South Koreans Pole vault to the top of the world

For the past week, the various sports dailies have had just one headline: 16? It’s a reference, of course, to the question of whether Korea will finally break its old jinx and reach the second round of a World Cup.

All these years, the football world has associated Korea with North Korea, and that country’s exploits in the 1966 World Cup. Then, Pak Doo-Ik and his teammates beat Italy — who returned home to rotten eggs and tomatoes — and were 3-0 up inside 25 minutes against Portugal before Eusebio decided to bring them back to reality.

The pressure on Hiddink to succeed is enormous. Over the past month, there have been calls to change the constitution so that he can take part in national Presidential elections scheduled for later this year. And at the recently held Miss Korea contest, he was voted Most Suitable Husband by the contestants.

Even the venerable Samsung Economic Research Institute recently analysed what it called Hiddink Leadership: seven virtues it believed CEOs could learn from. They included ‘emphasis on basics’ and ‘unswerving leadership even in times of public criticism.’

It’s not hard to see why he’s so popular. Football has so long been controlled by corrupt, inefficient people prone to regional and other biases. Hiddink is an outsider and has approached his task with a near-scientific objectivity.

Further, politics and politicians are currently in disgrace. Indians would take heart from the fact that the National Parliament has been in deadlock for two months, with the two main parties disagreeing over the choice of a new Speaker. And President Kim Dae-Jung, once a very popular hero, is an old man embroiled in corruption scams.

Shrewdly, politicians have jumped on to the Hiddink bandwagon. Several candidates in nationwide local council elections scheduled for next week are using Hiddink’s name in one way or another; one here in Busan has punned (perhaps unintentionally) on his name, using the slogan ‘He think,’ the way most Koreans pronounce the coach’s name. And a cartoon last week in the Korea Times showed a huge football blotting out corruption, nepotism, etc.

Even the ubiquitous Chung-Moon Jong, Korea’s football chief and FIFA vice-president, has a stake in the team’s success. People are tipping him as a dark horse in the December elections. Yet Hiddink knows that the higher they set him up, the greater will be the fall. After a couple of bad results last year, Samsung pulled out an ad featuring him. It’s now back, of course, and the company says it was due to be taken off anyway.

Korea’s biggest advantage is the weather. Says Na Jeong-Ju, football writer with the Korea Times: ‘‘The K-League and J-League, where most stars earn their living, are held this time of year so the heat and humidity won’t be anything new. It will, on the other hand, for the other teams, especially Poland.’’

Also, Korea play group favourites Portugal in the last match, by when the Iberians should have qualified for the second round and would have half a foot off the pedal. And, though a 1966-like result is not on the cards, Korea may have done enough on Tuesday night to take the next step to greatness.

After Tuesday night, it seems, anything is possible.