picture for this blog shows me outside the Seoul World Cup stadium with an FC Seoul shirt on and tickets for the 2007 Cup Final I must admit that for a long time I have neglected Korean football. That all changed a bit this year, as although the Belarusian league didn't lockdown at all. The K-League was the first game to actually come back from a lockdown. The first match wasn't a thriller with Jeonbuk beating the much maligned Suwon Blue Wings 1-0. The goal scorer was a bit more interesting though in that it was 41 year old Lee Dong-Yeok who got the winner. At the time that the book was set and when I was there he was playing for Pohang Steelers and I also saw him score against FC Seoul in that period. He later went on to Middlesbrough before carving out a long, long career at Jeonbuk.

There were also some highlights of the unfortunately brief period of time that I was able to follow the K League in detail over lockdown. The mistaken inclusion of sex dolls rather than mannequins in the fake crowd at FC Seoul was one of the main talking points, but there were also a few cracking games. Gangwon's 3-1 win from being a goal down against FC Seoul was real David and Goliath stuff and the exciting 3-2 win for Ulsan at Suwon Blue Wings was another.

Another reminder was when my dad sent me some old programmes he had found and amongst them was one for FC Seoul v Chunnam Dragons from back in the day.

I am afraid to say that as I recovered and other leagues started and I had to return to work I began to neglect the K League again, but I am really glad that I got caught up to date with this book and got acquainted with the author and some of the other foreign based K League fans.
 

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