June 15, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1423

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OSAKA, June 14: Japan exploded with joy and pride Friday after its World Cup team made the nation’s dream of a place in the second round of the soccer extravaganza come true.

Blue-garbed fans adorned with the “Hinomaru” national flag and chanting “Ni-ppon, Ni-ppon, Ni-ppon” rocked the stadium in the western metropolis of Osaka where Japan’s blue-jerseyed, tinted-haired team beat Tunisia 2-0.

Even before the game was over, a crowd of jostling, ecstatic fans gathered on a bridge over Osaka’s Dotonbori River, where by tradition baseball fans leap into the waters to celebrate a win.

Some, unable to contain their rapture, jumped in after Japan scored their its first goal.

“It’s a historic victory. I am proud to be Japanese,” said Hideki Iwamoto, a 27-year-old employee of a maker of outdoor goods as he left the stadium.

“This gives me the energy to forge on in my own job.”

Japanese fans were thirsty for a reason to cheer after a decade of economic stagnation and political stalemate.

“It’s amazing, amazing, amazing,” said Miyugi Kume, an office worker in Tokyo. “I want them to keep on fighting.”

SEOUL: More than one million football fans in red took over the streets of Seoul Friday to roar on the South Korean national team to success in their mission to reach the second round.

Police gave up what they considered an unequal but peaceful struggle to keep traffic moving as hordes of teenagers let off fireworks and danced in the streets after South Korea’s 1-0 win over Portugal in Incheon.

Hundreds of thousands more jammed city centres across the country in one of the biggest outpourings of nationalist fervour South Korea has ever seen.

“They are nearly all teenagers and they just keep arriving, there is no end in sight to the waves of fans,” said one police commander as he pushed his protective line of police back to make more space around the Gwanghwamun district of central Seoul.

Streets in the main embassy and bank district were closed off as more than 300,000 supporters took the best places to look up at three giant screens that have become a point of pilgrimage for fans unable to beg, borrow or steal tickets for South Korea’s matches.

Another 300,000 gathered in the City Hall plaza 500 metres (yards) away where another screen was set up for the giant overspill of supporters.

Fifty thousand people watched a screen in the Jamshil baseball stadium in the south of the city and even more in a park on Yeouido in the Han river which runs through Seoul.

Police helicopters flew continuously across the capital to monitor the masses but no serious trouble was reported.

The sound of drums and gongs could be heard everywhere.

A roar of approval reverberated across Seoul when the referee sent off Portugal’s Joao Pinto and Beto. There was stunned silence when a first-half South Korean goal was disallowed.

But fireworks went off across the city and confetti fluttered from bank skyscrapers after Park Ji-Sung scored the winning goal.

Many of the young fans are followers of the Red Devils, the official supporters of the national team who had been desperate not to become the first hosts in the history of the World Cup not to reach the second round.

BRUSSELS: To crys of “Belgium, Belgium” several hundred fans gathered in the centre of Brussels Friday morning to celebrate their team’s qualification for the last 16 at the World Cup.

Jubliant supporters headed for Place de la Bourse in the city’s financial district, the usual gathering spot for celebrations, which resulted in traffic being temporarily blocked.

Wearing hats with bells and carrying tridents to symbolise the Red Devils the joyous fans brandished the black, yellow and red flag of their country.

“Behind football we can be united,” said Philippe, a 50-year-old labourer who watched the match in a cafe, referring to criticism in the northern Flemish press of coach Robert Waseige, from southern Wallonia.

“(Qualification) will maybe allow people to reflect that we are not a divided country but that we are united behind our national team,” he added.—Reuters/AFP