Annandale’s Korean bars packed with fans as Korea plays in World Cup

Korean Americans wearing red, the color of Korea’s national soccer team, packed bars and restaurants in Annandale that opened early Saturday to watch the motherland take on Uruguay in the FIFA World Cup at 10 a.m. Baden Baden, a bar in the Little Run shopping center was packed (standing room only) with soccer fans rooting for their team.

Uruguay scored early on, but Korea pushed back aggressively, controlling the ball for much of the match. When the Korean team scored, red-shirted Koreans in Cafe Tu Ah, a Korean-owned bar on Columbia Pike, drowned out the television as fans hugged and formed jumping arm-locked circles of cheering.

Unfortunately for the Koreans, Uruguay scored a second goal and held off the Korean offense through the end of the match. A nail-bitter to the end, the game ended Korea’s participation in the World Cup this time around, but marks South Korea’s best showing to date since its miraculous home-team performance in 2002, when South Korea and Japan hosted the international competition, and South Korea reached the semifinals.

Later that afternoon, a different set of bars were packed across the region as American fans watched the U.S. team lose to Ghana. All in all, it was not a good day for soccer fans in Annandale.

But we do have some potential here: Two teams from Annandale will compete in the 2010 U.S. Youth Soccer Region I Championships July 1-6 in Barboursville, W.Va.: the TASC Team America 95 Stripes (under 14 boys) and ABGC Annandale United FC, representing the Annandale Boys and Girls Club.