ESPN FC disses the K-League? Taeguk Warriors Friday kickaround

October 12, 2012

Take a look at ESPN FC [formerly ESPN Soccernet]. Go ahead. You’ll find all the latest on international football/soccer news. You’ll find J League news, tables and schedules. You’ll even find the Australian A-League. What you won’t find alarmingly is the K-League, what we know as the established South Korean professional football league. But wait a tic, before I get accused of holding some kind of weepy victim mentality approach to all this, didn’t K-League teams win 10 of the last 16 Asian Champions League titles?  Not to mention Koreans [i.e. Park Chu-Young and Ki Sung-Yeung, etc] who play in top flight European football originally came from the very same aforementioned league?  We all know the orientation of ESPN FC is fairly anglicized, and I’m not here to fault them necessarily for that. The target audience is english speaking – fine. But I don’t think I’m overstating a case for fairness –if they are going to cover the Australian A League and Japan’s J League, the least ESPN FC can do is give coverage to the K League for all the points mentioned.  I just want to start a conversation going now while we are in the midst of the international break – is there enough interest to get some kind of online activism going to get ESPN FC to take notice and get them to ‘get with it’?   If so, what could that look like?  Online petition or using ESPN FC’s own Contact Form enmass to voice our demands?  I’m starting to feel like an activist rabble rouser instead of Tavern/blogger… moving on

As a fairly new blog around the block, I am really humbled and amazed by people coming across the Tavern from all different parts of the world. To be frank, it’s not astronomical numbers, but I think it’s a  fairly good number for a new blog and more interestingly there’s a number of you out there representing several different countries – 11 to be precise this week alone. Just so you know: I am not tracking anybody – I’m not an advertiser or marketer – I’m just a mere Taeguk-Tavern operator, blogging about Koreans in international football in English language format. And certainly I’m not the CIA or NSA, clandestinely detailing you to data mine for terrorists or North Korean spies in a less than legal way -(but if I was, would I tell you?)  What minimal data I do have access to, it gives me raw numbers of people visiting the Tavern and the countries they are visiting from. With this exception, please allow me to share what I see from this data.

Countries representing people who visited the Tavern this week:
United States SwedenRepublic of KoreaUnited Kingdom NetherlandsAustraliaGermanyBelgiumJapanGuamFrance

I have to say, I couldn’t be a happier Tavern owner/blogger. This is not all about me of course (yeah right, narcissist) but I did want to establish this as an international zone when I drew up the idea for the Tavern.  Focusing on Koreans playing internationally might seem at first to be a niche thing. But if I can take a step back from all this, I am realizing that I am not alone in sharing a kind of pride and passion for Koreans playing at the highest level of international football. And it may not just be Koreans who are getting into all this, I am led to believe from the data that we have admirers from other nationalities -people who share the same passion for international football. We are in Europe, we are in the United States, we are in Australia, we are in other parts of Asia, WE’RE EVEN IN GUAM (YOU GO GUAM!!)  and we are, of course, in Korea.  All of you, despite all the thousands of miles of distance, all collectively have gathered at the Tavern of the Taeguk Warriors. I am simply honored to have you visit this week from each of these different parts of the earth.  We’re all connected, and that’s the greatest thing about this technology.

Last item for the Friday kickaround  — this just pertains to Tavern goers in the US> next Tuesday’s qualifier against Iran will be broadcast on TV.  It’s on One World Sports and I believe that channel is only on DISH network.  Game time Eastern Standard Time is 12:30 pm.  We’ll have more to discuss about the game this weekend, including possible formations and I think I may have an exclusive interview with our man in Vigo, Santiago Perez on Park Chu-Young and his ongoing knee problems. Will it affect his start against Iran and against Real Madrid on October 20th? Will he stop that infernal post-goal display? Stay tuned…

 

 

About Roy Ghim 454 Articles
The old Tavern Owner

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