Togo v South Korea

Or if you prefer, the Sparrow-Hawks vs the Taeguk Warriors. A cookie if you know which is which (obvious clue provided).

One aspect of this game that may feature again is the issues created by the stadium in Frankfurt. After the England-Paraguay game, there were a lot of complaints about the weird shadows from the jumbotron suspended over the middle of the field. So the roof was closed for this game, which solved that problem, but meant that the whole place got really hot and humid. By the end of the game apparently it was so hot and steamy Dick Advocaat was steaming mussels over by the Korean bench. This stadium will be used for the Portugal-Iran game, so we can see what they decide to do, but after that is Holland vs Argentina, by which time Marco van Basten will know to bring in a cone of newspaper with some frites to go with the mussels he'll be steaming in the second half. It's also being used for a quarterfinal, which will most likely be Brazil, Italy, or the United States (undaunted) against either the Ukraine or France. The fact that it's hot may not seem like a big deal, but it was today, and it may be for Holland-Argentina as well.

The first African team to take a lead in this tournament was Togo, off a Mohammed Kader goal in the 31st minute. He got good service as he darted between two Korean defenders, and while he didn't settle it well, an ugly first touch, he had the speed to get to it first and fire across the goal, banging it in off the far post. The key was he got the perfect pass, and that's really set Togo apart from what I saw from Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, and maybe to a lesser degree Angola. The Togolese showed great unselfishness and teamwork in the last third of the field. They may not have the same level of internationally recognized talent as the other West African teams, but their lone star Sheyi Adebayor (who gets some recognition since he plays for Arsenal) was clearly focused on moving and distributing the ball, in comparison to holding the ball forever and getting nothing for it like Michael Essien in particular.

They won't go too far, but they've certainly got my support. There was some expectation that a team that fired the coach that got them to the tournament (after a bad showing in the continental championship) and then had their current coach resign during the World Cup because players wouldn't show up to practice would be in total disarray, but that wasn't the case. This was the most organized African team so far, and I wouldn't really think it was possible for a weak team to get past Senegal, Liberia, and Zambia in qualifying. They may not go far, but they've got my support at least, and as ESPN tells us, Togo is the magic capital of Africa, so I suppose anything can happen.

Of course they didn't win or anything, because in the second half, things went a bit wrong. At halftime South Korea (or Souf Korea as a certain banking magnate would say) brought on the infamous Ahn Jung Hwan, infamous for his short track skating celebration after scoring on the US in 2002, and because he knocked Italy out of the Cup and got told to clean out his locker and go fuck himself by his club, Perugia, setting off another club vs. country debate in international soccer. Anyways, Ahn had a good scoring chance ruined when he got chopped down by Jean-Paul Abalo just outside the penalty area. Abalo was sent off, and Lee Chun Soo put the resulting free kick over the wall. The Togolese keeper was shading that side of the net, and crouched ready to leap up and grab a shot over the wall. The shot went the other way, he couldn't change direction and just flailed after it, and South(f) Korea tied the game.

Then Ludovic Assemoassa went out injured, so that's two starters out of Togo's previously pretty solid defense, and they're down to 10 men. But Togo went apeshit after going down a man, and started putting huge pressure on the Korean goal, creating some serious opportunities to pull ahead. They also didn't seem to give anything up defensively, with no real open space for the Koreans to operate. They couldn't keep it up though, playing with 10 men in a steam cooker against a South(f) Korean team that plays at a high tempo. Ahn pulled the Koreans ahead in the 72nd minute, and they dominated the rest of the game, as the Togolese really started to fade.

South Korea 2-1 Togo
Kader '31
Lee '54
Ahn 72

(BTW, some confusion exists for me as to what name is on the Asian players' shirts, since I wasn't paying that close attention, and the squad lists I've seen have conflicting information, so I'm just guessing.)