Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend a soccer (futbol) game at the World Cup Stadium in Suwon. The stadium is gigantic, which is to be expected because it was built to house World Cup games. The stadium seats 43,959 and has been home to the Suwon Samsung Bluewings since 2001.
One part of lawn by the stadium is dedicated to statues--from a strange, flat rendition of a young Korean girl to toilet facilities being housed in a gigantic soccer ball, these were a lot of fun to look at.
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| A strange, optical illusion sort of statue. |
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| You can see the toilets right behind--inside the giant soccer ball! |
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| A metal ref shirt. |
The stadium was filled with exuberant fans, many of whom were wearing the blue jerseys of their favorite players. For this match, they were playing Busan IPark, which I think is one of the most boring names for a soccer team I have ever heard.
The Bluewings fans were some of the most well-led fans ever. You know how hard it is for someone to start "the wave" in a stadium back home? Here, they sing full songs, have a leader with a megaphone that is helping to conduct the chaos, and a band. A band, with lots of drums! I posted a video of this at the bottom, make sure you watch it!
It was a ton of fun to take part, and we quickly moved from our assigned seats (which seemed to be the foreigner section because we were surrounded by expats) to the Bluewings fan section where all the fun was being had and all the songs were being sung. Even though we had no idea what they were singing half the time, it was not difficult to chant "Suwon" with everyone.
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| Look at all the Bluewings fans with their jerseys on! |
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