Soccer in South Korea has seen a sharp growth in fandom ever since the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup. Although Korea and Japan are bitter rivals, the fact that the two nations co-hosted the first World Cup held in Asia is a very interesting fact. Through the 2002 World Cup, both Korea and Japan built new stadia for the games to be hosted.
For South Korea, the 2002 World Cup served as a catalyst in establishing a strong fandom for the K-League and developing players such as Ji-Sung Park. The captain of the 2002 South Korean national team, Myung-bo Hong, is now the coach of the current national team. South Korea has undergone a successful changing of the guards with the emergence of players such as Seungyeung Ki(Sunderland), Heung-min Son(Leverkusen), and Chu-young Park(Arsenal).
The blog that I chose, called Lierse’s Factory, talks about a variety of topics, ranging from the relationship that soccer has with politics to the most up-to-date player transfer and match analysis. The blog only has one author, Lierse, who updates the blog quite frequently.
The main categories are divided into five: Column, Review/Preview, Solnium de Football, and Rising Stars.
The column section features the most ariticles. Here Lierse voices his opinion on a wide range of subjects. One of the most recent posts was about how the modern tactic has evolved. Interestingly, he takes the concept of Social Darwinism and applies it to soccer, saying that the most fitting tactic and a tactic that keeps evolving will outlast other tactics. Here he talks about the two great styles of Barcelona and Bayern Munich. He argues that Barcelona was able to adapt in the post-Rijkaard era by sticking to their “tiki-taka” ideology. With their La Macia system producing solid youngsters, Barcelona has won many trophies and have also contributed in Spain capturing the most recent and Euro tournament. On the other hand, Lierse also talks about Bayern Munich and how they were able to win the 2012/13 Champions League. Munich, by adding physical players such as Javi Martinez and Dante, were able to suffocate Barcelona and were able to take home the Big Ear by defeating Dortmund. Although Barcelona was able possess the ball, it was Munich who came away with the win at the end.
In the review/preview section Lierse talks about how teams in the English Premier League fared so far. He mentions QPR, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man United, Man City, Chelsea, and Newcastle to talk about who they brought in/who they sent off and how they will do in the league.
In Solnium de Football section, Lierse mentions the “hot issues” that are going on in modern soccer. For example, he talks about how Rory Delap assisted with his long throw in, how Jose Mourinho’s attire affects his style of coaching, how Pep’s always tidy suit ties in with Barcelona. To sum up, this section talks about the miscellaneous yet interesting topics that we might skip over.
In the last section, the Rising star section, Lierse talks about the most talked about young players in the game today. To name a few: Thiago Alcantara, Erik Lamela, and Rafael Varane. He talks about how these players were brought up, what games they need to develop, what they have done well, and such.
His blog is the first thing that comes up in the Korean search engine “Naver.” This is like the Korean equivalent of Google so we can see how popular his blog is. There are over 1400 subscribers to his blog and is growing every day.
I have no idea what the name Lierse refers to but I think it’s a pretty interesting blog on the whole. I wish he had some articles on North Korea and the North Korean players who play in South Korea.
