On Sunday at around 12pm in Saudi Arabia, Argentina won the 2022 World Cup tying 3-3 and beating France 4-2 in penalty shootouts. Despite Mbappe scoring all three goals, Argentina took the win for the third time in world history. This World Cup was a series of wild surprises that shocked people all over the world. With Asian countries, specifically Japan and Korea on the focus, there is a lot of news to cover, concerning match scores, certain players, and audience behavior.

Let’s dive in!

In the group stages of this World Cup, Japan beat Germany 2-1, and even though Germany won their game against Costa Rica 4-2, they were not able to advance to the next round, as Japan also beat Spain 2-1. Ritsu Doan scored first in both of these games, while Takuma Asano scored in the first game and Ao Tanaka scored in the second. Tying 1-1 and losing in penalties 1-3, the Japanese players were not able to ascend to the next round. However, the Japanese fans themselves are gaining fame as well along with the soccer players. Japanese fans went viral after being seen cleaning up their trash in the stadiums. According to an interview, the Japan soccer coach Hajime Moriyasu said: “For Japanese people, this is just the normal thing to do. When you leave, you have to leave a place cleaner than it was before. That’s the education we have been taught. That’s the basic culture we have. For us, it’s nothing special.” This culture of respecting a place spread to other countries as well. Tomomi Kishikawa, a fan working at the Doha airport said: “We believe we can make this contagious. We don’t need to push anyone to clean. But if we start, maybe we can be a good example of respect.” In this way, Japanese fans entered and left the games with a face of pride for their country and respect for the environment around them.

Moving on to South Korea, this team tied in the Group Stages with Uruguay and lost to Ghana 2-3. During the game against Ghana, a player by the name of Cho Gue-sung caught the eye of many women around the world on TV. He scored both goals during the game and was noticed for his sharp, handsome, tall appearance. At the start of the tournament, he had a following of 20K, which has currently grown to 2.8M in the past couple of weeks. The Daily Mail reports that he had to turn his cell phone off because of all the attention he was gaining on social media. The Korean team also earned a buzz for beating Portugal 2-1, with Portugal being one of the top soccer teams in the world, having the decorated Christiano Ronaldo on their side. After the whistle blew and the game was over, Son Heung Min, the captain of the Korean team and arguably the most known Asian soccer player in the world, took off his eye patch that he was required to wear for his eye injury, and wept tears of joy. However, Korea was eliminated as they lost to Brazil 4-1, though leaving the field in honor with a beautiful goal from Paik Seung Ho. Undoubtedly, these two Asian countries both left a legacy on the pitch during this World Cup.

In the past World Cups, the competition between Japan and South Korea was fierce as well. Due to their rocky international relationship as well as their geographical closeness and similarity in cultures, competition between these two countries on any field or court has always been head to head. North Korea, surprisingly, participated in the World Cup twice, first in 1966 and second in 2010. This year, they withdrew from participation in the World Cup qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup. It is important to note that with the rise of Asian countries in soccer came the rise of international interest in K-culture and J-culture. In 2002, Korea and Japan co-hosted the World Cup together, the stadiums ranging across Seoul, Busan, Yokohama, Osaka, and 16 other cities. The same year in 2002, the famous Japanese anime series Naruto premiered later that fall, becoming one of the most popular anime series today. Five years later, in 2007, the renowned K-pop group Big Bang peaked with many songs hitting number 1 across Asia. It is, therefore, interesting to see how watching soccer in different countries gives rise to interest in other countries’ cultures. 

This is the power of international sports: when countries from all around the globe come into one place, an audience is able to meet different characters, see new things, and slowly realize that we, as a people, are not so different after all.