Dear South Korea National Team,
I’m Jaebeom Hong, a 35-year-old radiologist from Daegu, South Korea. After working and taking care of my wonderful children, football is the most important thing in my life.
I’ve been supporting the South Korean national team since world Cup FIFA 1994. I was only eight at the time, but I vividly remember celebrating Hong Myung-bo’s brilliant goal from outside the box against Germany in the group stage. We lost that game by 3-2, but with a deficit of three goals in the first half, our boys showed a lot of courage to score two goals and ‘win’ the second half.
My most memorable moment as a fan has to be the last game of the 2018 World Cup group stage when we managed to beat Germany. It was against all odds, but South Korea managed to win thanks to a goal from Kim Young-gwon in the 94th minute and a goal from Son Heung-min in the 95th minute. It was really amazing.
Like any other South Korean fan, Son is one of my favorite players of all time. He is definitely the best player we have at our disposal and I look forward to seeing him lead us to glory once again this winter. My other all-time favorite is Park Ji-sing. He is possibly the greatest player in our history and I have always appreciated how diligently he covered ground and how willing he was to fight for the national team shirt.
I’m planning to watch the tournament at home with my family this year. It will be my three-year-old daughter’s first World Cup and I’m so excited to watch the games with her and see her fall in love with the team the way I did as a kid. She has been to the stadium of our local team Daegu FC several times and I can already see her interest in the beautiful game growing.
I’m rooting for the team to reach the round of 16. We are in a difficult group, yes, because Portugal and Uruguay are two very good teams and Ghana is certainly not easy either. I think that, in order to pass, we will need to be a little more defensive and maybe hit the teams on the counterattack and score goals from set pieces.
I know it’s a dream, but winning the World Cup would be the biggest moment of my life as a fan and change South Korean football forever.
No matter how well you perform, remember that there will always be 50 million fans supporting and cheering you on at home. I wish you all the best in the tournament.
Good luck!
